Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of pulsed resources on the dynamics of seed consumer populations: a comparative demographic study in wild boar

comparative Abstract. Mast seeding is a well-known example of pulsed resources in terrestrial ecosystems. Despite the large literature available so far on the effects of mast seeding on the dynamics of seed consumer populations, it remains unknown whether heterogeneity in demographic responses to mast seeding exists both within a population of consumers and among consumer populations. Here, we ﬁ ll this knowledge gap by assessing the effects of acorn production (i.e., oak mast) on all stage-speci ﬁ c demographic rates (i.e., survival, growth, reproduction) in several consumer populations. From long-term capture – mark – recapture data collected in three wild boar populations in Europe and detailed information on annual acorn production, we quanti ﬁ ed the effects of acorn production on body mass-speci ﬁ c demographic rates in these populations. We then built a body mass-structured population model for each population and assessed the effect of acorn production on generation time — the mean age of mother at childbirth — and population growth rate using a combination of prospective and retrospective demographic analyses. Within populations, acorn production had a positive effect on reproduction (proportion of breeding females) and growth of small-sized females. Survival remained buffered against environmental variation, in accordance with the demographic buffering hypothesis. Thus, all stage-speci ﬁ c demographic rates were not in ﬂ uenced in the same way by acorn production. In turn, higher reproduction and growth probabilities involved higher population growth rates and shorter generation times. Despite these common demographic responses to mast seeding among populations, we highlighted marked among-population variation in the magnitude of these responses. Also, while populations inhabiting resource-rich environments took advantage of current acorn conditions, populations under resource-poor environments stored and allocated acorns produced the preceding year to reproduction indicating contrasting breeding tactics along the capital – income continuum. Our results suggest heterogeneity in demographic responses to mast seeding, within and among populations. This is an important ﬁ nding for our understanding of the effects of mast seeding on the dynamics of seed consumer populations.
Intelligent Control System to Irrigate Orchids Based on Visual Recognition and 3D Positioning

This work develops a novel automatic irrigation system to implement the customized and accurate watering for an individual seedling. The system integrates the modules of visual recognition of the stem-leaf junction, identification of the stem-root junction as the watering point, and control of the spraying nozzle. The model of YOLOv3 is employed to screen the stem-leave junction of an orchid seedling, whose depth map then acquired by the method of Semi-Global Block Matching (SGBM) extracts the three-dimensional (3D) coordinates of the junction center. Next, the concept of leaf vector is introduced to identify the stem-root junction of the orchid seedling as the accurate watering point, which the spraying nozzle is controlled to reach for supplement of the specific amount of water. A number of experiments were conducted to verify the proposed irrigation system for orchid seedlings at different locations with various heights. The experimental results show that the rates of successful watering are 82% and 83.3% for the uni-pot and multi-pot orchid seedlings, respectively.
Preparation and Characterization of SnO2 / AC as a Novel High Surface Area Nanocatalyst

A new solid nanoparticle sorbent (SnO2 / AC) could serve as high surface area and inexpensive nanocatalyst was prepared. Many properties were characterized by SEM and UV spectroscopy. High surface area, large micro pore volume and total pore volume were found to be 571 m2 g−1, 0.4785 cm3 g−1 and 0.7267 cm3 g−1 respectively even with very high loaded ratio (60 %) of tin dioxide to Activated Carbon (SnO2 / AC). Taguchi factorial design method was used to get the maximum MB dye adsorption on the surface of SnO2 / AC nanoparticle sorbent. Contact time (60 min), initial dye concentration (5 mM) and solution temperature (293 K) were found to be the best conditions for the more effective absorption process.
A 1024-Element Ku-Band SATCOM Phased-Array Transmitter With 45-dBW Single-Polarization EIRP

