Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Desiccation Cracking Behavior of Sustainable and Environmentally Friendly Reinforced Cohesive Soils

Desiccation cracking of cohesive soils is the development of cracks on the soil surface as a result of a reduction in water content. The formation of desiccation cracks on the cohesive soil surface has an undesirable impact on the mechanical, hydrological, and physicochemical soil properties. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to experimentally and numerically investigate eco-friendly soil improvement additives and their effect on the desiccation cracking behavior of soils. Improvement of soil crack resistance was experimentally studied by conducting desiccation cracking tests on kaolin clay. Biopolymer xanthan gum and recycled carpet fibers were studied as potential sustainable soil improvement additives. In addition, image processing was conducted to describe the effect of an additive on the geometrical characteristics of crack patterns. The results show that the soil improvement additives generally enhanced the soil strength and reduced cracking. Furthermore, a hydro-mechanical model was developed to predict the moisture transfer and onset of desiccation cracks in plain and amended kaolin clays. Data obtained show that the inception of the desiccation cracking and radial displacements were delayed in the improved soil specimens, which is in agreement with the experimental data.
Aprovechamiento tradicional de mamíferos silvestres en Pitzotlan, Morelos, México

Se analiza el conocimiento etnozoológico que conservan los habitantes de Pitzotlán, relativo a los mamíferos silvestres. Mediante técnicas etnozoológicas se registró el aprovechamiento de 6 órdenes, 11 familias y 20 especies, de las cuales el 55% de las especies tienen los siguientes valores de uso: alimentario (100%), medicinal (45%), animales de compañía (18%), ornamental (18%), amuleto (18%) y en la fabricación de herramientas (9%). Su explotación se lleva a cabo mediante la cacería de subsistencia, en este caso se utilizan armas de fuego (100%), perros (36%) y resorteras (18%). El venado cola blanca y el tejón fueron las especies más utilizadas, registrando un Índice de importancia cultural de 1. Debido a diferentes acciones de mejoramiento del hábitat y a la implementación de normas para el manejo de la fauna, los habitantes han registrado un incremento en las poblaciones de venado cola blanca, tejón y jabalí. Se discute la importancia de los mamíferos como recurso alimentario y medicinal, así como rescatar y valorar el conocimiento tradicional con la participación de la población para generar estrategias de conservación y formas de aprovechamiento racional de estos mamíferos, en beneficio de la comunidad.
Quantifying NH3 and CH4 emissions from a dairy housing using backward Lagrangian stochastic modelling

Inverse dispersion modelling (IDM) using a backward Lagrangian stochastic (bLS) dispersion model has been successfully applied to quantify emissions from confined ground sources e.g. as for ammonia (NH 3 ) loss after manure spreading. The most widely used bLS model for emission measurements of NH 3 and methane (CH 4 ) from agricultural sources such as lagoons and livestock buildings is based on Flesch et al. (2004). For such applications, the model assumptions of a diffusive ground source within a homogeneous turbulence field, which implies absence of obstacles as e.g. buildings disturbing the flow, is clearly not fulfilled. It remains unclear to what extend these violations introduce bias into the emission estimates. Further, the model by Flesch et al. does not include deposition removal, which for NH 3 , can induce an underestimation of the emission from the source (Häni et al., 2018). Häni et al. extended the standard bLS calculation model with an optional dry deposition mechanism.
Micro mechanism of seismoelectric effect in the pore

A lot of researches have been done on the acoustoelectric conversion in the pore, but most of them treat the electromagnetic field as a quasi-static field, the streaming current and the conduction current are considered equal and opposite(i.e., current balance conditions), and the electromagnetic field in the pore can be further obtained. However, the conditions are only applicable to the steady situation, and it’s inconsistent with the objective facts in the time-varying case. In this paper, a new method was proposed, which decoupled the acoustic field from the electromagnetic field, calculated the seepage velocity in the slit-like pore, and then obtained the streaming current, considering the refraction and reflection by the pore wall, the electromagnetic field was directly solved without using the current balance condition. The conduction current in the pore was calculated, and it’s proved that the conduction current is not equal to the streaming current, and the current balance condition does not hold in time-varying case. The magnitude of electric force and viscous force were compared, which verifies the rationality of ignoring the influence of electric force on the acoustic field in the acoustoelectric effect. The variation of the amplitude and phase of the electric field with the position in the pore was investigated, and it’s proved that the generated electric field is uniformly distributed in the pore. The influence of salinity, viscosity on the seismoelectric effect in the pore was investigated, which plays an important guiding role for the study of the seismoelectric logging.
Morph-Anatomical Studies and Antibacterial Activities of the Rhizome of Zingiber officinale Roscoe

