Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence for extreme variations in the permeability of laterite from a detailed analysis of well behaviour in Nigeria

Laterite soils are widespread in tropical Africa and have a large impact on the hydrology of the areas they cover. The permeability of laterite helps determine the partitioning of runoff and interflow and regulates groundwater recharge to underlying bedrock. Groundwater within laterite also forms a widespread source of drinking water, typically from unimproved hang‐dug‐wells. Despite its importance, there is little published information on laterite aquifer properties. In this study, data from a 6 m deep well in Nigeria have been analysed to characterise the hydraulic conductivity of the laterite from repeated pumping tests. Transmissivity measurements from 40 tests spread out across a hydrological year varied from 0.1 to 1000 m2/d. Further interpretation of the data demonstrate a strong non‐linear decrease in horizontal hydraulic conductivity with depth, characterised by an upper horizon of extreme permeability (400 m/d), and a much lower permeability profile beneath (<0.1 m/d). These data are substantiated with observations from other wells throughout the area. This non‐linear permeability structure has several implications: the upper laterite can facilitate rapid lateral throughflow in the wet season, enabling contaminants to be transported significant distances (up to 1 km); natural groundwater levels are restricted to a narrow range for much of the year; and, in the dry season, the lower permeability of the deeper laterite restricts the amount of water which can be abstracted from shallow wells, leading to well failure. The work highlights the need for a wider study to better understand laterite soils and the role they play in regional hydrology. © 2013 Natural Environment Research Council. Hydrological Processes published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
A New BCI Classification Method based on EEG Sparse Representation

Motor imagery based Brain Computer Interface (BCI) systems provide a new communication and control channel between the human and an external device with only imagination of limbs movements. Because Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are very noisy and nonstationary, powerful classification methods are needed. We propose a new classification method based on sparse representation of EEG signals and ell-1 minimization. This method requires a well constructed dictionary. We show very high classification accuracy can be obtained by using our method. Moreover, our method shows improved accuracy over a well known LDA classification method.
Robustness Improvement of Predictive Current Control for Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Motors

A predictive current control with parameter robustness (PR-PCC) method of permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) is proposed in this article. First, a cost function is designed to calculate the increment of the optimal voltage vector at the current instant, which is based on incremental PMSM model. The incremental PMSM model is used to eliminate the influence of the motor flux parameter. Second, the optimal voltage vector that minimizes the cost function is obtained by combining the increment of the optimal voltage vector with the idea of iteration. At the same time, a current observer based on the incremental model is designed to compensate one-step sampling delay. In this way, the feedback current of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$dq$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-axis accurately followed the reference current. In comparison with the conventional pulse width modulation predictive current control (PWM-PCC) method, the proposed method can significantly reduce the steady-state error of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$dq$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-axis current caused by inductance, flux, and resistance parameters mismatch quickly. Finally, experimental results of the proposed method and the conventional PWM-PCC are presented in this article to verify the validity of the proposed method.
Hospitalization trends and determinants of inpatient costs for eosinophilic esophagitis patients in the United States: results from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample analysis

Background Inpatient care for patients with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is thought to be uncommon, there are few data on inpatient care costs for individuals with EoE. The purpose of this study was to assess trends in inpatient admissions for EoE and examine factors that drive hospitalization costs. Methods We examined EoE hospitalizations using ICD-9/10 codes, from 2010-2016 in the National Inpatient Sample. We also identified the diagnosis-related group codes, current procedural terminology codes, and common symptom codes documented during admission. We conducted 2 main analyses, primary (all EoE-related hospitalizations) and secondary (hospitalization with a primary diagnosis for EoE), and a sensitivity analysis using only hospitalizations with the secondary diagnosis for EoE, to determine the trend and cost of EoE-related hospitalizations. We used univariate and multivariate models to evaluate the effect of factors that drive hospitalization on total costs. Results Our primary analysis showed that an estimated total of 33,467 EoE-related hospitalizations occurred in the US between 2010 and 2016, representing approximately 13 per 100,000 hospitalizations in the US. The admission rate increased by approximately 70% from 2010-2016 (9.26 to 15.75 per 100,000 hospitalizations), while the total annual and mean inflation-adjusted per-patient costs for EoE-related admissions were $24 million per year and $5135 (standard deviation $153), respectively. Patients and hospital characteristics were independently associated with cost of hospitalization. Conclusion The rate of hospital admission for EoE has markedly increased in the US, as has the mean cost for EoE-related hospitalization, at a rate tenfold that of inflation from 2010-2016.
TESTING MARKET INTEGRATION OF LEADING CROPS IN BANGLADESH