This article presents a 1024-element Ku-band phased-array transmitter for mobile satellite communications. The array is based on eight-channel transmit (TX) SiGe beamformer chips. Dual-polarized stacked-patch antennas enable the array to synthesize linear, rotated-linear, and left- and right-hand circular polarization. The array consists of four quadrants of 256-element subarrays, each of which has 64 beamformer chips and a driver chip assembled on a printed circuit board (PCB). The array achieves an effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of 75 dBm per polarization (78-dBm circular polarization) and scans to ±75° in all planes. This is achieved using an antenna spacing of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\lambda $ </tex-math></inline-formula>/2 at 14.4 GHz in an equilateral triangular grid. The array also results in 30-dB cross-polarization rejection up to 60° scan angles. Measured error vector magnitude (EVM) for 50-, 100-, 200-, and 500-MBd QPSK and 8 phase-shift keying (8PSK) waveforms results in at most 1.5%rms and 2.5%rms at <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_{1\textrm {dB}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_{\mathrm{ sat}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, respectively, at 14 GHz over all scan angles. Also, the adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR) was measured as −32 dB for 200- and 500-MBd QPSK and 8 phase-shift keying (8PSK) waveforms at <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_{1\textrm {dB}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> at 14 GHz. To the authors’ knowledge, this work presents a state-of-the-art planar phased-array system with high EIRP for Ku-band satellite communication (SATCOM) mobile transmitter terminals.
Computational methods to simultaneously compare the predictive values of two diagnostic tests with missing data: EM-SEM algorithms and multiple imputation

Predictive values are measures of the clinical accuracy of a binary diagnostic test, and depend on the sensitivity and the specificity of the diagnostic test and on the disease prevalence among the population being studied. This article studies hypothesis tests to simultaneously compare the predictive values of two binary diagnostic tests in the presence of missing data. The hypothesis tests were solved applying two computational methods: the expectation maximization and the supplemented expectation maximization algorithms, and multiple imputation. Simulation experiments were carried out to study the sizes and the powers of the hypothesis tests, giving some general rules of application. Two R programmes were written to apply each method, and they are available as supplementary material for the manuscript. The results were applied to the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
Intensified transesterification of castor oil using ultrasonic horn: response surface methodology (RSM) based optimization

ABSTRACT Intensification of synthesis of biodiesel from sustainable feedstock using ultrasound and optimization based on RSM is important to develop sustainable and economical processes as an alternative to fossil-based fuels. The current work deals with transesterification of castor oil focusing on intensification based on the application of ultrasonic horn and optimization using RSM. The parameters applied in the study for optimization are time (X1), temperature (X2), molar ratio of reactants (X3), catalyst loading (X4), duty cycle (X5), and ultrasonic power (X6). The maximum yield of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) obtained under conditions of time of 120 min, temperature of 30°C, molar ratio of reactants as 1:15 (mol: mol), catalyst loading of 1 wt%, duty cycle of 40%, and ultrasonic power of 100 W was 99%. A quadratic mathematical model was also developed to formulate predictions about the expected yield under a set of operating conditions. The statistical analysis and analysis of variance were executed to understand the interaction of independent variables and their effect on the biodiesel yield. Intensification due to ultrasound was demonstrated based on higher yield (99%) as compared to conventional processing without ultrasound (58%). Overall, the work clearly illustrated the intensification due to ultrasound and also helped to establish the optimum conditions.
Evaluation of silibinin as an efflux pump inhibitor in Bacillus subtilis

Antibiotic resistance has become a global health problem for humankind. Improper use of antibiotics resulted in the increasing evolved bacterial resistance to them. There are different types of bacterial resistance mechanisms including efflux pumps. To overcome the efflux pump activity on the drugs, combinatorial therapy of the existing antimicrobials with natural products is a promising insight to prevent increasing multidrug resistance. In this study, the inhibitory action of a plant-derived molecule silibinin on efflux pumps of Bacillus subtilis was investigated. The cellular effect of silibinin was investigated using minimum inhibitory concentration and growth studies. In addition, the efflux pump action of silibinin was monitored by ethidium bromide accumulation assay on the organism. According to results, silibinin has a MIC value between 100-200 µgmL-1 on microplate assay and 100 µgmL-1 of silibinin inhibited the cell growth. Ethidium bromide accumulation assays were performed at a safe silibinin range (25 and 50 µgmL-1) for eliminating the cell death, and ethidium bromide accumulation was increased with the increasing silibinin concentration. Ethidium bromide accumulation and growth results proved that silibinin has significant efflux pump inhibitor activity on Bacillus subtilis cells and silibinin is a promising inhibitor candidate to eliminate bacterial resistance mechanism.
Impact of Turkish policy reform on labor force status of disabled males: A difference-in-difference analysis