In this study, morphanatomical study and antibacterial activity of the rhizome of Zingiber officinale (Zingiberaceae) were investigated to assist as a relevant source of information and contribute towards the standards to dispose the quality and identity of this plant to avoid adulterations. The transverse section of the rhizome includes different types of tissues which are epidermis, cork, cortex and vascular bundles. The cortex is formed of parenchyma cells, which often contain starch and oils in large amounts. In vitro antibacterial activity was investigated by cork porous method. The most sensitive bacteria for all concentrations of the methanolic and only 50 mg/ml for the water extract was Staphylococcus aureus. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was found to be sensitive for both extracts used. Bacillus subtilis wassensitive for the methanolic extract only. Escherichia coli was found to be not sensitive except for 100 mg/ml concentration of the methanolic extract.
Sustainable Development of Employability and Skill Development in Outcome-based Education: A Machine Learning Approach

The contribution of technological enhancement has played a vital role in strengthening the country’s economy. The Higher Education lnstitutions (HEI) are providing placement assistance to the students by employing various measures as a part of their curriculum. A few of the attempts that HEIs have adopted to enhance soft skills as well as hard skills of the students are, course structure modification, student-mentoring, industry-academia collaboration etc. In spite of all the noble efforts, many unemployed engineers are witnessed in the society. Therefore, this research aims to develop an effective and accurate framework that would be highly beneficial for both students as well as teachers in HEIs. A Semi-Supervised-Sequence-Prediction (SSSP) machine learning framework has been designed to predict students’ academic achievement towards the completion of a four-year degree course in an outcome-based education system. A time series analysis of students’ data has been conducted to analyze the progression of final cumulative GPA and employability prospect in sequential manner. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed framework in predicting employability of students along with the areas where students need improvement in order to be employable. This research provides an inclusive roadmap, empowering the use of machine learning for employability and skill development in outcome-based education.
Detection and Prevalence of Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia spp. from Wild Rodents Adjacent to Produce Production Fields in California

Author(s): Li, Xunde; Atwill, Edward R. ; Vivas, Eduardo; Vodovoz, Tamara; Xiao, Chengling; Jay-Russell, Michele | Abstract: Between 2009 and 2011, fecal samples were collected from ten species of wild rodents in locations adjacent to leafy green blocks in a major produce production region of California. Samples were screened for Cryptosporidium spp. oocysts and Giardia spp. cysts using immunofluorescent microscopy. Five and seven species of wild rodents carried Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia spp. , respectively. In general, 26.0% and 24.2% of the trapped wild rodents were positive for Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia spp. , respectively. Deer mice (Peromyscus manicultus) were the primary trapped species, with 30.3% (63/208) positive for Cryptosporidium spp. and 25.5% (53/208) positive for Giardia spp.
Online Preprocessing of Gesture Signs Using Background Substructure and Edge Detection Algorithms

- It is very important to communicate with the mute and deaf people, and listen to what they need. The gesture sign is one of the first methods of communication between the mutes and deaf on one hand, and other people on the other hand. This way has rules and basics that should be respected and be familiar with, at the same time; most people cannot translate sign language. For this reason, this research proposes a model to translate sign language by preprocessing sign images in order to get an accurate classification. In this paper, background subtraction and edge detection are used together to present images with high edge details for the gesture sign, which is the region of interest, this work is done using OpenCV in python3. The results show that using background subtraction and edge detection algorithms produced better quality images for the translation model with testing accuracy is 85.71%.
From InSAR derived relative tropospheric Slant Total Delay maps to absolute Zenith Total Delay maps: comparisons between tropospheric delay products to define a strategy for meteorological applications.

