Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the effectiveness of artificial shelters in the study of population attributes of small terrestrial gastropods

The relative effectiveness of artificial shelters in quantifying population attritubes of species of small terrestrial snails was evaluated. The proportions of replicated, artificial populations found adhering to the lower surfaces of such shelters (squares of masonite), from May through July, averaged 20% for Discus cronkhitei and 33% for Euconulus fulvus. Variation between inspections in the numbers of both species recorded adhering to the shelters was influenced by both temperature (fewer snails were recorded when mean temperatures for the preceding 24 h were 17.5 °C), and precipitation (fewer snails were recorded when > 2 mm of precipitation were recorded in the previous 48 h than when < 2 mm fell). The numbers of individuals of each species on each plot declined annually over the 3-month period, from an initial density of 50 to a final average density of 5 individuals/m2. This loss was related to mortality in situ (ca. 12% in each species over 1987 and 1988), the remainder disappearing.
METAHEURISTIC APPROACH USING GREY WOLF OPTIMIZER FOR FINDING STRONGLY CONNECTED COMPONENTS IN DIGRAPHS

Finding strongly connected components (SCCs) in a directed graph (digraph) has been investigated extensively. Tarjan’s algorithm is the most fundamental method of finding SCCs in digraphs that uses Depth-First Search (DFS) and it has a linear time complexity. On the other hand, the Forward-Backward (FW-BW) algorithm is another well-known method that is based on the divide-and-conquer approach, yet it is time consuming. In this paper, we introduce a new approach for finding the SCCs in digraphs in linear time using Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO), which is a recent metaheuristic algorithm. Experimental results show that finding SCCs using GWO outperforms FW-BW in terms of run time. In this context, GWO achieved 62.27% average run time improvement over FW-BW. Furthermore, average solution quality (accuracy) from GWO compared to the exact algorithm FW-BW is 97.57%.
A RESEARCH ON MICROPROPAGATION OF PIXY ROOTSTOCK

Clonal rootstocks have ability to produce fruits in a very short period after planting, therefore are preferred by farmers in establishing an orchard. Genetically identical origin and diseasefree rootstocks can be obtained by in vitro techniques under laboratory conditions. The purpose of study was to investigate the reproduction possibilities of Pixy, an important plum clone rootstock used in plum and apricot cultivation, using the tissue culture techniques. The shoot tips of Pixy rootstocks were used as explants and Murashige-Skoog (MS) containing 30 g L sucrose and 7 g L agar was used as the nutrient medium. The shoot tips cleaned and placed on MS medium were transferred into the culture room with well controlled temperature and lighting. The samples were sub-cultured onto the same medium once in a month during shoot formation and rooting stages. The number of explants, leaves and sprouting were recorded once in a 20 days. The effects of seven different MS media were investigated during the shoot multiplication stage. Shoot multiplication was at the highest rate when a medium enriched with 4.4 μM BAP + 0.49 μM IBA + 0.29 μM GA3 + 1mM PG. The efficiency of five different MS media were investigated during the rooting stage. The results indicated that the highest rooting performance of Pixy rootstocks can be obtained in the nutrient medium containing 1/2 MS + 2 mg/L NAA.
Lifting Sequential Effects to Control Operators

Sequential eﬀect systems are a class of eﬀect system that exploits information about program order, rather than discarding it as traditional commutative eﬀect systems do. This extra expressive power allows eﬀect systems to reason about behavior over time, capturing properties such as atomicity, unstructured lock ownership, or even general safety properties. While we now understand the essential denotational (categorical) models fairly well, application of these ideas to real software is hampered by the variety of source level control ﬂow constructs and control operators in real languages. We address this new problem by appeal to a classic idea: macro-expression of commonly-used programming constructs in terms of control operators. We give an eﬀect system for a subset of Racket’s tagged delimited control operators, as a lifting of an eﬀect system for a language without direct control operators. This gives the ﬁrst account of sequential eﬀects in the presence of general control operators. Using this system, we also re-derive the sequential eﬀect system rules for control ﬂow constructs previously shown sound directly, and derive sequential eﬀect rules for new constructs not previously studied in the context of source-level sequential eﬀect systems. This oﬀers a way to directly extend source-level support for sequential eﬀect systems to real programming languages.
Line Of Sight Based Spacecraft Formation Control Under Gravity

This work studies formation control of two spacecraft formation where communication architecture has a serial network structure. The leader controls its absolute position and absolute attitude with respect to an inertial frame, and the follower controls its relative position and attitude with respect to leader. Both absolute attitude and relative attitude control systems are obtained directly in terms of the line-ofsight observations between the spacecraft. The translational dynamics of spacecraft are assumed to follow Keplerian orbital dynamics. The closed loop system is shown to be almost global asymptotically stable and a conservative region of attraction is given.
Transformer-based DKN for News Recommendation