This paper aims to study the effect of a Turkish policy reform enacted in 2008 that requires firms to hire disabled applicants. Our attention is only on males to avoid complications arising from gender differences in disability and labor force participation. The data is from the Turkey Health Survey (THS) of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) for the years 2008 and 2012. We define “disability” as an impairment of long-term health conditions that lasts more than six months and that restricts the individual in daily activities. We use difference-in-difference (DD) estimation, in which the DD estimator is the difference between disabled and non-disabled individuals in the difference in labor force participation before and after the new policy. The results suggest an insignificant effect of the treatment on the treated, implying that the policy reform does not create any incentive for disabled males to participate in the labor force. Keywords: Disability, Labor force participation, Difference-in-difference. JEL: I12, J21, J24, C31, C34
The Synthesis of Hydroxyapatite Powder Using Shaker Mill Technique

Hydroxyapatite is a material that has the same structure and composition as the main minerals of human teeth and bones. This study's purpose was hydroxyapatite synthesis and determining the effect of variations in the ball sizes, the ratio of a mass of precursors to balls size, milling time, and ball size ratio of crystals and particles, surface area and morphology of hydroxyapatite produced by the mechanochemical method. Two different ball sizes (3mm and 6mm) and three different powder to ball ratio of 1:1.44; 1:2.88; and 1:4.32 were milled for 6 hours. Furthermore, the ball size ratio between the small ball (3 mm) and large ball (6 mm) was 1:1, 1:3, and 3:1 were milled for 2, 4, and 6 hours. The synthesized powder was analyzed by X-ray diffraction, Particle Size Analysis, Brunauer-Emmet-Teller analysis, and Scanning Electron Microscopy to confirm hydroxyapatite structure formation with nanocrystallite size and morphology in all variables. The crystallite size increased as the powder to ball ratio increased. The surface area at powder to ball ratio of 1:2.88 and ball size of 3 mm was 19.51 m2/g, while at ball size ratio of 1:1, it was 18.82 m2/g. The morphology of hydroxyapatite was uniform to granular with mol ratio Ca/P 1.81 for powder to ball ratio and ball size variation.
A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF CRYPTOGRAPHY AND KEY MANAGEMENT BASED SECURITY IN CLOUD COMPUTING

Cloud computing is a cost effective flexible and proven delivery platform for providing consumer IT services or business services over internet. It has an ability to provide many services over internet. It not only provides computing services but additional computing resources. To interact with various services in the cloud and to store retrieve data from cloud several security mechanism is required. Cryptography and key management mechanism are one of the import services in the cloud to secure data. In this context, this paper investigates the basic problem of cloud computing with cryptography and key management system for enabling support of interoperability between cloud cryptography client and key management services.
Self-Organizing Deep Learning (SO-UNet)—A Novel Framework to Classify Urban and Peri-Urban Forests

