Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Decision letter for "A PIT‐tag–based method for measuring individual bait uptake in small mammals"

1. Rodents and other small mammals cause an increasing number of negative economic and environmental impacts worldwide. In the UK, the non-native grey squirrel has a significant impact on the forestry industry and has caused the decline of the native red squirrel. 2. Baits are used to deliver biocides and contraceptives to reduce overabundant wildlife populations and as vehicles for vaccines to control disease outbreaks. Bait-delivered contraceptives are also being developed to manage grey squirrel populations in the UK. The effectiveness of bait-delivered drugs on wildlife populations depends on the amount of bait consumed by individuals over time; therefore, it is important to understand individual level bait uptake in order to optimise delivery methods. 3. Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags are increasingly used to mark and monitor animal behaviour as they are cost-effective, have minimal negative welfare impacts and have a lower tag loss rate than external tags, particularly in small animals. 4. The aim of this study was to design and test a novel bait hopper equipped with a PIT-tag reader and bait weighing device, to record bait uptake by individual grey squirrels for optimising the delivery of a contraceptive bait. The hopper was designed to overcome some of the limitations of traditional PIT-tag systems, by improving battery life and the quality and quantity of data collected in the field. 5. In captive trials, the hopper proved to be highly effective at recording feeding visits by squirrels, as 95% of the visits could be attributed to a PIT-tag record. The hoppers measured the amount of bait removed per feeding visit to an accuracy of 0.1 g, with 97% of the bait taken from six hoppers attributed to a PIT-tag ID. In a field trial, the hoppers were effective at recording the feeding visits by grey squirrels in two woods, with 47 of the 51 PIT-tagged grey squirrels entering the hoppers. 6. The adaptability of the hopper design means that it has wider applications for wildlife management; in particular, efficacy studies for bait-delivered substances in the context of wildlife disease control and/or population reduction. Keywords: feeding behaviour, grey squirrel, contraceptives, biocides, microchip, Sciurus carolinensis, wildlife management, remote sensing.
LOV domain signaling: A study of LOV-LOV interactions

Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit der Signalentstehung und –weiterleitung in LOV (light-, oxygen- or voltage-sensitive) Domanen. Durch die Absorption von blauem oder nahem UV-Licht bilden diese Blaulichtphotorezeptoren ein Flavin-Cysteinyl-Addukt, welches den Signalzustand des Proteins darstellt. Durch die Adduktbildung werden dynamische und strukturelle Anderungen in der LOV Domane initiiert wodurch die physiologische Funktion des Proteins reguliert wird. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde einerseits die Photochemie des Flavinmononukleotid (FMN) Chromophors anhand einer modifizierten LOV1 Domane aus C. reinhardtii (CrLOV1) und des Fluoreszenzreporters iLOV spektroskopisch untersucht. Im Fall von CrLOV1 wurde der Elektronendonor Tyrosin in unmittelbarer Nachbarschaft zum FMN in das Proteingerust eingebaut. In dieser Mutante lasst sich anstelle der naturlichen Adduktbildung ein Elektronentransfer vom eingebauten Tyrosin auf das FMN nachweisen, obwohl das reaktive Cystein vorhanden ist. Die Abschaltung des naturlichen Reaktionspfads in CrLOV1 durch eine einzige Punktmutation tragt auch zum weiteren Verstandnis des Adduktbildungsmechanismus im Wildtyp-System bei. In der als Fluoreszenzreporter optimierten, kunstlichen LOV Domane iLOV wurden ebenfalls Elektronentransferreaktionen untersucht. In diesem Fall wurde jedoch Asparaginsaure als Protondonor in das Proteingerust eingebaut. Als Elektronendonoren agieren die naturlich vorhandenen Aminosauren Tryptophan und Tyrosin. Der Mechanismus des Elektronentransfers konnte mittels zeitaufgeloster Absorptionsspektroskopie aufgeklart werden. Der zweite Teil der vorliegenden Arbeit befasst sich mit intermolekularen Wechselwirkungen zwischen LOV Domanen. Die Anderungen des oligomeren Zustands von LOV Domanen stehen in Zusammenhang mit ihrer biologischen Funktion. Zum besseren Verstandnis dieser wurden die Systeme CrLOV1 und die LOV Domane aus R. sphaeroides mittels Grosenausschlusschromatographie und Forster Resonanzenergietransfer (FRET) hinsichtlich ihres Assoziations- und Dissoziationsverhaltens untersucht. Zu diesem Zwecke wurden die LOV Domanen mit den Fluoreszenzfarbstoffen Cy3 und Cy5 markiert. Im Fall der LOV Domane aus R. sphaeroides konnten somit die Anderungen des oligomeren Zustands nach Aktivierung mit blauem Licht und im Dunkelzustand detailliert untersucht werden. Im Gegensatz dazu zeigte CrLOV1 keine intermolekularen Wechselwirkungen. Diese Ergebnisse sind wichtig fur das weitere Verstandnis der Funktion von LOV Domanen.
Silk Fibroin Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery: Effect of Bovine Serum Albumin and Magnetic Nanoparticles Addition on Drug Encapsulation and Release

