Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effects of Different Forage Types on Feed Values and Digestibilities in Some Brassica Fodder Crops

This study was conducted to explore the effects of different forage types (fresh, hay and silage) on the chemical composition, forage quality and in vitro truly digestibility (IVTD) of fodder turnip (Brassica rapa), fodder mustard (Brassica nigra) and canola (Brassica napus L.). Ankom Daisy incubator was used to determine the IVTD and forages were incubated for 48 hours. According to the findings of this study, canola silage and mustard silage have the highest ether extract (EE) content, while mustard silage has the highest crude protein (CP) content (P<0.001). It was found that, among the samples, turnip silage has the highest value in terms of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) content; mustard fresh, turnip fresh and canola hay have higher values in terms of lignin content while mustard silage has the lowest lignin content. The results of this study have led to the recognition of the use of fresh, hay and silage obtained from Brassica fodder crops as alternative forage sources. However, use of Brassica silages is recommended in ruminant nutrition.
Adapting to the Transitional Stage of the Doctoral Environment: An Autoethnography of Socialization

Aim/Purpose: Adapting to the doctoral environment can be a difficult transition. This article emphasizes the importance of academic socialization as a means of integrating into the doctoral culture and persisting during the initial transition to doctoral study. Background: To address the problem of doctoral attrition, I share a personal narrative of problems and persistence during the first year of doctoral coursework. By sharing my initial resistance to social learning and eventual appreciation of merging the social into the academic, this narrative demonstrates the positive impact of socialization on my first year, thus promoting socialization as a means of acclimating to the doctoral environment. Methodology: This project utilizes the qualitative research method of autoethnography to examine my personal experiences adapting to the doctoral environment and connects those experiences to the larger higher education community. Contribution: Since people often connect more with stories than with numbers, my narrative offers struggling doctoral students an opportunity to see possible aspects of themselves in the lived experiences of someone who persisted, to see that they are not alone with their struggles and understand that supplementing their independent studies with social experiences could be a good way for them to persist in their own doctoral studies. Findings: Although I preferred independent work and significantly underestimated the value of social experiences when entering my first year of doctoral study, peer-to-peer interaction quickly became an essential element in my adaptation to the doctoral environment. Recommendations for Practitioners: Results of this study suggest that even when new doctoral students typically prefer solitary work, they should still seek out social learning experiences as a means of acclimating to the doctoral environment. University faculty and staff should incorporate social learning activities into the first year of their programs to promote socialization of their first-year doctoral students and increase their chances of persistence. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers should use a variety of methods to examine the experiences of doctoral students and look at the data in new ways to better understand doctoral student needs and uncover new ideas to assist them. Impact on Society: By sharing storied experiences of struggles and success, I hope to inspire doctoral students to work with their peers and support one another as they try to persist. Future Research: More personal experiences of doctoral students are needed to give us a better understanding of the obstacles they encounter, so we can uncover additional strategies to combat those issues and improve persistence.
Advances in the conversion of glucose and cellulose to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural over heterogeneous catalysts

Efficient conversion of glucose and cellulose to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is one of the most successful and promising routes in the field of biomass transformation. In recent years, many kinds of catalysts have been developed for this important reaction, and much progress has been achieved. Compared with homogeneous catalysts, heterogeneous acidic catalysts have attracted much more interest for dehydration of glucose and cellulose to HMF due to their separable and reusable nature. This review focuses on efficient and selective conversion of glucose and cellulose to HMF catalyzed by heterogeneous catalysts in various solvent systems, including water, organic solvents, ionic liquids, mixed solvents, and biphasic systems. At the end of this review, an outlook is provided to highlight the challenges and opportunities related to this interesting and important route for HMF production from glucose and cellulose.
Dependence of Company Size on Factors Influencing Bankruptcy

