Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Farming in the Era of Internet of Things: An Information System Architecture for Smart Farming

The Internet of Things and associated smart products are finding application in evermore domains. Within agriculture it is described under the term smart farming. Using smart products allows farmers to automatically record relevant information, monitor operating procedures or remotely control machines. To make these capabilities usable for added value, not only smart products but entire information systems that align to the domain and its requirements are necessary. Within the literature, various architectures can be found already. However, many lack a methodical foundation or an abstraction of application cases and technology. Against this background, the article presents an information system architecture independent of application cases or technology and oriented toward the domain of smart farming. Starting point of the development is a systematic literature review, based on Webster and Watson [1] in combination with Vom Brocke [2, 3], based on 18 existing architecture approaches that are analyzed and aggregated.
Couple-Level Patterns of Disclosure Process Beliefs and Their Association with Marital Satisfaction

Abstract Grounded in symbolic interaction theory, we used latent class analysis (LCA) to investigate the preexisting patterns of belief surrounding the disclosure process in married relationships. With a sample of 131 heterosexual married dyads from the U.S., we found four classes: two classes represented similarity of spouses’ beliefs (Both High Beliefs and Neither High Beliefs), and two classes represented dissimilarity of spouses’ beliefs (where only the wife endorsed high beliefs, Wife High Beliefs, and where only the husband did, Husband High Beliefs). Husbands’ satisfaction was positively associated with membership in the Both High Beliefs class. An interaction between spouses’ satisfaction was found: the impact of wives’ satisfaction on class membership is dependent on husbands’ satisfaction. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Population dynamics of three species of dasyurid marsupials in arid central Australia: a 10-year study

This study investigated the population dynamics of three species of dasyurid marsupials in sand ridge habitat of the Simpson Desert, western Queensland, over a 10-year period between March 1990 and December 1999. The lesser hairy-footed dunnart (Sminthopsis youngsoni), was captured most consistently over the period of study, followed by the wongai ningaui (Ningaui ridei), and the mulgara (Dasycercus cristicauda). Rates of recapture were low (4.5–22.2%), probably because individuals of each species are very mobile. All species bred in late winter or early spring when animals were aged at least 8–10 months, and independent juveniles first appeared usually in summer. S. youngsoni reared a second litter in late spring or early summer in 3 of the 10 years studied, when the availability of food was likely to have been high; neither N. ridei nor D. cristicauda were known to attempt a second litter within a season. To explore factors that might influence population dynamics, we compared capture rates of each species with measures of rainfall, temperature, vegetation cover, abundance of predators [feral cats (Felis catus), red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), and goannas (Varanus spp.)], dragons, other dasyurids and indices of food abundance. The abundance of S. youngsoni appeared to depend primarily on the cover of spinifex 7–9 months earlier, that of D. cristicauda was related most strongly to rainfall 7–9 months earlier, while that of N. ridei was related to minimum temperature lagged by 1–3 months. While the dynamics of other arid-zone mammals are driven demonstrably by interactions between rainfall, resource availability and predation, our findings suggest that dasyurids have limited flexibility in their life histories and are influenced more subtly and by factors such as facilitation that are just beginning to become apparent.
Manipulation of the Rashba effect in layered tellurides MTe (M = Ge, Sn, Pb)

Recently, trigonal layered GeTe was exfoliated from the rhombohedral germanium telluride using a sonication-assisted liquid-phase method in experiments. We identify the blue phosphorene-like MTe (M = Ge, Sn, and Pb) monolayers and bilayers as two-dimensional semiconductors with a large Rashba-type spin–orbit coupling effect that can be modulated by the external electric field. It is found that Rashba-type spin splitting occurs around the Γ point for both monolayer and bilayer MTe. For the bilayer MTe, we predict that the Rashba effect induced spin and momentum mismatch will give rise to a low recombination rate and long carrier lifetimes. We also obtain Rashba parameters and band gap values that are tunable with the perpendicular external electric field. In general, the low-dimensional MTe materials exhibit excellent functional characteristics, thus being promising for designing spin field-effect transistors and optoelectronic applications.
Decentralized Networked Load Frequency Control in Interconnected Power Systems Based on Stochastic Jump System Theory