Silk fibroin nanoparticles were prepared in the present study based on phase separation between silk fibroin and polyvinyl alcohol. The drug encapsulation efficiency of the prepared nanoparticles was examined at a range of concentrations from 10 ppm to 500 ppm for pramipexole, curcumin, and propranolol hydrochloride. Silk fibroin nanoparticles encapsulated with propranolol presented the highest drug release profile. In order to improve the drug encapsulation efficiency and drug release performance, a modification of silk fibroin nanoparticles with bovine serum albumin and magnetic nanoparticles was tried. The modification was found to improve the drug encapsulation and release of the modified nanoparticles. Bovine-serum-modified nanoparticles presented the best improvement.
Novel dual heterojunction between MoS2 and anatase TiO2 with coexposed {101} and {001} facets

This work prepared an anatase TiO2 by controlling coexposed {101} and {001} facets. The anatase TiO2 was composited with MoS2, and the photocatalytic behavior was studied. The relationship between the exposed ratio of {001} facets and the enhancement proportion by the composite was compared. An appropriate exposed ratio of {001} facets, instead of a high ratio, can cause the highest enhancement proportion for photocatalytic activity. This finding confirmed that exposed {001} facets are not the main factors for improving photocatalytic activity. Dual heterojunction was observed to form between MoS2 and anatase TiO2 with coexposed {101} and {001} facets, which is a crystal-face heterojunction between {101} and {001} facets and a semiconductor heterojunction between MoS2 and {001} facets of TiO2. In this dual heterojunction, photo-induced electrons in TiO2 will flow into {101} facets of TiO2, instead of MoS2, whereas the photo-induced holes in TiO2 will flow into MoS2 to reach a high separation efficiency. This finding further revealed the elevating mechanism of constructing heterojunction based on coexposed crystal faces. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Theoretical research of friction factor in hydraulically smooth pipes

The paper presents the disclosure of the problem of calculating the friction factor. This problem exists in the calculations of head losses for a given flow discharge and the geometric parameters of the pipes. The analysis of the formulas recommended by known scientists is described. The article also presents the shortcomings of the formulas and the variance of the adequacy of the experimental data. These research data were obtained by J. Nikuradze for smooth pipes. We obtained a formula based on the method of dimensional analysis. This formula characterizes the inner surface of the pipes. Also, this formula describes the change in the friction factor from the Reynolds number. The accuracy of calculating the obtained formula is higher than the accuracy of existing formulas.
9 From the POD-Galerkin method to sparse manifold models

Reduced-order models are essential for the accurate and efficient prediction, estimation, and control of complex systems. This is especially true in fluid dynamics, where the fully resolved state space may easily contain millions or billions of degrees of freedom. Because these systems typically evolve on a low-dimensional attractor, model reduction is defined by two essential steps: 1) identify a good state space for the attractor, and 2) identify the dynamics on this attractor. The leading method for model reduction in fluids is Galerkin projection of the Navier-Stokes equations onto a linear subspace of modes obtained via proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). However, there are serious challenges in this approach, including truncation errors, stability issues, difficulty handling transients, and mode deformation with changing boundaries and operating conditions. Many of these challenges result from the choice of a linear POD subspace in which to represent the dynamics. In this chapter, we describe an alternative approach, feature-based manifold modeling (FeMM), in which the low-dimensional attractor and nonlinear dynamics are characterized from typical experimental data: time-resolved sensor data and optional non-time-resolved particle image velocimetry (PIV) snapshots. FeMM consists of three steps: First, the sensor signals are lifted to a dynamic feature space. Second, we identify a sparse human-interpretable nonlinear dynamical system for the feature state based on the sparse identification of nonlinear dynamics (SINDy). Third, if PIV snapshots are available, a local linear mapping from the feature state to the velocity field is performed to reconstruct the full-state of the system. We demonstrate this approach, and compare with POD-Galerkin modeling, on the incompressible two-dimensional flow around a circular cylinder. Best practices and perspectives for future research are also included, along with open-source code for this example.
Analysis of Working Capital Sources on Firm Innovation, and Labor Productivity among Manufacturing Firms in DR Congo