Research background: There is extensive empirical literature on default prediction methodologies. Many authors during the last fifty years have examined several possibilities to predict default or business failure. The reviews from the last years show that the closer the similarity of businesses, the greater accuracy of bankruptcy models. Purpose of the article: The aim of this article is finding if there exist different factors that could predict bankruptcy depending on the size of the company. Our motivation is to show if there exist differences when predicting bankruptcy according the size of the company. Methods: This paper focuses on the Czech economy, specifically at small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). It is the ongoing research about the value of several popular bankruptcy models that are often applied, namely the Altman Z-score, the Ohlson O-score, the Zmijewski’s model, the Taffler’s model, and the IN05 model. We have used logistic regression and investigated around 2 800 companies, of which 642 failed during the period 2010 – 2017. Findings & Value added: Results of the analysis confirm research hypotheses that there exist different factors which could predict bankruptcy depending on the size of the company and exploit common used financial indicators to assess the probability of bankruptcy precisely. We have found that for the segment of micro-enterprises is necessary to pay attention to liquidity and profitability. Small enterprises emphasize to leverage, liquidity and profitability while the model developed for the segment of medium-sized enterprises measures most of all leverage, liquidity and activity.
Antiinflammatory Activity of Flower Tops of Gentiana Kurroo Royale Extract

Summary Gentiana Kurroo Royale (GK) flower tops (Gule-Ghafis) has been traditionally used for the treatment of inflammation, pain, fever, hepatitis in Unani System of Medicine. The plant was sold in Easter countries under the name Gul-Ghafis which is Gentiana daliurica Fisch. But sample obtained from the major cities of India were found and identified as flower tops of Gentiana Kurroo Royale. However this work was aimed at the scientific validation of ethanopharmacological claim about the anti-inflammatory property of Gentiana Kurroo Royal flower tops extract. Air-dried flower tops of GK were blended to a fine powder extracted with 50% ethanol. The phytochemical screening, quantitative estimation (%) TLC and anti-inflammatory screening were investigated. The study was carried out on Wister rats of either sex. Animals were divided into three groups of six each. Rat paw edema induced by Carrageenan 0.1 ml of 1% carrageenan in 0.9% NaCl was administered into planter surface of right hind paw. The experimental groups-I was fed with extract in the dose of 1000 mg/ kg body weight, the animal in group-II served as control group and administered with 20 ml/ kg distilled water while standard drug Diclofenac sodium was given to group-III in the dose of 5 mg/ kg orally an hour prior to administration of carrageenan. After injection animals were observed and readings were obtained for each rat at 60, 120, 180, 240 and 300 minutes with the aid of Plethysmometer. The percentage of inhibition for each rats were calculated by the formula of New Bould (1963). The phytochemical screening were revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, glycosides, free phenols, sterols/ terpens. Percentage estimated as alkaloid 0.33 ± 0.02, phenols 2.9 ± 0.07, sterols/ terpens 1.35 ± 0.01, flavonoid 0.34 ± 0.24 were found.
Hierarchically porous carbons derived from polyaniline by “nanotube seeding” for high-performance ionic liquid-based supercapacitors

We demonstrate the outstanding combination of ultrahigh energy density (199.11 W h kg−1) and capacity retention (90.5%, 10000 cycles) of ionic liquid electrolyte supercapacitors based on novel hierarchically porous carbons derived from polyaniline nanorods by “carbon nanotube seeding”.
Evaluating Kubernetes at the Edge for Fault Tolerant Multi-Camera Computer Vision Applications

The rise of AI-powered computer vision algorithms offers the possibility of visual sensing of the environment in IoT applications through the widespread use of low-cost video cameras. The need for low latency, bandwidth limitations, and privacy concerns associated with video data motivates the use of edge computing for computer vision applications. However, unlike cloud computing with almost unbounded resources, the edge is characterized by compute nodes of limited capacity and power budget. Additionally, fault tolerance is limited due to replication costs at the edge.In this poster, we present our initial work on evaluating the performance of an edge-specific version of Kubernetes on a Raspberry Pi4 cluster for multi-camera computer vision applications. Kubernetes enables automated deployment and management of containerized distributed applications to run at scale across a cluster of compute and storage nodes, while handling node failures. However, existing literature has not characterized the resource consumption and latency impact of Kubernetes for computer vision applications on realistic edge clusters. Our experimental results indicate that while Kubernetes can deliver fault tolerance at the edge, the choices made in the design of containers pods significantly affects the observed tail latency on a low power edge cluster.
Bipartite Consensus and Distributed Boundary Control for Multiple Flexible Manipulators Associated With Signed Digraph