This is a study of functioning of selected commodity markets in terms of price relationship to each other. Spatial price integration has been assessed for crops viz. Aman (HYV), Boro (HYV), wheat, mustard and lentil in selected districts firstly, by one to one correlation matrix and secondly by the Augmented Dickey-Fuller co-integration test. District-wise market prices of the crops were collected from the Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM) for the period of 1986-2005. Aman HYV markets were well integrated but the Boro HYV markets were not well integrated. Wheat markets were not all (48 percent) interdependent in price formations but peak prices season flour markets became largely integrated. Out of 21 paired markets, only 7 paired markets were integrated for unprocessed lentil and 10 paired markets were integrated after processing. Seventeen market pairs are significantly correlated during harvest season of mustard (whole). And all the correlation coefficients appeared significant for mustard oil. Markets were more inter-linked during the period of scarcity and more integrated for processed primary products. Level of market integration has improved than any time before the study period. Integrated markets in general imply policy formulation at macro level will be effective throughout all trading markets. But extent of market integration of the same commodity during harvest time and pre-harvest season and segmented any particular region has to be taken into consideration for fine tuning of agricultural policies attaining more success.
Personality and learning preferences of students in design and design-related disciplines

This paper explores the thinking and learning styles of art-based design students, and reports a personality survey of typical design students at two UK universities. Where teaching and learning styles do not match, there may be cognitive dissonance leading to poor knowledge transfer. Students state that they have such problems with their studies. Designers' strategies for problem-solving are different to many other professionals, and an intuitive way of working is preferred strongly. It is demonstrated that designers also have related styles of learning, and suitable treatments are proposed to match teaching and learning. Though designers' learning seems to be well matched to the teaching mostly employed in UK design schools, concern is expressed about current economic and other pressures which threaten its continuance.
An Assessment of Aflatoxin Contamination in Tiger Nut using HPLC and Aflatoxin Reduction with Citrus Juices

Aflatoxins are metabolites that have been implicated to be directly responsible for several diseases. This present study assesses the aflatoxin contamination of tiger nut (Cyperus esculentus) collected randomly from the markets in the capital cities of Kano (Ka), Kaduna (Kd) and Gombe (Gm) States in Nigeria between December 2012 and March 2013. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to determine the concentrations of aflatoxins (B1, B2, G1 and G2) in the samples (n = 90). The results indicated that all the tiger nut samples collected were contaminated. The concentration of the four aflatoxins in the samples collected from the three locations was in the order: AFB1 > AFB2 > AFG1> AFG2. The highest concentrations for the individual aflatoxins in the tiger nut samples were AFB1 (21.100 ± 0.100 μg/kg), AFB2 (0.910 ± 0.000 μg/kg), AFG1 (1.510 ± 0.150 μg/kg) and AFG2 (0.905 ± 0.000 μg/kg) for Ka; AFB1 (21.050 ± 0.050 μg/kg), AFB2 (2.105 ± 0.000 μg/kg), AFG1 (3.115 ± 0.000 μg/kg) and AFG2 (0.105 ± 0.000 μg/kg) for Kd; and AFB1 (11.110 ± 0.010 μg/kg), AFB2 (1.300 ± 0.010 μg/kg), AFG1 (1.685 ± 0.000 μg/kg) and AFG2 (0.600 ± 0.000) μg/kg for Gm. The result shows that 90% of the tiger nut was above the 10 μg/kg limit, while about 17% was beyond the alarm limit of 20 μg/kg aflatoxins set by United State Food Safety Regulations and the Codex Alimentarius. The treatment of the samples with varied concentration of orange extract showed significant reduction in the concentration of aflatoxin. Aflatoxin B1 in the tiger nut samples was reduced by 75% and 67% respectively when treated with 50% and 100% (v/v) orange juice extract; the orange juice (100% (v/v)) also reduced aflatoxin G2 by 75%. Rinsing with water serve better in the remediation of aflatoxins B2 and G1 than does the orange juice extract. The study infers that consumption of the nut with citrus juice or rinsing the nut with highly diluted citrus juice would significantly reduce aflatoxin contamination in tiger nut, since the nut is normally consumed raw.
Khan Discontinuous Galerkin Method for 1 D Shallow Water Flow with Water Surface Slope Limiter

A water surface slope limiting scheme is tested and compared with the water depth slope limiter for the solution of one dimensional shallow water equations with bottom slope source term. Numerical schemes based on the total variation diminishing RungeKutta discontinuous Galerkin finite element method with slope limiter schemes based on water surface slope and water depth are used to solve one-dimensional shallow water equations. For each slope limiter, three different Riemann solvers based on HLL, LF, and Roe flux functions are used. The proposed water surface based slope limiter scheme is easy to implement and shows better conservation property compared to the slope limiter based on water depth. Of the three flux functions, the Roe approximation provides the best results while the LF function proves to be least suitable when used with either slope limiter scheme. Keywords—Discontinuous finite element, TVD Runge-Kutta scheme, slope limiters, Riemann solvers, shallow water flow.
A Study on the Effect of Satisfaction with R&D Projects on R&D Performance Satisfaction -For SMEs in Jeollanamdo-

