Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sex‐steroid and thyroid hormone concentrations in juvenile alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) from contaminated and reference lakes in Florida, USA

Sex‐steroid and thyroid hormones are critical regulators of growth and reproduction in all vertebrates, and several recent studies suggest that environmental chemicals can alter circulating concentrations of these hormones. This study examines plasma concentrations of estradiol‐17β (E2), testosterone (T), triiodothyronine (T3), and thyroxine (T4) in juvenile alligators (60–140 cm total length) from two contaminated lakes and one reference lake in Florida. First, the data were analyzed by comparing hormone concentrations among males and females from the different lakes. Whereas there were no differences in plasma E2 concentrations among animals of the three lakes, male alligators from the contaminated lakes (Lake Apopka and Lake Okeechobee) had significantly lower plasma T concentrations compared to males from the reference lake (Lake Woodruff). Concentrations of thyroid hormones also differed in animals of the three lakes, with T4 concentrations being elevated in Lake Okeechobee males compared to Lake Woodruff males. Second, the relationship between body size and hormone concentration was examined using regression analysis. Most notably for steroid hormones, no clear relationship was detected between E2 and total length in Apopka females (r2 = 0.09, p = 0.54) or between T and total length in Apopka males (r2 = 0.007, p = 0.75). Females from Apopka (r2 = 0.318, p = 0.09) and Okeechobee (r2 = 0.222, p = 0.09) exhibited weak correlations between T3 and total length. Males from Apopka (r2 = 0.015, p = 0.66) and Okeechobee (r2 = 0.128, p = 0.19) showed no correlation between T4 and total length. These results indicate: some of the previously reported abnormalities in steroid hormones of hatchling alligators persist, at least, through the juvenile years; steroid and thyroid hormones are related to body size in juvenile alligators from the reference lake, whereas alligators living in lakes Apopka and Okeechobee experience alterations in circulating thyroid and steroid hormones in relationship to body size; and a number of the hormone abnormalities reported previously for Lake Apopka alligators are observed in alligators from Lake Okeechobee—a lake associated with numerous contaminant sources but no major chemical spill. The endocrine alterations reported in this study are hypothesized to be a response to embryonic exposure to endocrine‐disrupting contaminants.
RILP: Robust Iranian License Plate Recognition Designed for Complex Conditions

This study introduces RILP, a novel approach to create a modular platform for autonomous license plate recognition (LPR). The proposed method consists of three stages of neural networks connected in a modular fashion. The first stage is the detection of license plates (LP); after that, RILP proceeds to detect text regions and performs character segmentations. Finally, to get to the LP number, optical character recognition (OCR) is done via a neural network previously trained for recognition of Persian characters. A robust LPR platform is a vital tool in modern cities for a variety of applications such as autonomous terrific management, surveillance, gateway control and etc. In order to be deployed in real-world conditions, LPR platforms should be practical and adaptive; in other words, easily trainable. RILP has paid attention to this matter as it can be effortlessly trained for any national LP. Only the final module of this approach requires training, which can be done with a simple dataset of the characters used in the LP of the desired country. This gives RILP tremendous portability to be deployed in any country for a wide variety of applications. The proposed platform was designed specifically for complex conditions. Therefore, a very complex and challenging dataset of Iranian LPs was created for a comprehensive evaluation of RILP, consisting of over 350 images of challenging natural conditions. RILP was evaluated with another publicly available dataset, as well as real footage of a local security camera. Evaluations yielded satisfying recognition accuracy up to 95% with a response time of 66 ms/LP. RILP proved to be robust and reliable enough, yielding satisfactory results in a reasonable time, while used in challenging conditions.
Identification of variant alleles at AmpFlSTR SGM Plus STR loci in a sample population of Bangladesh