This study identifies the relevant sources of firm working capital and examines their interrelationship with innovation activities and labor productivity among 529 manufacturing firms in DR Congo using the 2013 Enterprise Survey Database. We identify external funding sources as the most crucial funding source for innovation activities among manufacturing firms in DR Congo. We further establish a transmission mechanism of firm innovation through the availability of an active line of credit on firm productivity. Productive firms rely mainly on external funding for their innovation activities. We also show by the technique of propensity score matching, that the Average Treatment Effect (ATE) of R&D spending is positive and statistically significant at 5%. R&D spending impacts labour productivity by nearly 53% higher for firms with R&D spending in the last three (3) years than their counterparts. Similarly, the Average Treatment Effect on the Treated (ATET) is positive and statistically significant at 5%. We report an overwhelming 112% positive effect of R&D spending in the last three (3) years on firm productivity for the treatment group. Further analysis of the business environment shows that the absence of adequately educated labor force, obstacles associated with access to land, illegal activities of competitors, political instability, corruption, and obstacles encountered by firms from the courts and legal systems negatively affects firm productivity. Our key policy recommendation includes: 1) the need for an immediate robust and efficient financial market to channel funding to manufacturing firms, and 2) firm innovation should be the underlying factor in capital allocation.
Binder-free bonding of modularized MXene thin films into thick film electrodes for on-chip micro-supercapacitors with enhanced areal performance metrics

Areal capacitance and energy density are highly important performance metrics for on-chip micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) with limited footprint area. Unfortunately, both of them are still far from satisfactory due to the low specific capacitance of traditional carbonaceous electrode materials and minor electrode thickness. Employing MXene pseudocapacitive materials with high conductivity and competitive specific volumetric capacitance to fabricate binder/conductive-additive free thick film electrodes is considered to be a promising approach to improve the poor areal performance metrics of on-chip MSCs. However, it still proves to be a great challenge, especially for fully delaminated single- or few-layered MXene flakes. Herein, aiming at addressing the challenge, an efficient, easily manipulated but ingenious protocol was developed to enable the preparation of binder/conductive-additive free thick MXene film electrodes through bonding modularized thin MXene films consisting of fully delaminated few-layered MXene flakes only with water, whose thickness can be multiplied simply by increasing the number of superposed modularized thin MXene films. Following a laser-cutting pattern process, on-chip MSCs with an areal capacitance of up to 71.16 mF cm−2 can be fabricated, which is at least seven times higher than those of carbon materials based on-chip MSCs (0.1–10.0 mF cm−2) and obviously enhanced compared to those of the few reported state-of-the-art MXene-based on-chip MSCs (4.2–61.0 mF cm−2). The interesting binder-free bonding method combined with a laser-cutting technique enables the fabrication of thick MXene-based coplanar interdigital electrodes for on-chip MSCs in a fast and efficient manner while achieving excellent areal performance metrics, making them promising built-in micropower sources for maintenance-free microelectronic devices.
Molecular Characterization of Extracts from Biorefinery Wastes and Evaluation of Their Plant Biostimulation

Biorefinery residues from non-food biomasses are promising sources of sustainable agrochemicals. The molecular properties of water-soluble extracts from ligno-cellulosic biomass pretreated first by steam-explosion and then by enzymatic hydrolyses at different buffer doses, were assayed for bioactivity on maize. 13C and 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra showed that extracts varied in phenolic and carboxyl content, while high performance size exclusion chromatography and diffusion ordered spectroscopy NMR revealed that Ox-BYP 1 obtained from wastes treated with a greater buffer dose contained small-sized molecules associated in apparently large metastable aggregates. Ox-BYP 2 separated from wastes treated with smaller buffer concentrations showed a more stable conformation. Both hydrolysates revealed a positive dose-dependent bioactivity toward maize growth. Ox-BYP 1 promoted plant fresh and dry weights and root length at 10 and 100 ppm but decreased seedling growth at 1 ppm. Instead, Ox-BYP 2 in.
Pell-Lucas Collocation Method for Solving High-Order Functional Differential Equations with Hybrid Delays

In this study, the Pell-Lucas collocation method has been presented to solve high-order linear functional differential equations with hybrid delays under mixed conditions. The proposed method is based on the matrix forms of Pell-Lucas polynomials and their derivatives, along with the collocation points. The used technique reduces the problem to a matrix equation corresponding to a set of algebraic equations with the unknown Pell-Lucas coefficients. In addition, an error analysis based on residual function is performed and some numerical examples are presented to show the efficiency and accuracy of the method.
Performance Analyses of a Proposed Minimum Phase Bipolar Converter for Solar Photovoltaic Applications

This paper analyses the performance of a proposed minimum phase bipolar converter for solar photovoltaic applications. The proposed bipolar converter is designed by combining the Cuk and SEPIC converters after some circuit modification in both converters. These circuit modifications eliminate right half plane zeros of both Cuk and SEPIC converters which are inherently present in these converters. These modified converters are connected in such a way that bipolar output can be controlled by a single switch.The transient undershoots and overshoots eliminated from the proposed bipolar converter which occurs at the instant of change in duty ratio due to non-minimum phase behavior. So, the improved dynamic performance is good for the maximum power point tracking operation. The minimum phase bipolar converter also has the continuous transfer of input power to the output load, which reduced current and voltage ripples. So, this proposed bipolar converter ensures the stable operation of the PV system and also increases the lifetime of PV panels. Due to buck and boost nature, the proposed bipolar converter extracts maximum power from the PV sources in wide range. A laboratory prototype is developed and tested for 600 W. The MPPT algorithm is implemented using the Texas instrument TMS320F28335 processor.
METHYL GALLATE FROM JIRINGA (ARCHIDENDRON JIRINGA) AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY.

