Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating extreme precipitation estimations based on the GPM IMERG products over the Yangtze River Basin, China

Abstract Accurate estimation of extreme precipitation is important for hydrological prediction and flood risk management. Recent research suggests that satellite-derived precipitation products can provide an alternative to gauged data, making it essential to evaluate the accuracy of these products. This study aimed to quantitatively evaluate the application of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission’s Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals of GPM data (GPM IMERG) over the Yangtze River Basin. Both extreme precipitation events exceeding the 90th percentile and annual total precipitation have been compared and examined with gauge observations for 2014–2017. We evaluated the performance of the GPM IMERG product during an extreme precipitation event in July 2014. In general, the GPM-derived estimates agreed well with the gauge data at monthly time scales (Pearson’s correlation coefficient of 0.8637), most likely because of monthly adjustment to gauges within the GPM dataset. The agreement between GPM-derived and gauge estimates was less pronounced at daily time scales. The IMERG product performed best in upstream areas of the Yangtze River Basin over monthly time scales, giving a probability of detection of 0.7739 and a Heidke’s Skill Score of 0.5116. This indicates that satellite precipitation data performed well in high-altitude regions. The GPM data produced a good estimation of extreme precipitation events with short–medium recurrence intervals but underestimated all return periods. During extreme precipitation events, the GPM product detected the precipitation process over the whole basin, yielding Pearson’s correlation coefficients of 0.9137–0.9979. This study shows that the GPM-based estimates are useful for extreme precipitation event simulation over the Yangtze River Basin and provide a new resource for flood forecasting in this region.
Detection of “Swollen Shoot” Disease in Ivorian Cocoa Trees via Convolutional Neural Networks

Recent advances in diagnostics have made image analysis one of the main areas of research and development. Selecting and calculating these characteristics of a disease is a difficult task. Among deep learning techniques, deep convolutional neural networks are actively used for image analysis. This includes areas of application such as segmentation, anomaly detection, disease classification, computer-aided diagnosis. The objective which we aim in this article is to extract information in an effective way for a better diagnosis of the plants attending the disease of “swollen shoot”.
Factors Affecting Lean Management Adoption In Three-Star Hotels In Luxor And Aswan

One of the difficulties that tourism businesses must overcome in the future is how to decrease costs and increase efficiency. That is because the recently fast-growing hotel and tourism industry faces some challenges, particularly economic ones. Thus, this research aims to explore the effect of lean management adoption in three-star hotels category in Luxor and Aswan and to evaluate the awareness level of managers and supervisors of the concept, drivers, and boundaries of the Lean management system. The methodology of the study is a quantitative one with a questionnaire to be a tool for collecting information to test and prove the hypotheses of the study, in order to achieve the study's aims. Moreover, the questionnaire sample was delivered to 130 directors and supervisors of the targeted (13) three-star hotel in Luxor and Aswan, and the results reveal that the majority of the hotels (86.1%) adopts the lean management and that there is a statistically strong link between the drivers of lean management and the adopting of it in the three-star hotels in Luxor. Besides, the study shows that the adoption of lean management has led to increasing the flexibility of hotels at 94.4 %, and market share at 89%. Moreover, the study has found out that from the key success factors of adopting lean management was management commitment and capability at 88%, and that the absence of quality culture appeared to be the most common and fierce barriers of lean management adoption (93%). The study manifests that lean management has developed from being a group of tools and techniques to be a philosophy of management.
Lithofacies classification based on a hybrid system of artificial neural networks and hidden Markov models