DNA profiles obtained from 442 individuals using AmpFlSTRO SGM PlusO PCR amplification kit (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) were screened for variant alleles not included within allelic ladder provided by the manufacturer. A total of 5 distinct variants were identified at 3 of the 10 European core STR loci tested. This study identified one variant at D16S539 locus (allele 7), two variants at D21S11 locus (allele 29.3 and 34.1) and two other rare variants at D19S433 locus (allele 11.2 and 18). Of these 5 alleles, variant 29.3 and 34.1 found at D21S11 have been previously reported in Caucasians and African Americans. The rest three variants (allele 7 at D16S539, allele 11.2 and 18 at D19S433) have been separately reported in STRBase (http://www.cstl.nist.gov/biotech/strbase), but no published reports are available. All these alleles fell within the allelic range of the allelic ladder except allele 18 at D19S433 locus, which fell outside the range.
Using Recycled Waste Material from UAE in Concrete

Since its invention, concrete is the most commonly used building material in the world. However, the environmental impacts of concrete's constituents cannot be ignored. For example, 709 kg of CO2is produced in the middle east per ton of cement while the increased demand for natural aggregates for concrete material (e.g. 48.3 billion tons in 2015) exploits natural resources. Moreover, the ceramic industry produces a total of 22 billion tons of ceramic waste on an annual basis which is mostly transferred to landfills. Additionally, the growth of landfills from waste glass is a significant problem that needs to be solved as well. Thus, this research aims to determine experimentally the efficiency of using Ceramic Waste Powder (CWP), Glass Waste (GW) and Recycled Concrete Waste (RCW) from the Construction Demolition Waste (CDW) in the production of an environmentally friendly concrete of low CO2emission and cost-efficient. At the end of this research, it was concluded that using construction waste in the concrete mix makes producing a green concrete achievable with the advantages of high strength and low cost.
The Forest Watershed and Riparian Disturbance study: a multi-discipline initiative to evaluate and manage watershed disturbance on the Boreal Plain of Canada

The Forest Watershed and Riparian Disturbance (FORWARD) initiative integrates aquatic and soil science, hydrology, and forestry into models that link water quality, water quantity, and disturbance indicators with management of watersheds on the Boreal Plain of western Canada. The impacts of varying patterns and intensities of fire and logging are being evaluated for 16 streams in the Swan Hills, Alberta, with the intention to extend the approach to the eastern portion of the Boreal Plain and into the Boreal Shield. The study uses two comparative approaches: treatment versus reference stream and before versus after disturbance. Models generated will be applied to designated multi-user watersheds in selected forest areas. In addition to yielding transferable technology for forest product industries, the FORWARD study tests hypotheses related to effects of watershed disturbance on soils, hydrology, and water quality on the phosphorus-rich and fire-prone Boreal Forest in western Canada. Key words: watershed d.
A Method for Predicting the Bit Error Rate of Wireless Digital Communication Equipment

In this paper, the critical interference radiation power of wireless communication equipment under different interference levels is determined, and the residual Interfering radiant power (RIP) is calculated by combining with the ambient radiation power. After the interfering radiant power is normalized, the prediction model of bit error rate of wireless communication equipment is obtained. By comparing the experimental data with the model prediction data, the error of bit error rate (BER) is less than 0.1%. The correctness of the prediction model of the bit error rate is verified. It is more important to know the working condition of wireless communication equipment and judge whether the wireless communication equipment is blocked than before.
Comparative Analysis of Forest Biomass Estimation using SAR Tomographic Techniques

The objective of this study is to assess and compare different above-ground biomass (AGB) estimation models for tropical forest using P-band SAR tomography. In this paper, we investigate (1) comparative performance of back-projection and Capon beamforming tomographic estimators to analyze the vertical structure of tropical forest 2) impact of terrain slope correction on tomogram reflectivity and AGB estimates 3) correlation of tomogram reflectivity at 30m to forest AGB using different models 4) possibility of using tomographic retrieved height to improve the AGB estimation. The performance of these models is evaluated using dataset acquired during TropiSAR 2009 by ONERA over the Paracou site.
Towards understanding mastrevirus dynamics and the use of viral metagenomic approaches to identify novel gemini-like circular DNA viruses