Objective: This research was study about phytochemical active phenolic compound from pods of jiringa (Archidendron jiringa (Jack) I. C. Nielsen) and it’s antioxidant. Methods: Pods of jiringa were air dried and macerated with methanol. Extract was evaporated using rotary evaporator, and then, crude extract dissolved with water and partitioned with ethyl acetate. Extracts were evaporated and partitioned again with methanol and n-hexane. Column and preparative chromatography used to separate pure compound. Pure compound as methyl gallate was identificated with data from nuclear magnetic resonances of proton H (1H NMR), NMR of carbon (13C NMR), and mass spectrometry (MS). Antioxidant activity of pure compound tested by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl method. Results: We found pure phenolic compound from pods of jiringa as methyl gallate that exists on fraction III-2, and it has high antioxidant activity with inhibition concentration 50 was 3.7576 μg/ml. Conclusions: Pods of jiringa contain of active phenolic compound as methyl gallate that has high antioxidant activity. Therefore, it can be used as a source of natural antioxidant.
Discerning Affect From Touch and Gaze During Interaction With a Robot Pet

Practical affect recognition needs to be efficient and unobtrusive in interactive contexts. One approach to a robust realtime system is to sense and automatically integrate multiple nonverbal sources. We investigated how users’ touch, and secondarily gaze, perform as affect-encoding modalities during physical interaction with a robot pet, in comparison to more-studied biometric channels. To elicit authentically experienced emotions, participants recounted two intense memories of opposing polarity in Stressed-Relaxed or Depressed-Excited conditions. We collected data (N=30) from a touch sensor embedded under robot fur (force magnitude and location), a robot-adjacent gaze tracker (location), and biometric sensors (skin conductance, blood volume pulse, respiration rate). Cross-validation of Random Forest classifiers achieved best-case accuracy for combined touch-with-gaze approaching that of biometric results: where training and test sets include adjacent temporal windows, subject-dependent prediction was 94% accurate. In contrast, subject-independent Leave-One-participant-Out predictions resulted in 30% accuracy (chance 25%). Performance was best where participant information was available in both training and test sets. Addressing computational robustness for dynamic, adaptive realtime interactions, we analyzed subsets of our multimodal feature set, varying sample rates and window sizes. We summarize design directions based on these parameters for this touch-based, affective, and hard, realtime robot interaction application.
Optimization of the plate drying process by electromagnetic radiation using the Green function method

An initial boundary value problem is formulated for calculating the heat-mass-energy fields in a homogeneous wet plate. To solve this problem, an original algorithm containing elements of analytical and numerical methods has been developed. In this method, solutions are written using the spatially one-dimensional Green function of the Neumann problem, which contains eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the Sturm-Liouville boundary value problem. In comparison with the known numerical algorithms, the problems of the theory of electromagnetic drying for which its application can be effective are indicated. It is shown that the discrete supply of microwave energy significantly reduces the gradients of temperature, steam and moisture content, while reducing energy consumption by 11.12 %. The probability of an undesirable spontaneous temperature increase at the end of the drying cycle is significantly reduced, and the electrical and thermal conditions of the microwave energy source are improved.
Adaptive dead time in high frequency GaN-Inverters with LC output filter

GaN-HEMTs offer new possibilities for the development of advanced power electronics. Due to lower parasitics, GaN devices enable higher switching frequencies and thus higher power densities. However, in comparison to silicon MOSFETs the higher voltage drop during reverse conduction causes more losses during dead time. Therefore, it is essential to adjust the dead time to the actual operation point. This paper proposes a novel method to determine the optimal dead times of the transitions within the half-bridges of an inverter with LC output filter. The dead time is adapted in every switching cycle using variables, which are typically present in the control unit of the inverter. This allows an efficient implementation of the method on microprocessors. The study reveals, based on a 48 V GaN inverter, that the optimal dead time varies in a large range and thus indicates the necessity of an adaptive dead time.
The Use of a Viability Index as a Better Measure of Departmental and Program Strength

Although many institutions and government agencies count degrees as the sole measure of determining departmental or program viability, this method fails to consider other factors such as how many students who are within programs are present to replace students who graduated from those programs or how many credit hours were generated in the area. This article highlights an easy-to-create, ratio-driven metric that can help an academic department or program to determine its overall strength.