This article investigates the networked multiple one-link flexible manipulators system communicating through a signed digraph, in which the dynamic of each submanipulator is described by the PDE-ODE hybrid model. A distributed boundary control protocol is proposed to realize bipartite consensus of joint angles and vibration suppression. To overcome the flexible dynamics, novel variables are introduced in the protocol to suppress the vibrations. The single zero eigenvalue brought by the Laplacian matrix is ignored for avoiding singularity, and the exponential stability of the reduced-order system is strictly proven by means of semigroup theory. Based on the estimations of integral terms in the novel variables, the necessary and sufficient conditions are finally obtained. Numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed protocol.
Pulsed field gradient proton NMR study of the self-diffusion of H2O in montmorillonite gel: Effects of temperature and water fraction

Abstract Self-diffusion coefficients of water molecules (H2O) in Na-montmorillonite gel were measured as a function of water fraction (54.8 to 100 wt%) and temperature (30.4 to 60.0 °C) using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Spin-echo pulse sequences with magnetic field gradient pulses for the diffusion measurement were applied to the montmorillonite gel at the Larmor frequency of 20 MHz. The self-diffusion coefficient, D, of H2O in the clay gel is expressed phenomenologically by ln(D/D0) = 1.77{exp[0.0798(w − 100)] − 1}, where D0 is the water diffusivity in bulk water and w is the water fraction of the gel (wt%). The data for w > 84.7 wt% can be explained by a theoretical diffusion model for the randomly distributed clay grains. The activation energy of the water diffusivity in the montmorillonite gel was nearly equal to that in bulk water, so the normalized diffusivity, D/D0, obeys the temperature-independent master curve. The transition from the free diffusion to the restricted diffusion was not observed for gradient pulse intervals ranging from 5 to 120 ms. This indicates that the average pore size of the gel is much smaller than a few tens of micrometers, so the random walk trajectory of water molecules in the gel is geometrically restricted by the packing of clay mineral grains. Water diffusivity higher than that of the present NMR study was found by computer simulations and neutron scattering experiments in which effects of bound water were considered but those of the tortuosity of the grain packing were neglected. Thus, the predominant factor controlling the diffusivity in the NMR experiments is not the bound water near the clay surface but the geometrical tortuosity of the packing of clay mineral grains.
Label-Free Colorimetric Nanosensor for the Selective On-Site Detection of Aqueous Al3+

Aluminum is a hazardous element, found abundantly in the environment. Although many methods have been reported for the efficient detection of aluminum, an easy and accessible sensor for fast detection of aqueous aluminum has not been devised to date. In this approach, we have synthesized indole-2-carboxylic acid capped silver nanoparticles (I2CA-AgNPs) using a one-pot method and used them as label-free nanosensors for the detection of Al3+ in the presence of interfering metal ions. I2CA-AgNPs were synthesized by two methods at different temperatures. AgNPs synthesized by the heating method were further used as detection probes as they showed a strong and narrow surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak in the visible region. The sensitivity of the detection probe has been optimized by variations in size and distribution of nanoparticles. Synthesized AgNPs were characterized by UV–vis spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), zeta potential, and .
Integration of Constructed Floodplain Ponds into Nature-Like Fish Passes Supports Fish Diversity in a Heavily Modified Water Body

Fish passes facilitate fish movement in fragmented river systems, yet they can also provide important habitat functions. This study investigated the fish community composition of different constructed habitat types (fluvial habitats, floodplain ponds) within fish passes in relation to habitat characteristics in order to deduce recommendations for fish-friendly designs of such structures. Fish community structures within passes differed significantly from those in the main river, comprising a high number of rheophilic species in fluvial habitats (Thymallus thymallus, Hucho hucho, Salmo trutta, Cottus gobio, Chondrostoma nasus, and Barbus barbus), and of stagnophilic species in floodplain ponds (Rhodeus amarus, Scardinius erythrophthalmus, Misgurnus bipartitus, and Tinca tinca). During summer, floodplain ponds also provided important juvenile habitats for the target species C. nasus and B. barbus. Differences between the two habitat types in fish abundance were mostly explained by differences in macrophyte coverage, gravel, boulders, temperature, and current speed. The findings of this study stress the important habitat functions of fish passes. They also suggest that integration of diverse habitat structures, especially of currently hardly considered constructed floodplain ponds into fish passes, can greatly enhance their fish communities and contribute to the restoration of several declining target species of conservation.
Profit-Based Unit Commitment for a GENCO Equipped with Compressed Air Energy Storage and Concentrating Solar Power Units