IV Co-authorship forms.VII Chapter 1 Literature review.1 Chapter 2 Australian monocot-infecting mastrevirus diversity rivals that in Africa.75 Chapter 3 Molecular diversity of monocot-infecting mastreviruses in Africa.114 Chapter 4 Evidence that dicot-infecting mastreviruses are particularly prone to inter-species recombination and have likely been circulating in Australia for longer than in Africa and the Middle East.151 Chapter 5 Identification of an Australian-like dicot-infecting mastrevirus in Pakistan.185 Chapter 6 Molecular diversity of Chickpea chlorotic dwarf virus in Sudan: high rates of intra-species recombination a driving force in the emergence of new strains.201 Chapter 7 Identification of novel circular DNA viruses associated with Poaceae species in New Zealand.239 Chapter 8 Characterisation of a diverse range of Rep-encoding ssDNA viruses recovered from a sewage treatment oxidation pond.260 Chapter 9 Discussion and future directions.304
A Reconfigurable Mixed Signal CMOS Design for Multiple STDP Learning Rules

Spike-timing-dependent-plasticity (STDP) is the learning algorithm for spiking neural network (SNN), which promises to obtain deeper understanding of biological neural system and more powerful artificial intelligence. However, most implementations for STDP learning rules have shortcomings in reconfigurability and richness. In this paper, a reconfigurable mixed-signal neuromorphic circuit for multiple STDP learning rules is proposed. Adopting phenomenological models, the design is easy to implement. Under a 65nm CMOS technology, simulation results show that the energy consumption for a weight update option is about 1~50 fJ/spike. The proposed circuit is suitable for neuromorphic applications using various STDP rules.
Impact of Ankle-Foot Orthosis Stiffness and Muscle Coactivation on Ankle Injury During Landing

Ankle sprains are more common injuries that encounter in daily physical and various sports activities. Stiffness of an ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) and muscle co-activation may influence the risk of an ankle injury. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of passive ankle-foot orthosis stiffness and muscle co-activation on ankle inversion injury. The landing on the platform is being performed for different stiffness of AFOs, with and without muscle co-activation. Results indicate that increasing AFO stiffness reduces the subtalar angle, i.e., reduces the chance of ankle injury. Thus, the use of an AFO with muscle co-activation mitigates the ankle inversion injury. A moderate AFO's stiffness is best fit in the prevention of ankle injuries.
Effects of drying methods on antioxidant properties in Robinia pseudoacacia L. flowers

The effects of different drying methods (sun drying, hot-air drying, freeze drying and microwave-vacuum drying) on the antioxidant properties and phenolic content in Robinia pseudoacacia L. flowers (RPF) were investigated. Simultaneously, the correlation between phenolic content and antioxidant capacity was discussed. Results showed that antioxidant properties and phenolic content in dried RPF were affected by the drying methods to different extents. Freeze drying sample possessed the highest antioxidant activity including DPPH radical scavenging, reducing power and hydroxyl radical scavenging ability, and the total phenolic content was 47.30 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE) /g DW. Microwave-vacuum drying samples had the best iron-chelating ability and its phenolic content (45.52 mg GAE/g DW) was comparable to that of the freeze drying samples (P> 0.05). Sun drying was the worst in antioxidant activities and phenolic content was only 29.15 mg GAE/g DW. Additionally, significantly positive correlation was found between the total phenolic content and antioxidant activity (P< 0.01). Microwave-vacuum drying was a potential drying technique for RPF.
Capturing the Diversity of Wild Malus orientalis from Georgia, Armenia, Russia, and Turkey