<p>InSAR derived Atmospheric Phase Screens (APSs) contain the difference between the atmospheric delay along the SAR sensor line-of-sight of two acquisition epochs: the slave and the master epochs. Using estimates of the atmospheric state at the master epoch, coming from independent sources, the APSs can be transformed into maps of tropospheric Zenith Total Delay (ZTD), that is related to the columnar atmospheric water vapor content. Assimilation experiments of such products into numerical weather prediction (NWP) models have shown a positive impact in the prediction of convective storms. </p><p>In this work, a systematical comparison between various APS and ZTD products aims at determining the optimal procedure to go from APSs to InSAR-derived absolute ZTD maps, i.e. to estimate the master delay map. Two different approaches are compared. </p><p>The first is based on a stack of ZTD maps produced with the assimilation of GNSS ZTD observations into an NWP model. This acts as a physically based interpolator of the GNSS values, which have a spatial resolution much coarser than the InSAR APS one. </p><p>The second is based on a stack of ZTD maps derived by an Iterative Tropospheric Decomposition (ITD) model, as implemented in the GACOS service. In this case, the high-resolution ZTD maps are obtained by an iterative interpolation of a global atmospheric circulation model values and GNSS values where available. </p><p>The results of the comparisons and sensitivity tests on the number of ZTD maps needed to derive the unknown master delay map are shown. </p><p>&#160;</p><p>&#160;</p><p>&#160;</p><p><strong>&#160;</strong></p><p><strong>&#160;</strong></p>
DETERMINATION OF FLAVONOIDS IN CITRUS FIBER AND THE IMPACT OF PROCESSING METHOD ON TOTAL PHENOLIC CONTENT, TOTAL FLAVONOID CONTENT, TOTAL CAROTENOID CONTENT AND OXYGEN RADICAL ABSORBANCE CAPACITY

Bu calismanin amaci turuncgil kabugundan elde edilen liflerin ters fazli yuksek basincli sivi kromatografisi yontemi ile flavonoidlerinin belirlenmesidir. Ayrica, bu calismada turuncgil kabuklarindan lif hazirlanirken kullanilan normal veya sicak yikama islemlerinin toplam fenol miktari, toplam flavonoid miktari, toplam karotenoid miktari ve oksijen radikal sogurma kapasitesi degerine etkisi arastirilmaktadir. Kullanilan HPLC metodu coklu metoksiflavon ve flavanollerin ayrilmasini saglayan ve hizli sonuc veren bir yontemdir. Kuersetin, kemferol, sinensetin, nobiletin, heptamethoksiflavon ve tangeretin belirlenmistir. Nobiletin 3.33 mg/g kuru agirlik ile en yuksek miktarda bulunan flavonoiddir. Sinensetin 1.96 mg/g kuru agirlik ile, heptametoksiflavon ise 1.24 mg/g kuru agirlik ile takip etmektedir. Sicak yikama veya normal yikamanin toplam flavonoid icerigi ve toplam karotenoid icerigine etkisi gorulmemistir ( P >0.05). Ancak, toplam fenolik madde ve oksijen radikal sogurma kapasitesi degeri sicak yikama yapilan liflerde daha dusuk bulunmustur ( P < 0.05).
A study on the flash-light sintering characteristics with respect to the pattern width and interval of the inkjet-printed copper nano ink on the paper substrate

In this study, the flash-light sintering characteristics with respect to the width and interval of inkjet-printed copper nanoparticles (CPNs) patterns on paper substrates were investigated. By experiments and simulations, it was confirmed that the wider the width and the narrower the interval between patterns, flash-light sintering characteristics were improved by higher heat generation. In addition, it was confirmed that the electrode was uniformly sintered and adhesion to the substrate was enhanced through auxiliary heating of 80 °C.
Extracting human data from published figures: implications for data science and bioethics

The advent of text mining and natural text reading artificial intelligence has opened new research opportunities on the large collections of research publications available through journal and other resources. These systems have begun to identify novel connections or hypotheses due to an ability to read and extract information from more literature than a single individual could in their lifetime. Most research publications contain figures where data is represented in a graph. Modern publication guidelines are strongly encouraging publication of graphs where all data is displayed as apposed to summary figures such as bar charts. Figures are often encoded in a graphing language that is interpreted and displayed as a graphics. Conversion figures in publications to the underlying code should enable text-based mining to extract the underlying raw data of the graph. Here I show that data from publications greater than 15 years old that contain time series data on human patients is extractable from the original publication and can be reassessed using modern tools. This could benefit cases where data sets are not available due to file loss or corruption. This may also create and issue for the publication of human data as sharing of human data often requires research ethics approval. Author summary Figures embedded in published research manuscripts are a minable resource similar to text mining. Figures are text based code that draws the image, as such the underlying text of the code can be used to reassemble the original data set.
Survival of Translocated Clubshell and Northern Riffleshell in Illinois