Lithofacies is one of the most important reservoir parameters, which could provide a qualitative description for hydrocarbon and geothermal reservoirs. Various techniques, such as artificial neural networks (ANN) and hidden Markov models (HMM), have been applied to extract this information, with the well log suites as inputs. However, both of these methods have their own limitations, such as no geological priors in ANN, since log samples along the depth direction are treated independently. While in HMM, a simple Gaussian assumption is usually adopted, which may not be sufficient for complex data distributions. In order to address these problems, a new method is proposed, which combines ANN and HMM into a hybrid system. This new technique allows for a more flexible approach to the probability distributions of rock properties, without any Gaussian assumption being made. At the same time, the geological dependence between adjacent samples is introduced by a representative transition matrix of lithofacies. The output probability from ANN must be reformulated to an emission function before it can be fed into the HMM, which is achieved via the Bayes’ rule. Then the Viterbi algorithm in HMM is applied for the decoding of sequential patterns in the subsurface. In this fashion, the classification process can be proceeded statistically and geologically. Better performance of the proposed approach, compared with other classification methods, is demonstrated in two case studies.
Inertial Extra-Gradient Method for Solving a Family of Strongly Pseudomonotone Equilibrium Problems in Real Hilbert Spaces with Application in Variational Inequality Problem

In this paper, we propose a new method, which is set up by incorporating an inertial step with the extragradient method for solving a strongly pseudomonotone equilibrium problems. This method had to comply with a strongly pseudomonotone property and a certain Lipschitz-type condition of a bifunction. A strong convergence result is provided under some mild conditions, and an iterative sequence is accomplished without previous knowledge of the Lipschitz-type constants of a cost bifunction. A sufficient explanation is that the method operates with a slow-moving stepsize sequence that converges to zero and non-summable. For numerical explanations, we analyze a well-known equilibrium model to support our well-established convergence result, and we can see that the proposed method seems to have a significant consistent improvement over the performance of the existing methods.
An Experimental Comparison of the Effects of Nanocrystalline Core Geometry on the Performance and Dispersion Inductance of the MFTs Applied in DC-DC Converters

The development of Medium Frequency Transformers (MFTs) from a novel perspective is essential for the advancement of today´s various relevant applications such as the emerging solid-state transformers, along with interfaces for the interconnection of photovoltaic parks and electric vehicles. The analysis, design and implementation of MFTs pursuing the achievement of characteristics such as high power density, high efficiency, and a specific dispersion inductance is a key goal for designers. There are several parameters and design methods that influence the final performance of an MFT, such as the geometry and material of the core. The advantages/disadvantages of each material/geometry combination, about the dispersion inductance for instance, are not well known, even considering a single material but various geometries. This paper presents the analysis, design and experimental development of three nanocrystalline-core MFTs, each one with a different core geometry (toroidal, type CC and shell-type). The purpose of this work is to evaluate and compare the most favourable characteristics and performance of each type of geometry, tested at 5 kHz and 1.75 kVA. The cases studied, in simulation and experimentation with scaled prototypes, focus on evaluating the power density, the core losses, the winding losses, the geometric dimensions, and the dispersion inductance obtained in each MFT, as well as its performances operating with sinusoidal and square waveforms. The results show that: 1) the toroid core has higher efficiency; 2) the shell core has the lowest dispersion inductance and is easier to build, and 3) the CC type has the highest dispersion inductance. This new information is a step to further understand how to get more controllable, more efficient MFTS, with a higher power density and lower cost, depending on the intended application of cutting-edge DC-DC DAB-type converters.
Transcription factor Zbtb20 controls regional specification of mammalian archicortex.