Forest-type classification is a very complex and difficult subject. The complexity increases with urban and peri-urban forests because of the variety of features that exist in remote sensing images. The success of forest management that includes forest preservation depends strongly on the accuracy of forest-type classification. Several classification methods are used to map urban and peri-urban forests and to identify healthy and non-healthy ones. Some of these methods have shown success in the classification of forests where others failed. The successful methods used specific remote sensing data technology, such as hyper-spectral and very high spatial resolution (VHR) images. However, both VHR and hyper-spectral sensors are very expensive, and hyper-spectral sensors are not widely available on satellite platforms, unlike multi-spectral sensors. Moreover, aerial images are limited in use, very expensive, and hard to arrange and manage. To solve the aforementioned problems, an advanced method, self-organizing–deep learning (SO-UNet), was created to classify forests in the urban and peri-urban environment using multi-spectral, multi-temporal, and medium spatial resolution Sentinel-2 images. SO-UNet is a combination of two different machine learning technologies: artificial neural network unsupervised self-organizing maps and deep learning UNet. Many experiments have been conducted, and the results showed that SO-UNet overwhelms UNet significantly. The experiments encompassed different settings for the parameters that control the algorithms.
Impact of Public Sector Financial Management on the Economic Growth of Nigeria

The main thrust of this study is to investigate the seeming mismatch between resource generation, resource allocation and expenditure management in Nigeria. While an ex-post facto research design was adopted in the investigation; descriptive statistics as well as a least square regression analysis were carried out on a time-series data to ascertain relationships. Real Gross Domestic Product taken as a proxy for economic growth is the dependent variable while capital and recurrent expenditures are the independent variables. Outcome of the study indicates that, the nation’s financing option is skewed towards payment of salaries and personnel emoluments (Recurrent Expenditures) as against the provision of basic infrastructures (Capital Expenditures) that are growth oriented. The trend of disbursements is not appropriately harnessed to create a favorable and positive impact on economic growth. In the short run, the disaggregated components of capital expenditure (CAPEX) indicate that expenses incurred in administration sector and external debt service transfers attracted more than their fare share of public expenditure to the detriment of economic and social community welfare services. The disaggregated component of recurrent expenditures (RECEX) indicate that expense on economic service sector and the lagged value of RGDP taken as an explanatory variable were found to have a positive significant relationship with economic growth in the long run. It is therefore recommended that conscious efforts be made by government to scrutinize and monitor budget implementations. Macroeconomic projections should guide the overall level of expenditures. This should be more realistic, internally consistent and based on more accurate and timely information. Government must embark on a careful estimation and determination of priorities and to emphasize the need for control over revenue and expenditure so as to enhance critical areas of economic growth in Nigeria.
Quantification of Litter Fall and Estimation of Nutrient Release Through in-Situ Decomposition of Leaf Litter From Some Important Mangrove Species of Indian Sundarbans

Looking into the importance of mangrove leaf litter in regulation of sediment carbon sequestration and nutrient flux in Sundarbans ecosystem, an experiment was conducted at Jharkhali island of Sundarbans. In this experiment, collection of leaf litter-shedding from nine dominant mangrove species during December 2012 to November 2013 was donemonthly using ‘litter traps’ (1 m2) in Eco-garden on the bank of Herobhanga creek.Seasonal litter fall was highest in Geon (Excoecariaagallocha)(103 gm-2) followed by Keora (Sonneratiaapetala) (98.5 gm-2). Kal Bain (Avicennia alba) produced the highest amount (414.37 gm-2) of total annual leaf litter followed by Bruguieragymnorrhiza (410.43 gm-2). Kankra (Bruguieragymnorrhiza), Garjan (Rhizophoramucronata) and Geon (Excoecariaagallocha) dry leaf litters contained more than 50% carbon (oven dry basis). Litter from Avicennia group contained more nitrogen and carbon. Decomposition rates of various mangrove litters were estimated through twoshort-term (30 days and 52 days) in-situ experiments using mangrove leaf litter in nylon net bags (0.6 mm mesh) subjected to periodical diurnal submergence by tidalriver water at Jharkhali. During decomposition process,observation said thatmost susceptible and resistant litter with respect to mass loss were Geon (Excoecariaagallocha) (81±5.5%) and Taura (Aegialitisrotundifolia) (26±4%) respectivelyafter 30 days. The biomass retained after decomposition losses (average45±15.2%after 30 days and 56±20.2 % after 52 days) indicated the amount of carbon retained in mangrove soil and ultimately determines the carbon sequestered in soil through mangrove litter fall. The study gives important insight into contribution of different mangrove species in carbon sequestration and nutrient dynamics in mangrove ecosystem of Indian Sundarbans.
The national burden of cardiovascular disease attributable to the dietary lead exposure in adults in China, 2017