Random transmission delay and packet loss may cause load frequency control (LFC) performance degradation or even instability in interconnected power systems. Traditional robust methods mainly focus on guaranteeing the asymptotic stability with pre-estimating a maximum delay case. As a result, the designed controller cannot satisfy the actual operational requirements completely since the improper network performance estimation. In this paper, based on jump system theory, the state-space model for LFC system with the different transmission delay is established as the jumping decision variable, which describes the possible dynamics of the networked LFC system with the bounded time delay. Secondly, in order to avoid the defect of conservative or optimistic design caused by imprecise pre-set delay, the upper boundary of the transmission delay in the power communication system is calculated by deterministic network theory. Furthermore, the asymptotic stability constraints in bilinear matrix inequality forms are deduced via construction of a Lyapunov function. Moreover, to reduce the peak value, peak time and setting time of frequency deviations caused by power mismatches, an iterative optimization algorithm is proposed to obtain the optimal feedback matrix. Simulation studies with two-area and five-area interconnected power systems show that the proposed method can avoid optimistic or conservative design effectively while the stability and dynamic performance can be ensured simultaneously.
Women Veterans Experience with the VA MOVE! Weight Management Program

Background: Obesity prevalence is higher in women veterans overall than their civilian counterparts considering 44% of women veterans are obese. Thus, there is a critical need to understand the facilitators and barriers to women veterans' participation in weight management programs. The objective of this study is to explore facilitators and barriers to weight loss for women veterans enrolled in the Veterans Health Administration Motivating Overweight/Obese Veterans Everywhere (VA MOVE! ) weight management program and gather feedback on the design and delivery of the MOVE! program. Materials and Methods: Primary qualitative data were collected from women veterans who completed at least one MOVE! visit via semistructured telephone interviews. Two authors independently reviewed transcripts for data-derived codes. A content analysis approach was used within the software to code the transcripts. Results: The mean age of participants was 52 years. Sixty-eight percent (N = 17/25) were black, and 52% (N = 13/25) lived >64 kilometers from the location of the MOVE! program. Facilitators to participation included both intrinsic (e.g., drive to become healthy) and extrinsic (e.g., drive to improve laboratories) motivating factors. Women expressed difficulty with learning in a group setting and applying lessons to their everyday lives. Others reported the setup of group classes triggered their post-traumatic stress disorder and prevented them from fully participating in the program. Additional barriers included distance traveled to group sessions and lack of access to exercise space. Conclusions: Our results illuminate barriers and facilitators to engagement in the MOVE! program. Many of the barriers highlighted by these women veterans mirror barriers civilian women face, highlighting the possibility that our results could be applied to other programs designed to target weight loss in women.
Heat dissipation analysis of different flow path for parallel liquid cooling battery thermal management system

As the main form of energy storage for new energy automobile, the performance of lithium‐ion battery directly restricts the power, economy, and safety of new energy automobile. The heat‐related problem of the battery is a key factor in determining its performance, safety, longevity, and cost. In this paper, parallel liquid cooling battery thermal management system with different flow path is designed through changing the position of the coolant inlet and outlet, and the influence of flow path on heat dissipation performance of battery thermal management system is studied. The results and analysis show that when the inlet and the outlet are located in the middle of the first collecting main and the second collecting main, respectively; system can achieve best heat dissipation performance, the highest temperature decrease by 0.49°C, while the maximum temperature difference of system decreases by 0.52°C compared with typical Z‐type BTMS under the discharge rate of 1 C. Then an optimization strategy is put forward to improve cooling efficiency compared with single‐inlet and single‐outlet symmetrical liquid cooling BTMS; the highest temperature of three‐inlet and three‐outlet is 27.98°C while the maximum temperature difference of three‐inlet and three‐outlet is 2.69°C, decrease by 0.7 and 0.67°C, respectively.
Implicit social cognition through years: The Implicit Association Test at age 21