Seeds from wild Malus orientalis trees were collected during explorations to Armenia (2001, 2002), Georgia (2004), Turkey (1999), and Russia (1998). Seedling orchards with between eight and 171 individuals from each collection location were established at the U.S. Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service Plant Genetic Resources Unit (PGRU) in Geneva, NY. Genotypic (seven microsatellite markers) and disease resistance data were collected for the 776 M. orientalis trees. The genetic diversity of the 280 individuals from Armenia and Georgia was compared with data previously published for the M. orientalis individuals from Russia and Turkey. A total of 106 alleles were identified in the trees from Georgia and Armenia and the average gene diversity ranged from 0.47 to 0.85 per locus. The genetic differentiation among sampling locations was greater than that found between the two countries. Six individuals from Armenia exhibited resistance to fire blight (Erwinia amylovora), apple scab (Venturia inaequalis), and cedar apple rust (Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae). The allelic richness across all loci in the individuals from Armenia and Georgia was statistically the same as that across all loci in the individuals from Russia and Turkey. A core set of 27 trees was selected to capture 93% of the alleles represented by the entire PGRU collection of 776 M. orientalis trees. This core set representing all four countries was selected based on genotypic data using a modified maximization algorithm. The trees selected for the M. orientalis core collection will be added to the main field collection at the PGRU.
A Cross Entropy Minimization based Beam Selection for Time-Variant mmWave Beamspace MU-MIMO Communication System

The millimeter wave beamspace multi-user MIMO communication system suffers from high radio frequency complexity. However, RF complexity can be reduced by deploying a beam selection algorithm at access point without significant loss in the performance. Therefore, we proposing a novel time-variant beam selection algorithm for such system. It follows a metaheuristic approach to find the near-to-optimal solution and outperforms the existing time-variant beam selection algorithm.
Identifying Anomalous HTTP Traffic with Association Rule Mining

Web applications are compromised by exploiting different vulnerabilities. The protection systems designed to detect such attacks, screen the HTTP requests to decide whether a particular request is benign or malicious. Generating effective screening rules governs the detection performance and false positive rate. In this paper, we propose to generate classification rules to identify malicious HTTP requests using co-occurrence between certain character combinations. Our idea is motivated by the fact that, a successful attack will have some combination of characters together. For e.g., in an SQL injection attack = sign may appear along with “'”. We propose to learn such character combinations using association rules with a set of carefully chosen feature (character) set. We experiment with a publicly available HTTP dataset and show that malicious HTTP requests can be identified with rules generated from such associations.
Guaranteed Defibrillation on a Cardiomyocyte Model

On the model of cardiomyocyte under the influence of simulated fibrillation, the dependences of the threshold energy of guaranteed defibrillation on the duration of the defibrillation pulse of a half-sine and rectangular waveform are studied. Guaranteed defibrillation is achieved when a defibrillation pulse causes an extension of the current refractory period of cardiomyocytes to a pulse repetition period of fibrillation or more. In this case, the propagation of the fibrillation wave through the myocardium becomes impossible. The obtained dependences of the threshold energy of guaranteed defibrillation on the duration of the defibrillation pulse correspond to the Hoorweg-WeissLapicque law on a limited range of relative values of the pulse duration. For a rectangular pulse, this range is much wider than for a half-sine pulse. The obtained dependence of the threshold energy of guaranteed defibrillation on the duration of a half-sine defibrillation pulse is close to the results of animal experiments. Therefore, the guaranteed defibrillation mechanism can be used to compare the energy efficiency of external defibrillation pulses.
Re-evaluation of the classical dietary arginine:lysine interaction for modern poultry diets: a review