Combinatorial expression of sets of transcription factors (TFs) along the mammalian cortex controls its subdivision into functional areas. Unlike neocortex, only few recent data suggest genetic mechanisms controlling the regionalization of the archicortex. TF Emx2 plays a crucial role in patterning of the cortex. In this work, from a preselection of 10 genes from previously performed microarray screen, at least six genes were identified to reveal altered expression in Emx2 deficiency, placing them as putative players acting downstream of Emx2 in cortical arealization. Secondly, findings from performed functional analysis of the generated knockout mutant mice for TF Zbtb20 are presented, implicating that this factor, while being dispensable for prenatal development, exerts a genetic control for arealization of archicortex. The expression of Zbtb20 in cortical germinal neuroepithelium begins at E12.5, while later on becoming restricted exclusively to postmitotic neurons of hippocampus (Hi) proper, dentate gyrus (DG), and two transitory zones, subiculum (S) and retrosplenial cortex (Rsp). Analysis of Zbtb20-/- mice revealed altered cortical patterning at the border between neocortex and archicortex, a misspecification of the retrosplenial (neocortical) domain, decreased size of archicortical derivatives (S, Hi proper, DG), and a dramatic change in the molecular patterning of the hippocampal fields S, CA1, CA2, CA3. Dorsally located fields were ectopically expanded into their neighboring, more ventral fields. As Zbtb20 was observed to be expressed only after the accomplishment of early progenitor specification, the intrinsic area specification of cortical progenitors appeared unaltered. A second phenotype is the observed marked delay of the ossification in the Zbtb20-/- mutant mice. In Zbtb20 deficiency, the detected defect in growth of hippocampus and DG as well as in skeletal ossification most probably involves modulation of Wnt signaling. In conclusion, the presented results in this work place Zbtb20 as the first known so far TF with a role in postmitotic acquisition of areal identity of the archicortex and its subfields.
Tweeting to Democracy: A new anti-authoritarian liberation struggle in Zimbabwe

What does it take for a citizen movement to topple a deep-rooted authoritarian regime? This paper analyses the successes and failures of citizen-led social media campaigns in Zimbabwe. Using data drawn from an extensive ethnographic study of 50 WhatsApp and Facebook communities, this paper studies the conditions under which citizen activism, particularly those movements that originate on social media, become street protests that can effectively unseat an illegitimate regime. I find that the success of recent movements – evidenced by policy changes and increased citizen participation – is in part because of the rise of a youth citizenry that does not feel indebted to the liberation struggle. Zimbabwean born frees are more willing to take political risks by speaking candidly about politics online and mobilizing their peers.
Investigation of Anaplasma marginale and Anaplasma centrale in Cattle in Adana Province by Serological and Molecular Methods

Anaplazmozis tropikal ve subtropikal iklim bolgelerinde vektorler tarafindan tasinan yaygin bir hastaliktir. Ozellikle buyukbas hayvancilik isletmelerinde son yillarda sik tespit edilmeye baslanmistir. Bu calismanin amaci, Adana ilindeki sigirlarda Anaplasma spp. prevalansini belirlemekti. Bu amacla Adana'nin farkli iklim bolgelerine sahip on bes ilcesinde sigirlardan 187 kan ornegi alinarak kompetetif ELISA (cELISA) ve Nested-PCR yontemleriyle incelenmistir. Sigirlarda seropozitiflik%38,5 (72/187) olarak belirlenmistir. Ayrica molekuler prevalans, Nested-PCR yontemleriyle Anaplasma centrale icin%1,6 (3/187), Anaplasma marjinale icin%3,2 (6/187) olarak tespit edilmistir. Bu calisma ile Turkiye'nin Adana ilinde sigir anaplazmozisi ile ilgili epidemiyolojik verileri ayrintili bir sekilde ele alinmis ve elde edilen verilerin hastaligin onlenmesine ve kontrol programlarina katkida bulunacagi dusunulmustur.
Novel, Flexible, and Ultrathin Pressure Feedback Sensor for Miniaturized Intraventricular Neurosurgery Robotic Tools

Remote-controlled minimally invasive neuroendoscopic robotic surgical tools can be miniaturized to a size of less than 2 mm while maintaining their dexterity and force required to perform operations in brain without an open-skull surgery. However, these platforms lack haptic information to be received by the surgeons, leading to loss of control over tissue and causing unexpected slippage and trauma. This study presents the design of a small and highly sensitive material-based sensor being integrated to the tool shaft, known as the concentric tube manipulators, to achieve static and quasi-static force sensing and feedback. Through a nine-element design and contact mechanics modeling, the sensor system can generate real-time polar visual pressure profile displays. Optimizations are performed on the subcomponents of the sensor design including microstructures and electrodes to improve detection threshold with reduced hysteresis. The finalized design can sense a force from as low as 14.8 ± 1.22 mN to 1 N with excellent proportionality between the acquired signal and force applied while retaining its flexibility and sterilizability. The sensor will also enhance more intuitive force feedback for surgeons to use the dexterous neurosurgical tool, ensuring safety and quality of operations for minimally invasive surgeries for brain tumor and epilepsy practice.
Evaluating the Performances of Missing Data Handling Methods in Ability Estimation From Sparse Data