The advent of implicit measures opened the access to processes of which people might not be completely aware but that can still influence their attitudes, preferences, and behaviors towards different objects. Among the existing implicit measures, the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) is one of the most studied and used. The descriptive literature review presented in this work was aimed at providing an overview of how the IAT has been used from the year of its first introduction until current days. Specifically, the main fields of application of the IAT, the specific topics for which it has been used, and its concurrent use with other implicit measures have been highlighted and described. When possible, information on the samples on which the studies were carried out are reported. Results indicate an on-going growth of the IAT in a constantly wider range of topics. The ability of the IAT to overcome self-presentation biases and to access the implicit aspects of attitudes have been particularly exploited for investigating biases towards different out-groups, especially in sensitive contexts.
Novel planar reconfigurable circularly polarized complementary antenna for unidirectional end‐fire radiation

In this article, a novel planar reconfigurable circular polarization (CP) complementary antenna for unidirectional end‐fire radiation is proposed. Its radiator is the combination of a shorted quarter wavelength patch and an electric dipole, which provide the vertical and horizontal polarizations, respectively. By adding a 90° phase delay line, the proposed antenna radiates CP electromagnetic waves in the unidirectional end‐fire direction. Four p‐i‐n diodes are also inserted at joints of the electric dipole and the phase delay lines, and two orthogonal CP states, left‐hand (LH) and right‐hand (RH) CPs, can be switched. In order to reduce the number of DC bias lines, electric dipole arms on both sides of the substrate are connected by metal via‐holes, which simplifies the DC bias lines. The proposed antenna at 2.45 GHz is designed and fabricated. Its measured impedance bandwidth with |S11| < −10 dB and 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth are 2.1% and 10.7%, respectively. Additionally, its maximum half power beamwidth in xoz plane is 196°. Reasonable agreement between the measured and simulated results validates the polarization reconfigurability of the proposed antenna.
ScaleLK: Registration of Point Clouds with Different Scales Using Deep Learning Methods

3D point clouds are widely used in numerous research and applications, such as autonomous driving, industrial robots, and augmented reality, to represent the spatial structure of objects. The 3D point cloud registration aims to transform the source point cloud into the same coordinate system with the template point cloud, which is of great significance for the 3D reconstruction of the real world objects. ICP [1] is one of the most classic point cloud registration algorithms but it still has problems with efficiency and initialization. With the help of deep learning, PointNetLK [7] becomes a state-of-the-art point cloud registration method. Although PointNetLK is efficient and robust to some extent, it is not able to register point clouds with different scales. In this paper, we propose ScaleLK, an approach for registration of point clouds with different scales using deep learning methods. We have trained a feature extractor which supports scale feature and used this feature for registration of point clouds with different scales. We describe the architecture and compare its performance with other methods.
The current state of COVID-19 in Australia: importation and spread

Background: The rapid global spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is unprecedented. The outbreak has quickly spread to more than 100 countries reporting over 100,000 confirmed cases. Australia reported its first case of COVID-19 on 25th January 2020 and has since implemented travel restrictions to stop further introduction of the virus. Methods: We analysed daily global COVID-19 data published by the World Health Organisation to investigate the spread of the virus thus far. To assess the current risk of COVID-19 importation and local spread in Australia we predict international passenger flows into Australia during 2020. Findings: Our analysis of global data shows that Australia can expect a similar growth rate of reported cases as observed in France and the United States. We identify travel patterns of Australian citizens/residents and foreign travellers that can inform the implementation of new and the alteration of existing travel restrictions related to COVID-19. Interpretation: Our findings identify the risk reduction potential of current travel bans, based on the proportion of returning travellers to Australia that are residents or visitors. The similarity of the exponential growth in the epidemic curve in Australia to other countries guides forecasts of COVID-19 growth in Australia, and opportunities for drawing lessons from other countries with more advanced outbreaks.
Notizen uber Ciliaten aus konzentrierten Salzgewassern