Background Lead is widely used around the world, even though unleaded gasoline has been forced by law for many years. A low level of lead exposure is considered to be associated with a high risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, the contribution of lead exposure, especially lead exposure from the diet for the burden of CVD, has not been quantified in China. Methods We adopted a “top-down” approach, combining the pooled blood lead levels (BLLs) published in 2001–2020 about Chinese adults and relative risk (RR) of lead-induced CVD to estimate the burden of disease (BoD) of lead-induced CVD by using disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). The mean observed individual (OIM) model was used to estimate lead exposure from each source (diet, air, water, and soil) and calculate their contribution rates. Results The mean BLLs of Chinese adults was 5.23 µg/dL (standard deviation [SD] = 2.21 µg/dL), which resulted in 3.239 (95% uncertainty interval [UI], 3.034–3.406) million DALYs for CVD. The dietary lead exposure was the major contributor to the BoD of lead-induced CVD, accounting for 67.93%. It resulted in 2.200 (95% UI 2.061–2.313) million DALYs for CVD, including 0.711 (95% UI 0.685–0.737) million DALYs for ischemic heart disease, 1.177 (95% UI 1.113–1.241) million DALYs for stroke, 0.228 (95% UI 0.153–0.253) million DALYs for hypertensive heart disease, and 0.021 (95% UI 0.019–0.024) million DALYs for rheumatic heart disease. Conclusions Dietary lead exposure causes high BoD of CVD in Chinese adults. More efforts to clarify the sources of lead contamination and reduce lead exposure in the population are warranted.
Investigation on Thermal Decomposition Characteristics of Urea Solution Under High Temperature

Experimental study on thermal decomposition characteristics of urea solution under high temperature and influences of Na2CO3 on related factors was carried out in a quartz tube reactor.The experimental results show:The hydrolysis efficiency of HNCO is very low when keeping high effective-decomposition rate of urea.Urea's initial concentration and O2 content both have no marked impact on effective-decomposition rate of urea,and O2 content also has no evident effects on NH3 or HNCO content in urea's thermal decomposition gases.O2 oxidizes part of urea's thermal decomposition gases to NO under high temperature,and the self-effect of selective non-catalytic reduction produces some N2O.Na2CO3 could improve HNCO's hydrolysis reaction effectively,when adding some Na2CO3,the increase of residence time improves the hydrolysis efficiency of HNCO,lowers the needed hydrolysis reaction temperature of HNCO,and the larger residence time,the smaller impact of temperature on HNCO's hydrolysis efficiency,moreover the hydrolysis efficiency of HNCO is more sensitive to residence time under low temperature.
Far-field characterization of wave oblique incidence on body channel for implant communication by using an analytical model

Characterization of human body channel is a necessity to pave way for the practical implementation of implant communication. Considering there are few investigations on the characterization of incident wave propagating at an arbitrary angle to human tissues, this paper applies an analytical model of wave oblique incidence onto multilayered planar lossy tissues to evaluate the far-field EMFs and PLs of body channel. With this model, EMFs and PLs of both TM and TE wave oblique incidence at different angles and frequencies in out-to-in and in-to-out propagations are calculated. A FEM model and a measurement on porcine tissues are also carried out. Comparing with simulation and experiment, the analytical results of PLs have the maximum differences of 0.03 and 1.0 dB, respectively, in out-to-in propagation and of 0.09 and 1.7 dB, respectively, in in-to-out propagation. Therefore, the analytical model is accurate and indicates the mechanism of EM wave propagation in body channel theoretically.