Large amounts of missing data could distort item parameter estimation and lead to biased ability estimates in educational assessments. Therefore, missing responses should be handled properly before estimating any parameters. In this study, two Monte Carlo simulation studies were conducted to compare the performance of four methods in handling missing data when estimating ability parameters. The methods were full-information maximum likelihood (FIML), zero replacement, and multiple imputation with chain equations utilizing classification and regression trees (MICE-CART) and random forest imputation (MICE-RFI). For the two imputation methods, missing responses were considered as a valid response category to enhance the accuracy of imputations. Bias, root mean square error, and the correlation between true ability parameters and estimated ability parameters were used to evaluate the accuracy of ability estimates for each method. Results indicated that FIML outperformed the other methods under most conditions. Zero replacement yielded accurate ability estimates when missing proportions were very high. The performances of MICE-CART and MICE-RFI were quite similar but these two methods appeared to be affected differently by the missing data mechanism. As the number of items increased and missing proportions decreased, all the methods performed better. In addition, the information on missing data could improve the performance of MICE-RFI and MICE-CART when the data set is sparse and the missing data mechanism is missing at random.
Symposium: Use of Pheromones in Tropical Crops: Leafhoppers (Homoptera: Cicadellidae) and Planthoppers (Homoptera: Delphacidae) in Southern Florida Rice Fields

Leafhoppers (Homoptera: Cicadellidae) and planthoppers (Homoptera: Delphacidae) were collected with sweep nets in southern Florida rice fields during 1983 and 1984. The most abundant leafhopper was Graminella nigrifrons (Forbes) and the most abundant planthopper was Delphacodes propinqua (Fieber). Total numbers of leafhoppers in rice fields rose quickly after spring plantings and remained relatively constant from May to October. In contrast, individual leafhopper species were more variable in seasonal population trends. Sogatodes oryzicola (Muir), a vector of hoja blanca was also detected.
Optimization of in vitro growth conditions of Pyrenophora teres for production of the phytotoxin aspergillomarasmine A

Abstract In liquid cultures of Pyrenophora teres, three phytotoxins may be found: L , L - N -(2-amino-2-carboxyethyl) aspartic acid (toxin A), anhydroaspergillomarasmine A (toxin B) and aspergillomarasmine A (toxin C). In particular, toxins A and C cause chlorotic and necrotic symptoms in detached barley leaves, toxin C being the most damaging, whereas toxin B is only weakly phytotoxic. When P. teres is grown in liquid modified Fries medium, toxin B is the main toxin accumulated, possibly due to a ring closure of toxin C at the low pH value of the medium. The amount of toxin B produced by 11 isolates of P. teres was compared in modified Fries medium. Generally, the most virulent isolates of P. teres produced higher amounts of toxin B than the less virulent isolates. During growth, the pH of the media decreased from 6.7 to about 3.0–3.5, followed by a slight increase to about 3.5–4.0. All isolates, except one, produced toxin B, whereas only two isolates produced toxin C and toxin A. Maintaining the pH at about 6.5 by sterile titration with 1 M NaOH resulted in a shift in toxin accumulation from toxin B to toxin C. The addition of tris or phosphate buffer to the media resulted in higher pH during the growth period, an increase in the total amount of toxins produced, and a shift in toxin accumulation from toxin B to toxin C. The higher pH value probably prevented the conversion of toxin C into toxin B. No toxins were produced in two routinely used media, potato glucose broth and grass broth. Toxin B and toxin C were purified by ion exchange chromatography and precipitation with HCl.
The Effectiveness of Computer-Based Problem Solving to Improve Higher Order Thinking Skills on Prospective Teachers