Die Kenntnis der Ciliatenfauna der Salzgewasser von hoherer Konzentration als Meereswasser ist heute noch als sehr unvollstandig zu betrachten. Nur wenige Autoren haben sich eingehender mit der Biologie dieser Wasser beschaftigt. Einerseits ist ein Bestreben wahrzunehmen eine moglichst vollstandige Inventarisation zu geben (Butschinsky, Bujor), wobei aber vielfach ein Zweifel an der Richtigkeit der Bestimmungen nicht zu vermeiden ist; anderseits sind die Mitteilungen uber dem Artenreichtum der untersuchten Gewasser weniger ausfuhrlich und die Autoren beschranken sich auf eine Beschreibung einiger wenigen Arten (Entz, Florentin, Gajewskaia, Kirby), ein Verfahren, das jedoch fur das Studium abnormaler Milieus dem ersten vorzuziehen ist, weil eben durch das Medium ganz bestimmte Abanderungen in Bewimperung, Grosse u.s.w. auftreten. Sobald als ein bestimmtes Regelmass in diesen Abanderungen sichergestellt worden ist, wird eine blosse Aufzahlung genugen. Vollstandigkeitshalber werden in dieser Ubersicht die gemeinsten, auch von mir beobachteten Formen, erwahnt werden. Das Material zu diesen Beobachtungen stammte aus einer Sammlung von Prof. Dr. L. G. M. Baas Becking. Die Proben, die teils aus hochkonzentrierten Solen, teils aus Rohsalz oder Salinenschlamm bestanden, wurden auf einer Reise nach Portugal, Vorder- und Ost-Indien und Sd. -Australien gesammelt. Bei direkter Durchmusterung, besser aber nach Kultur in Leitungswasser oder Van Nielscher Nahrlosung, zu bestimmter Konzentration von NaCl abgestellt, ergaben sie nach kurzerer oder langerer Inkubationszeit eine reichliche Ausbeute von Protisten. Aus diesen Beobachtungen geht hervor, dass der Formenreichtum nicht
Real-time estimation for functional stochastic regression models

ABSTRACT In this paper, a heteroscedastic functional regression model with martingale difference errors is considered. We are interested in real-time estimation of the regression as well as the conditional variance operators when the response is a real-valued random variable and the covariate belongs to an infinite-dimensional space. A Robbins–Monro-type estimator of the conditional variance is introduced when a sample is collected from an underlying stationary and ergodic process. First, a local uniform -consistency (for ) rate of the recursive estimator of the regression operator is established. Then, a pointwise mean-square consistency rate of the conditional variance is given when the regression function is supposed to be known and when it is estimated recursively. Simulation studies are conducted to assess the proposed estimator's performance, in terms of reducing the computational time without affecting significantly the accuracy, compared to its natural competitor. An application to real environmental data is also carried out to illustrate the real-time on day ahead prediction of the maximum ozone concentration in Mexico city as well as its volatility.
Investigating the molecular mechanisms of the interactions between Lactobacillus reuteri strains and intestinal mucus