In recent years, deep learning has been widely used in news recommendation systems. In the previous personalized news recommendation, a large number of CF-based methods, content-based or hybrid methods have been proposed. But most of the works are only modeling the user’s interaction history, ignoring the hidden meaning of the user’s continuous behaviors. In this paper, we propose to adopt the powerful Transformer model in order to understand the hidden meaning of the user’s continuous behaviors in news recommendations. The experimental results prove the superiority of the transformer, and the AUC has been significantly improved as compared to the original model
Effect of Solar Drying Method on the Proximate Composition, Microbial Load, and Mycotoxin Concentration of Plantain (Musa Paradisiaca) Flour

Processing plantain into flour increases the shelf-life of the product; therefore, making drying along the value chain of the plantain fruit very important.The purpose of this study was to assess the impact oftwo drying methods on the quality of plantain flour. Two solar drying methods: indirect solar drying (ISD) and direct solar drying (DSD) methods were used. Plantain flour samples from the two drying methods were assayed for their proximate composition, microbial load, and mycotoxin (aflatoxins) concentration. The result of the laboratory analysis showed that DSD had a significantly higher incident of both yeast and mould count (p<0.05) in the two samples. The DSD again recorded a significantly higher level of moisture (p<0.05) compared to the indirectly dried sample. There was no significant (p>0.05) difference in the aflatoxin-bearing fungi identified in both the direct and the indirect dried plantain flour samples. Two strains of Aspergillus (flavus and niger) were isolated in this study. This study concludes that the indirect solar drying method is more appropriate to use in drying than the direct or open sun drying for quality product development.
In situ analysis of the bacterial community in the gut of the earthworm Lumbricus terrestris L. by whole-cell hybridization

The bacterial community in the gut of the earthworm Lumbricus terrestris was analyzed by whole-cell hybridization with 16S rRNA targeted oligonucleotide probes. Whole-cell hybridization protocols using fluorescence-, peroxidase-, or digoxigenin-labeled oligonucleotide probes facilitated detection of significant fractions of bacterial cells stained with 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) in the fore-, mid-, and hind-gut and cast of the earthworm. The application of peroxidase- and digoxigenin-labeled probes, however, was hampered by several methodological drawbacks: the requirement of enzymatic permeabilization, the diffuse images of stained cells, and the incompatibility with DAPI staining used as control. Quantitative analysis of the bacterial community was also influenced by its considerable variability in different individual earthworms. Though the number of bacteria detected by DAPI staining as well as by whole-cell hybridization with the fluorescent eubacterial probe Eub338 generally showed a signi.
TOWARDS BETTER BILATERAL POLICY MAKING DECISIONS: INVESTIGATION OF AUSTRALIA-RELATED ISSUES IN KOREAN MEDIA THROUGH KEYWORD ANALYSIS

Along with the growth of Big Data age, the value of analytics using data is improving and contributes to the new value creation. Moreover, data from news articles becomes important to identify and predict economic activities. Nowadays, a lot of studies are being done using news articles to investigate the economic phenomenon. Present study analyzes which issues have received attention in Korea by using Australian news data reported in Korea. Based on this study we aim to analyze Korea`s perception of Australia and further improve relationship between Korea and Australia by helping to strengthen bilateral policy decisions by using news textual analysis.
Improvements for High Resolution Analysis on a Modified Tribrid Mass Spectrometer

For resolving power ≥ 500,000 (at m/z 200), performance demands are elevated and acceptable performance is available across a narrower range of device parameters. In particular, it becomes difficult to find systems which can adhere to isotope ratio specifications while simultaneously delivering better-than-average performance in terms of peak coupling and coalescence (as measured by the test described in Figures 5 and 6). However, by carefully matching electrodes and with careful tuning, such a balance between “hard” and “soft” traps can be found [3]. Improvements for high resolution analysis on a modified tribrid mass spectrometer
ANALYSIS OF ACCEPTANCE OF MOBILE PAYMENT AS AN ALTERNATIVE TRANSACTION OF PARKING PAYMENT

OVO's mobile payment application is a Micro Payment application that is developing as a means of payment (electronic money) on smartphones. The application is divided into two, namely OVO Cash and OVO Point. OVO Cash can be used for various types of financial transactions, such as payments at various merchant partners, top up, and balance checking. At present, it's easy to make transactions quickly and easily using OVO Cash. OVO Points are loyalty rewards obtained by OVO users when making transactions at various OVO partner merchants. The advantages of the OVO application with the mobile payment application is that the OVO application can make payment transactions for parking rates at the mall. For example, the Lippo mall in the Jakarta area has implemented the first automate self-parking payment system in Indonesia and the parking fee payment is operated in May 2017. This case study aims to find out the receipt of the OVO payment mobile application as a payment for tariffs. parking, in this study uses the UTAUT model as a research method in order to find out whether performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions influence the behavior intention on the OVO mobile payment application. Through regression statistical test analysis as processing data obtained from questionnaires with the number of 100 respondents using the OVO mobile payment application as a payment tool for parking rates. The data collection technique carried out is a non-probability approach that is using purposive sampling. Sampling with purposive sampling is a sampling technique of population earned on certain criteria in order to get the conclusions of this study, includes performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions affect behavior intention.
VHP