The nutritional antagonism of arginine (Arg) and lysine (Lys) was first identified and investigated in the 1950′s and 1960′s. The results of this early research suggest the optimum Arg:Lys ratio to fall between 0.8 and 1.7, depending upon dietary levels of electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, and chloride. Calculations from the more recent optimum amino acid balances included in widely referenced authoritative sources suggest the optimum Arg:Lys ratio to be in the range from 0.90 to 1.18. Changes from the “optimum” value of the ratio can have adverse effects on the performance of growing poultry. The effect is more evident with an excess of lysine (low Arg:Lys ratio) than with an excess of arginine (high Arg:Lys ratio). Studies with heat-stressed broilers have shown that the optimum Arg:Lys ratio varies with ambient temperature. The Arg:Lys ratio for optimum broiler body weight gain and feed efficiency increases at high temperatures, probably because of a reduced uptake of arginine from the digestive tract. The improved response of broilers to increasing dietary Arg:Lys ratio is most clearly seen during heat stress with diets containing minimum concentrations of NaCI. This response diminishes with high dietary NaCI and with NaHCO3 supplementation, when the optimum dietary Arg:Lys ratio declines from the high ratio (~1.30) observed with low dietary NaCl. Furthermore, the nature of the methionine activity source influences the optimum dietary Arg:Lys ratio for heat-stressed broilers. The performance of broilers fed 2-hydroxy-4-(methylthio) butanoic acid (HMB) is optimised at high Arg:Lys ratios (1.35) whereas broilers fed equimolar supplements of DL-methionine (DLM) tend to optimise performance at lower Arg:Lys ratios (1.05). The selection of the correct methionine activity source as a dietary supplement is likely to become more important if the current trend to exclude animal protein feed ingredients with low Arg:Lys ratios from poultry diets continues.
Water Relations of Chelonian Eggs

Eggs of painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) absorb water across that portion of the eggshell in contact with the substrate and simultaneously lose water by transpiration from that part of the eggshell exposed to air inside the nest chamber. Depending upon the rates of influx and efflux, eggs may experience increases or decreases in mass during incubation, or mass may remain essentially constant between oviposition and hatching. Water exchanges are especially sensitive to such factors as substrate water potential, relative surface exposed to the nest atmosphere, hydraulic conductance of the eggshell, and conductance of the eggshell to water vapor. Hatchlings emerging from eggs absorbing and storing large quantities of water are heavier than hatchlings emerging from eggs taking up smaller quantities of water from the substrate. Furthermore, water absorption equal to, or in excess of, water loss by transpiration assures that the original shape of the egg will be preserved, thereby guaranteeing that sufficient space is available within the egg for normal development of the embryo.
A Community-based monitoring system for peat swamp forest restoration

The Indonesian government has launched an initiative to restore degraded peat swamp forests across various provinces in the country, in response to extensive damage resulting from deforestation, drainage and fires. Monitoring is important for evaluating the success of restoration activities, but has so far been challenged by the expense of equipment, which limits the possibilities of undertaking large-scale monitoring, as well as demonstrating restoration impact at local scale. Community-based monitoring systems have been proposed as an alternative to conventional systems, involving the local community so as to decrease costs, increase monitoring area coverage, and measure the impact of restoration activities on ground water levels and soil moisture. This study explored the potential to involve the local community in monitoring the impact of peatland restoration activities, with technological support to log measurements of ground water levels and peat moisture into online database systems.
Various methods of binding light agricultural byproducts

A lot of porous agricultural byproducts have few valorization possibilities and are mainly used as animal litter. In order to propose more valuable applications for these byproducts, research is being carried out to use these resources in particleboards for application as building materials for insulation or flooring underlayer, or as molded cushioning for packaging or horticultural support medium for example. The objective of this study is to investigate the potential of low density materials obtained from corn pith. At industrial scale this type of material is generally obtained by adding synthetic binder. To obtain totally biobased materials, corn pith particles are bound by different methods: without addition of any binder. In that case water is sprayed on the vegetal particles before the forming process. The lignocellulosic compounds contained in the agroresources can act as binders. Rate of sprayed water must be optimized in order to minimize the process time. with various biosourced binders, based on vegetal resins or animal proteins to improve particleboards resistance. The particleboards are made at a laboratory scale by thermocompression of the vegetal raw particles with densities range from 50 to 200 kg/m3 according to the target application. The corn pith particles highlight interesting properties, such as a low density as well as a hygrometry control capacity due to their alveolar structure. Particleboards are characterized by their thermal insulation properties, their mechanical properties by bending tests according to the densities and the different binders and by their resistance to water. Several applications can be considered according to the properties obtained.