ABSTRACT Translocation of freshwater mussels is a conservation tool used to reintroduce extirpated populations or augment small populations. Few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of translocations, mainly because estimating survival is challenging and time-consuming. We used a mark-recapture approach to estimate survival of nearly 4,000 individually marked Clubshell (Pleurobema clava) and Northern Riffleshell (Epioblasma rangiana) translocated to eight sites over a five-year period into the Salt Fork and Middle Fork Vermilion rivers in central Illinois. Survival differed among sites and between species; Clubshell were approximately five times more likely to survive than Northern Riffleshell. Survival also increased in the fourth year following a release and decreased following high-flow events. Translocating numerous individuals into multiple sites over a period of years could spread the risk of catastrophic high-flow events and maximize the likelihood for establishing self-sustaining populations.
Atmospheric and spectral corrections for estimating surface albedo from satellite data

Land surface broadband albedo is one of the most important physical parameters for climate models, because it governs the exchange of radiation between the land surface and the atmosphere. It depends on the atmospheric conditions through downward fluxes. Satellite remote sensing techniques provide a more accurate pixel-level estimation of surface albedo than traditional field measurements. However, atmospheric effects and band pass limits of satellite sensors are two factors that limit accurate estimation of surface albedo from satellite data. This paper develops a method for making atmospheric and spectral corrections for estimating surface albedo from satellite data. We applied an approach that decouples surface reflectance spectra from radiative transfer simulations so that many different surface reflectance spectra and the atmospheric conditions can be effectively incorporated for calculating the total shortwave albedo, total-, direct-, and diffuse-visible, and near-infrared broadband albedos for several satellite data LANDSAT TM and ETM.
Hopf Galois Extensions and Non-commutative Rings

In this document we review the notion of Hopf Galois extensions, addressing remarkable examples, some properties and recent advances in such theory. Similarly, we present some families of non-commutative rings and algebras which arise in several applications and contexts. With particular examples, and using recent results on Hopf Galois theory, we study some interactions between such extensions and the mentioned families.
Branched photoswitchable tethered ligands enable ultra-efficient optical control and detection of class C G protein-coupled receptors

The limitations of classical, soluble drugs in terms of subtype-specificity, spatiotemporal precision, and genetic targeting have spurred the development of advanced pharmacological techniques, including the use of covalently-tethered photoswitchable ligands. However, a major shortcoming of tethered photopharmacology is the inability to obtain optical control with a comparable efficacy to the native ligand. To overcome the limitations of photoisomerization efficiency and tethered ligand affinity, we have developed a family of branched photoswitchable compounds to target G protein-coupled metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs). These compounds permit photo-agonism of Gi/o-coupled group II mGluRs with near-complete efficiency relative to saturating glutamate when attached to receptors via a range of orthogonal, multiplexable modalities including SNAP-, CLIP-, and Halo-tags, as well as via receptor-targeting nanobodies. Through a chimeric approach, branched ligands also allow efficient optical control of Gq-coupled mGluR5 with precise, dynamic subcellular targeting. Finally, branched ligands enabled the development of dual photoswitch-fluorophore compounds that allow simultaneous imaging and manipulation of receptors via the same attachment point. Together this work provides a new design framework for photoswitchable ligands and demonstrates a toolset suitable for quantitative, mechanistic study of neuromodulatory receptors at the molecular, cellular and circuit levels.
Maximizing foraging success: the roles of group size, predation risk, competition, and ontogeny

Grouping is an evolutionary strategy that allows individuals to optimize foraging success in habitats of varying quality and when under the risk of predation, but group foraging can lead to competition between group members. The effects of group size, habitat, predation, and competition on foraging success also can change as animals grow. Our study explored how these concurrent factors in ﬂ uenced the foraging success of group members at two different life stages. In a wild population of coho salmon ( Oncorhynchus kisutch ), we ﬁ rst tested four hypotheses concerning the effects of group size on foraging success. We then analyzed our ﬁ eld observations with structural equation modeling to test causal relationships between group size, habitat, predation risk, competition, and the foraging success of individuals during two periods of development. We found support for the hypothesis that the relationship between group size and foraging success was parabolic during both study periods, revealing an optimal range of group sizes that maximized individual foraging success, which was conserved as ﬁ sh aged. Predation risk had a positive effect on group size, particularly for older ﬁ sh, and distance to cover and water depth were indicators of risk for both age groups. As group size increased, so did competition, but only for young ﬁ sh; competition only had a weak positive effect on foraging success for older ﬁ sh. Our results reveal that the relative direct effects of predation risk and competition on foraging success were weak compared with the direct effect of group size. Our study provides new insights and theoretical implications for understanding how selective forces — that is, group size, predation risk, competition, habitat, and ontogeny — act concurrently to affect foraging success in wild populations.