Locality sensitive hashing (LSH) is a widely practiced c-approximate nearest neighbor(c-ANN) search algorithm in high dimensional spaces. The state-of-the-art LSH based algorithm searches an unbounded and irregular space to identify candidates, which jeopardizes the efficiency. To address this issue, we introduce the concept of virtual hypersphere partitioning. The core idea is to impose a virtual hypersphere, centered at the query, in the original feature space and only examine points inside the hypersphere. The search space of a hypersphere is isotropic and bounded, and thus more efficient than the existing one. In practice, we use multiple physical hyperspheres with different radii in corresponding projection subspaces to emulate the single virtual hypersphere. We also developed a principled method to compute the hypersphere radii for given success probability. Based on virtual hypersphere partitioning, we propose a novel disk-based indexing and searching scheme VHP to answer c-ANN queries. In the indexing phase, VHP stores LSH projections with independent B+-trees. To process a query, VHP keeps increasing the radii of physical hyperspheres co-ordinately, which in effect amounts to enlarging the virtual hypersphere, to accommodate more candidates until the success probability is met. Rigorous theoretical analysis shows that the proposed algorithm supports c-ANN search for arbitrarily small c ≥ 1 with probability guarantee. Extensive experiments on a variety of datasets, including the billion-scale ones, demonstrate that VHP could achieve different tradeoffs between efficiency and accuracy, and achieves up to 2x speedup in running time over the state-of-the-art methods.
A FUZZY-BASED SMOKE DETECTION ON EMBEDDED SYSTEM

This paper proposes a new method for smoke detection based on the characteristic of color and movement of the video obtained from a static camera. Firstly, background subtraction algorithm is used to detect the motion and distinguish between motion and non-motion object on each frame. Secondly, color of each pixel of the moving regions is checked and compared with the typical of color of smoke such as gray, white and black. Thirdly, because smoke has rapid growth as soon as it formed, this paper calculates the growth rate of the moving regions. Finally, a fuzzy logic system is developed to process all previous results. Output threshold of the fuzzy system can be adjusted to adapt to environment conditions. The proposed method is implemented on embedded system to ensure execution speed in real-time, so we can develop future applications such as integrating into the surveillance camera, building a firefighting robot and so on. Experimental results on different videos in different environments show that the proposed method is very effective and achieves high accuracy in the detection of smoke.
A Riverscape Analysis Tool Developed to Assist Wild Salmon Conservation Across the North Pacific Rim

ABSTRACT A major constraint for management and conservation of wild salmon is the large geographic area and diversity of rivers that provide critical freshwater habitats for salmon production and sustainability. These habitats span lengths of entire river systems, crossing international borders and management jurisdictions, while encompassing a range of climate and landscape conditions and human impacts. We developed the Riverscape Analysis Project (RAP) to provide a consistent and comprehensive geospatial database to document, assess, and compare the physical habitats of large salmon rivers of the North Pacific Rim (NPR). Here, we introduce and summarize a web-based GIS and decision support system (DSS) to assist salmon conservation around the NPR. The foundation of the RAP database is a seamless mosaic of moderate (30 m) resolution, multispectral satellite imagery from the Landsat TM instrument series, mapped with coincident 90-m resolution digital terrain Digital Evaluation Model (DEM) information to a.
Evidence from India

Do tax systems distort firm-to-firm trade? This paper considers the effect of tax policy on supplier networks in a large developing economy, the state of West Bengal in India. Using administrative panel data on firms, including transaction data for 4.8 million supplier-client pairs, we first document substantial segmentation of supply chains between firms paying Value-Added Taxes (VAT) and non-VAT-paying firms. We then develop a model of firms’ sourcing and tax decisions within supply chains to understand the mechanisms through which tax policy interacts with supply networks. The model predicts partial segmentation in equilibrium because of both supply-chain distortions (taxes affect how much firms trade with each other) and strategic complementarities in firms’ tax choices. Finally, we test the model’s predictions using variations over time within-firm and within supplier-client pairs. We find that the tax system distorts firms’ sourcing decisions, and suggestive evidence of strategic complementarities in firms’ tax choices within supplier networks. ∗Gadenne: University of Warwick, Institute for Fiscal Studies and CEPR. Nandi: CTRPFP, Center for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. Rathelot: University of Warwick and CEPR. We would like to thank Andrew Bernard, Luis Candelaria, Michael Devereux, Irem Guceri, Jyotsna Jalan, Sugata Marjit, Isabelle Méjean, Dennis Novy, Aureo de Paula, Carlo Perroni, Imran Rasul, Debraj Ray, Camilla Roncoroni, Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato, Chris Woodruff, and numerous seminar participants for helpful comments. We are particularly thankful to the Directorate of Commercial Taxes of West Bengal, India for the permission to use their data. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the IGC and the IFS. All errors are our own.
BIO-INSPIRED A NOVEL CONTINUUM ROBOT ARM WITH VARIABLE BACKBONE DESIGN: MODELLING AND VALIDATION