The purpose of this study is to check whether the satisfaction of the R&D (Research & Development) project directly affects the R&D performance, and to find out whether the satisfaction with regional connectivity and the satisfaction with the R&D operation management significantly mediate the relationship that the satisfaction with the R&D project has on the R&D performance. In order to verify the research hypothesis on this, a total of 51 companies located in Jeollanam-do that actually conducted R&D research projects were surveyed and analyzed. In order to conduct an empirical study based on the collected questionnaire, a survey questionnaire related to the variables of the study model was composed based on a sample of 51 questionnaires. We used the SPSS program to verify the hypotheses in this study, and the hypotheses were verified by analyzing the validity, reliability, correlation, and deflection. As a result, there was a positive (+) significant relationship between R&D project satisfaction and R&D performance. In addition, it was found that the relationship between R&D project satisfaction and R&D performance was significantly mediated by the satisfaction with R&D regional connectivity and satisfaction with R&D project operation m anagement .
Deep and wide gaps by super Earths in low-viscosity discs

Planets can open cavities (gaps) in the protoplanetary gaseous discs in which they are born by exerting gravitational torques. Viscosity counters these torques and limits the depletion of the gaps. We present a simple one-dimensional scheme to calculate the gas density profile inside gaps by balancing the gravitational and viscous torques. By generalizing the results of Goodman & Rafikov (2001), our scheme properly accounts for the propagation of angular momentum by density waves. This method allows us to easily study low-viscosity discs, which are challenging for full hydrodynamical simulations. We complement our numerical integration by analytical equations for the gap's steady-state depth and width as a function of the planet's to star's mass ratio $\mu$, the gas disc's aspect ratio $h$, and its Shakura & Sunyaev viscosity parameter $\alpha$. Specifically, we focus on low-mass planets ($\mu<\mu_{\rm th}\equiv h^3$) and identify a new low-viscosity regime, $\alpha<h(\mu/\mu_{\rm th})^5$, in which the classical analytical scaling relations are invalid. Equivalently, this low-viscosity regime applies to every gap that is depleted by more than a factor of $(\mu_{\rm th}/\mu)^3$ relative to the unperturbed density. We show that such gaps are significantly deeper and wider than previously thought, and consequently take a longer time to reach equilibrium.
Design, simulation and testing of an array of nano electro mechanical switches (NEMS)

Electro mechanical switches used for multi-purposs applications with ultra small size in nano meter scale, operating in very small voltage in millivolts, approximately zero leakage current due to air gap separation between electrodes with three terminals that easy to control it. Nano electro mechanical switches are electronic switches similar to those used by conventional semiconductor switches in application as they can be used as relays, logic devices. The basic principle of nano electro mechanical switches is electronic switches operation is fundamentally different from semiconductor switches. They have many advantages over conventional semiconductor switches such as low-power digital logic applications, ability to work with very small voltage signals for low dynamic energy consumption, and durability against hostile environments such as high temperatures and radiation contaminated spaces. In this article, we will design, implement, and test a matrix of nano electro mechanical switches by on line test using the superposition theory. The simulations of these switches were implemented using the MATLAB-Simulink and ORCAD Pspice environments. Also, controlling the flow of current was achieved by means of a nanometer movement to make or break the physical contact between the electrodes.
Energy-Efficient Service Migration for Multi-User Heterogeneous Dense Cellular Networks

Mobile edge computing (MEC) is a key enabler for ultra-low latency in heterogeneous dense cellular networks in the 5G era and beyond, by deploying services at the network edge. Due to high user mobility, the services are usually migrated to follow the users by predicting the user trajectory to achieve a balance between energy consumption and service latency. However, service migration for multi-user heterogeneous dense cellular networks is challenging because (1) the user trajectory prediction, which is crucial for service migration, becomes intractable with a large number of users, and (2) making service migration decisions for each user independently is subjected to interference among the users. Therefore, in this study, we formulated the service migration of all the users in MEC-enabled heterogeneous dense cellular networks as an optimization problem, with the objective of minimizing the average energy consumption while satisfying the service latency requirements, taking into account the interference among different users. Next, we developed an efficient energy-efficient online algorithm based on the Lyapunov and particle swarm optimizations, called EGO, to resolve the original problem without predicting the trajectories of the users. Finally, a series of simulations based on real-world mobility traces of vehicles in Bologna were conducted to establish the superiority of the EGO algorithm over state-of-the-art solutions.
Function Signatures Primitive Templates Construct Templates Synthetic Sentence Generation Data Augmentation & Parameter Replacement Neural Network Model Semantic Parser Parameter Value Datasets Crowdsourced