Computer-Based Problem Solving is a combination of problem-based learning and computer-assisted learning. The method facilitates students to use computer programs as cognitive tools to solve problems. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of Computer Based Problem Solving on High Level Thinking Skills (HOTS) of prospective teachers. The study was conducted in the 5th semester of the 2018/2019 academic year. This is a quasi-experiment with pre-test and post-test control group design consist. In the process of learning, the experimental group used computer-based problem solving as treatment whereas the control gorup used traditional methods. HOTS data was collected by conducting essay tests and the data was analyzed by using t-test and ANOVA. The findings of this study revealed that using computer-based problem solving approach improved HOTS of the prospective teachers as well as enhance their collaboration and motivation. It was found out that there was a moderate improvement on HOTS aspects in communication. The study also showed very slight improvement on the prospective teacher’s problem solving abilities.
Assessment of the Household’s Flood Social Vulnerability in Vietnam’s Mekong River Delta

Flooding is a natural phenomenon that occurs annually from September to October in Vietnam’s Mekong River Delta (MRD). However, its trend is becoming more destructive and unpredictable in recent years, which tends to threaten people’s livelihood, properties, and health. This study attempted to examine the flood vulnerability among households in 14 districts of the delta. The analysis helped identify communities that were subjected to floods and needed more attention in disaster management. People in the MRD had remarkably low exposure, which was the result of investment in water structures. About 59.2 % of the surveyed households were moderately vulnerable to flooding. Families in O Mon, Thanh Binh, Cai Be, and Cho Lach district had the highest vulnerability indices. The most significant indicators to explain the flood-prone state were rice-related indicators, elderly dependency ratios, and social capital. The study suggested that plans to reduce flood vulnerability should focus on the family’s adaptability because it had the largest impacts.
Morphometric analysis of European species of the genus Aphis (Sternorrhyncha: Aphididae) inhabiting Ribes

A review of the literary data on the life cycles and host plant relationships of Aphis grossulariae Kaltenbach, A. schneideri (Borner) and A. triglochinis Theobald is presented. Morphometric analysis of the three species revealed insufficient discriminative value of the majority of characters commonly used in the keys. A modified key to fundatrices, apterous and alate viviparous females, gynoparous and oviparous females and males is presented.
Effect of dietary supplementation with Bacillus subtilis on the growth, performance, immune response and antioxidant activities of the shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei)

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of a probiotic bacterium, Bacillus subtilis, on the growth, immune response and antioxidant activities of shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei). Shrimps with an average initial weight of 2.11±0.17 g were randomly assigned to four groups with three replicates. The control group was fed a basal diet, and three treated groups were fed diets supplemented with B. subtilis at doses of 1 × 104, 5 × 104 and 10 × 104 colony-forming unit (CFU) g−1 feed respectively. After 40 days of culture, 10 shrimps from each replicate were taken randomly for the determination of immune response and oxidization resistance indices. The results showed that the shrimps fed with B. subtilis at a dose of 1 × 104, 5 × 104 CFU g−1 feed showed significantly better growth than that of the control diet. The phenoloxidase activities showed a tendency to increase with an increased dose of B. subtilis in diets but there was no significant difference among the three treated groups. In addition, phenoloxidase activities were found to be significantly higher (P<0.05) in the groups treated with B. subtilis than that of the control group. Shrimps treated with 5 × 104 CFU g−1 feed probiotic bacterium showed the highest lysozyme activity and it was significantly higher (P<0.05) than the other groups. However, there was no significant difference in acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase activity across all the groups. The total antioxidant capacity, superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase activities in the probiotic-treated groups were significantly increased (P<0.05) as compared with the control groups. Both maleic dialdehyde concentration and superoxide anion activities in the probiotic-treated groups were significantly lower (P<0.05) than those of the control. The probiotic did not affect the nitric oxide synthase and the catalase activity in any of the control and treated groups. These results indicated that the probiotic B. subtilis could significantly promote the growth rate of shrimp by increasing the immune function and antioxidant capacity. The most effective dose of B. subtilis in the diet was 5 × 104 CFU g−1 feed.