Dramatic growth in the robotics industry demands robots with exceptional working capabilities such as working in a confined environment and with safety features. Likewise, high requirement needs to meet robots of the new generation. In such a case, bio-inspired continuum robots could be a good alternative solution for such needs. This research paper proposes a continuum robot arm inspired by an elephant trunk. The novelty of this research is proposed variable backbone hardness provided by coil compression springs, such as elephant trunk muscles. Thus, the proposed robot design allows working in a highly constrained environment, such as the agriculture sector or in the rescue operations, where the working environment is unstructured and severe which requires exceptional features from the robot. This research paper will cover the following topics; backbone design concept, geometry modelling, forward kinematic solution and the robot application as well.
Molecular Breeding for S triga Resistance in Sorghum

Among the biotic stresses affecting dryland cereals, especially sorghum, Striga hermonthica is the most damaging obligate parasite, and is an important bottleneck to yield increases by smallholder farm­ ers, yet it has been neglected by research in recent years. Integrated Striga management packages have been designed, but these will continue to require new cultural and chemical treatments, resistant vari­ eties, and integrated approaches to manage both Striga and soil fertility. This review attempts to assess recent advances in bioassay development that are specific to resistance mechanisms, genomics such as New Generation Sequencing tools, RNA interference (RNAi) technologies in advancing knowledge of resistance and susceptibility to Striga including diversity in striga populations, and molecular marker technology in accelerating the development of Smga-resistant cultivars of sorghum. Recent advances in developing effective bioassays involving several modifications of rhizotrons and sand-packed titer plate assay will help dissect resistance mechanisms into component traits and increased understanding of the specific resistance mechanisms, which will directly help in efficient introgression and selection of several striga resistance mechanisms in breeding population. The current studies for identification of parasite genes specifically involved in haustorigenesis through transcriptomic and/or prote'omic stud­ ies and more recently RNAseq studies will help understand susceptibility or resistance genes in striga. Release of improved version of cultivars resistant to striga developed by marker-assisted backcrossing of several striga resistance QTLs in Sudan had shown the power of integrating genomics and molecular breeding tools/techniques into routine breeding for tackling the complex constraint such as striga. Ap­ plication and utilization of advance techniques in genomics and molecular breeding appropriately can further enhance the efficiency of integrated striga management practices, and thus crop productivity.
Silence Behavior in Public and Private Higher Learning Institutions in Selangor, Malaysia

Silence behavior is a behavioural choice that can deteriorate or improve organisational performance. Silence can convey sharing information or disfavour and opposition, thus becoming a pressure mechanism for both individuals and organisations. This study was conducted to examine the extent of silence behavior and investigate the factors influencing silence behavior among staff in public as well as private universities in Selangor, Malaysia. Based upon a model of employee silence developed by Milliken et al. (2003), a survey was conducted with 136 academic and non-academic staff of public and private higher learning institutions in Selangor. Overall, the respondents reveal that they preferred to remain silence because they are not going to talk about sensitive issue and they need to preserve the dignity of higher management personnel before expressing any sensitive matter. Among the antecedents of silence behavior, the expected of negative impact and management practices have substantial influence. The findings of this study are consistent with the Face Negotiate Theory as the higher management personnel in fear receiving negative feedback from the middle level officers. Besides, fear of retaliation or being marginalized as well as being misunderstood as challenging the status of the higher management makes no one preferred to be as a whistle-blower to report the wrongdoing cases to the higher management. Some of them just ignored the incidence of wrongdoing happened to avoid the negative impact towards them.
A REVIEW OF CONSTRUCTIVE INTERFERENCE FLOODING IN WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

Constructive interference is a promising concurrent transmission technique for multiple senders concurrently transmitting the same packet in wireless sensor networks. It enables reliable and fast network flooding in order to decrease the scheduling overhead of MAC protocols, improve link quality of lossy links, achieve accurate time synchronization, and to realize efficient data collection. This paper discusses the concept of constructive interference, its importance, pre-conditions and open issues and challenges that should be considered by the researchers. This paper delivers the knowledge about constructive interference in WSN as a literature review, to get more knowledge about this emerging technique