This paper presents Genie, a toolkit that helps developers expand the natural language capability of virtual assistants. We propose formalizing the capability of virtual assistants with a Virtual Assistant Programming Language (VAPL), whose design is informed by principles thatmake it amenable to natural language translation. We also propose a Natural Language Template Language so developers can easily describe how programs in a VAPL can be expressed in natural language. Given a VAPL language definition and curated natural language templates, Genie generates a semantic parser that translates natural language to code for the new language. The parser is a deep neural network trained on synthetically generated sentences and their crowdsourced paraphrases. By adopting good VAPL design principles and applying Genie, we created TT+, a superset of ThingTalk, a language used by the open-source Almond virtual assistant. Genie delivers a parser for TT+ that obtains an 87% accuracy on the paraphrased data set, a 22% increase over state-of-the-art models. In addition, we demonstrated easy extensibility with a music skill, aggregate functions, and access control; all three have program accuracy over 85%.
Time for care: exploring time use by carers of older people

Abstract The paper focuses on temporal aspects of informal caring for older people. Limitations of large-scale surveys in capturing such data are noted and time-use methodology, despite its own limitations, is proposed as a promising alternative. Adopting a critical perspective on time that includes carers’ own conceptualisations, we report the findings of a qualitative study of carers’ time use. Sixty-two interviews with carers, male/female, co-resident/not co-resident, employed/not employed, and located across Great Britain were conducted. Analysis considered people's own diverse and ambiguous views of their care activities. Carers’ accounts of their time revealed non-linear experiences and a sense of being permanently on call. Interviewees often travelled distances to engage in support activities with or for older people. Changes over time were pervasive, increasing or reducing care requirements. Unanticipated events could precipitate radical changes in time use. Managing time, exercising temporal agency, was particularly apparent in accounts of care, employment, other family responsibilities and choices about friendship. Measurement of carers’ time use which draws on the conceptual foundation of carers’ own perspectives on time may provide more effective quantitative understanding of the temporal aspects of caring. It should not pre-define time, must grasp a variety of tasks, take account of intermittent activity, incorporate the 24–7 experience of many carers and demonstrate how caring time interacts with other time.
The Use of Spectroscopic Techniques in the Characterization of Mycobacterial Metabolites

The mycobacterial cell wall metabolites have always imposed great challenges to researchers due to their unusual complexity and structural diversity. A lot of research efforts have been directed towards the evaluation of these metabolites and the role they play in the pathogenesis and virulence of different serious human pathogens including Mycobacterium tuberculosis the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB). In the genomic era, it is crucial to develop new methodologies to analyze these components from a global perspective in a comprehensive and well-validated manner. Towards this end, we developed a rapid NMR-based approach to produce metabolic profiles in the form of 2DH-C HSQC maps. Due to NMR low sensitivity, we used C-isotope enrichment strategy to improve the detection threshold of NMR. We developed and investigated the use of three NMR-based profiles. The first is for the cell wall associated lipids, the second is for covalently bound mycolic acids and the third deals with the complex cell wall polysaccharides. Key structural features and major lipid species were readily identifiable using this technique. This approach can be used for observing changes in the cell wall due to drug treatment, gene mutation and changes in the physiological environment, species characterization and screening for virulence factor expression. It also allows for rapid comparative analysis of several cell wall metabolites within the same sample. We have used this approach to evaluate the structural diversity displayed in the cell wall metabolites among different Mycobacteria from different clades. We have successfully used the same technique to monitor changes in the carbohydrate and lipid pools from Mycobacteria grown under laboratory conditions that simulate latency and resuscitation from latency. Moreover, we were also able to use such technique to screen for virulence factor in several M. tuberculosis clinical isolates. Although we have successfully developed and used an NMR approach for metabolite analysis, NMR however remains less sensitive than other spectroscopic techniques like mass spectrometry(MS). The high sensitivity of MS makes it one of the best candidates for metabolomic studies. However in case of cellular lipids, the low polarity and the variable ionization potential deter its routine use for lipid analysis. Certain metabolites that have low cellular abundance and good ionizability are better analyzed through an MS-based approach. Mycolactones of M. ulcerans and other closely related species are good examples for such metabolites and in this work we have demonstrated the utility of MS as a tool for screening for mycolactones from both bacterial culture and tissue samples. Metabolomics is currently a rapidly growing field and many researchers have directed their attention in developing the right research tools to explore it. Spectroscopic methods along with chromatographic methods have been in the front of this vigorous research effort. The work presented here represents an innovative attempt to utilize such