Mucus is the first point of contact between the gut microbiota and the host. Here we used the gut symbiont Lactobacillus reuteri to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the interactions between gut bacteria and mucus. Firstly, the mucus binding ability of a collection of L. reuteri strains from different vertebrate hosts was assessed in vitro against mucus extracted from mouse and porcine gastrointestinal tracts. The adhesion profile was strain-specific showing the highest binding phenotype for strain ATCC 53608 (a pig isolate) and binding ability for a number of L. reuteri human isolates. Genome sequencing of the ATCC 53608 strain and comparative genomics was carried out to gain novel insights in the strain-specific determinants of L. reuteri adhesion to mucus. The second part of this work investigated the occurrence at the genetic and protein level of two specific cell surface proteins, MUB and Lar_0958, expressed by the ATCC 53608 strain and human strains, respectively and their role in mediating mucus binding and autoaggregation ability of L. reuteri strains, as determined by flow-cytometry and in vitro mucus binding assays with recombinant and native proteins. Finally a quantitative proteomic approach, stable isotope labelling with amino acids in cell culture (SILAC), was used to identify novel mucus binding protein candidates. This was achieved through detection of increased cell surface protein expression when L. reuteri was grown in presence of mucins, resulting in induced mucus binding phenotype. Collectively, these results shed new light on the nature and distribution of strain-specific surface proteins mediating L. reuteri adhesion to mucus.
Influence of the Method of Preparation of the Pd-Bi/Al2O3 Catalyst on Catalytic Properties in the Reaction of Liquid-Phase Oxidation of Glucose into Gluconic Acid

Gluconic acid and its derivatives are extensively used in pharmaceutical, food, textile, and pulp and paper branches of industry during production of food additives, cleansers, medicinal drugs, stabilizers, etc. To obtain gluconic acid, the method of conversion of glucose into gluconic acid by molecular oxygen in the presence of solid catalysts is promising. The process of obtaining Pd and bimetallic nanoparticles Pd-Bi, coated on Al2O3, has been considered in the work. Samples were prepared by combined and successive impregnation of the Al2O3 support using metalloorganic precursors Pd(acac)2, Bi(ac)3, and dissolved in an organic solvent (acetic acid), followed by the removal of excess solvent. To achieve the formation of Pd and bimetallic nanoparticles Pd-Bi on the substrate surface, the synthesized samples were subjected to thermal decomposition sequentially in the atmosphere of Ar, O2, and H2. The surface of the obtained catalysts was studied by a combination of physicochemical methods of analysis. The catalysts were analyzed in the reaction of liquid phase oxidation of glucose. The best results are achieved in the presence of the catalyst obtained by combined impregnation.
Big Data Analytics and Processing Platform in Czech Republic Healthcare

Big data analytics (BDA) in healthcare has made a positive difference in the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in advancements of analytical capabilities, while lowering the costs of medical care. The aim of this study is to improve the existing healthcare eSystem by implementing a Big Data Analytics (BDA) platform and to meet the requirements of the Czech Republic National Health Service (Tender-Id. VZ0036628, No. Z2017-035520). In addition to providing analytical capabilities on Linux platforms supporting current and near-future AI with machine-learning and data-mining algorithms, there is the need for ethical considerations mandating new ways to preserve privacy, all of which are preconditioned by the growing body of regulations and expectations. The presented BDA platform, has met all requirements (N > 100), including the healthcare industry-standard Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC-H) decision support benchmark in compliance with the European Union (EU) and the Czech Republic legislations. Currently, the presented Proof of Concept (PoC) that has been upgraded to a production environment has unified isolated parts of Czech Republic healthcare over the past seven months. The reported PoC BDA platform, artefacts, and concepts are transferrable to healthcare systems in other countries interested in developing or upgrading their own national healthcare infrastructure in a cost-effective, secure, scalable and high-performance manner.
Making an Universal Intellectual Managerial System of Construction Projects and Housing and Communal Services

Optimal planning of construction projects requires efficient allocation of available resources. Labor, materials, equipment should be planned, coordinated and quickly adapted to different conditions. Frequent (design) changes during the construction period, the variety of professions and the high complexity of the interacting processes in the construction industry require innovative ways to support decisions that affect the process-a tool that allows you to test interventions and adjustments in the production process, including individual subprocesses with maximum efficiency. In this context, there is a simulation of discrete events. The research team offers optimization of design, construction and operation of buildings in the new information environment. The authors develop a system of positioning and effective management of the construction object in time and space.