With the advent of restructuring in the power industry, the conventional unit commitment problem in power systems, involving the minimization of operation costs in a traditional vertically integrated system structure, has been transformed to the profit-based unit commitment (PBUC) approach, whereby generation companies (GENCOs) perform scheduling of the available production units with the aim of profit maximization. Generally, a GENCO solves the PBUC problem for participation in the day-ahead market (DAM) through determining the commitment and scheduling of fossil-fuel-based units to maximize their own profit according to a set of forecasted price and load data. This study presents a methodology to achieve optimal offering curves for a price-taker GENCO owning compressed air energy storage (CAES) and concentrating solar power (CSP) units, in addition to conventional thermal power plants. Various technical and physical constraints regarding the generation units are considered in the provided model. The proposed framework is mathematically described as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem, which is solved by using commercial software packages. Meanwhile, several cases are analyzed to evaluate the impacts of CAES and CSP units on the optimal solution of the PBUC problem. The achieved results demonstrate that incorporating the CAES and CSP units into the self-scheduling problem faced by the GENCO would increase its profitability in the DAM to a great extent.
Disordered off-center direction of Ti4+ in pseudo-cubic type BaTiO3 prepared by mixed hydroxide process

Recently, perovskite-type BaTiO3 showing sharp X-ray diffraction peak comparable to that synthesized by a conventional solid-state reaction was obtained by mixing Ba(OH)2 and TiO2 hydrous gel and by leaving the mixture at 323K or less. However, the obtained BaTiO3 was cubic crystal system, which was different from that synthesized by a conventional solid-state reaction. In this study, the structural analysis of cubic-BaTiO3 obtained by this technique was conducted, and the factors to form cubic structure were investigated. Since no second harmonic generation signal was observed, the structure of BaTiO3 was essentially different from that of traditional tetragonal-BaTiO3. Rietveld analysis with the initial structure model of ideal cubic perovskite structure exhibited that Ti4+ had exceptionally large isotropic atomic displacement parameter. A reasonable isotropic atomic displacement parameter was obtained by considering the static site disorder in the initial structural model, that is, Ti4+ locates at off-center position in TiO6 octahedron by displacing in a disordered direction, resulting in pseudo-cubic symmetry. ©2021 The Ceramic Society of Japan. All rights reserved.
An Analog Control Strategy With Multiplier-Less Power Calculation Circuit for Flyback Microinverter

This letter proposed an analog control strategy for a flyback microinverter, which can calculate the output power by multiplier-less power calculation circuit, while the maximum power point tracking is realized by controlling the maximum duty cycle of the main switch. The proposed analog control method is quite simple with low cost. It is applied with a 100-W single-phase microinverter in a discontinuous conduction mode, and the simulation and experimental results demonstrate its feasibility.
Codes Over Trees

In graph theory, a tree is one of the more popular families of graphs with a wide range of applications in computer science as well as many other related fields. While there are several distance measures over the set of all trees, we consider here the one which defines the so-called tree distance, defined by the minimum number of edit operations, of removing and adding edges, in order to change one tree into another. From a coding theoretic perspective, codes over the tree distance are used for the correction of edge erasures and errors. However, studying this distance measure is important for many other applications that use trees and properties on their locality and the number of neighbor trees. Under this paradigm, the largest size of code over trees with a prescribed minimum tree distance is investigated. Upper bounds on these codes as well as code constructions are presented. A significant part of our study is dedicated to the problem of calculating the size of the ball of trees of a given radius. These balls are not regular and thus we show that while the star tree has asymptotically the smallest size of the ball, the maximum is achieved for the path tree.
Mechanisms of oxygen reduction reaction on B doped FeN4G and FeN4CNT catalysts for proton‐exchange membrane fuel cells

Density functional theory (DFT) was used to calculate the stability, oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) mechanism and activity of B‐doped FeN4CNT (carbon nano‐tube [CNT]) and FeN4G (G, graphene). The B‐doped catalysts are more stable and active than that of the un‐doped, especially for FeN4B2G and FeN4B2CNT. Based on the Mulliken charge and electrostatic potential surface of these catalysts, Fe atom is found to be the most active site for the adsorption of O‐contained species. It is shown that their adsorption energies decrease in the range: O > OH > Co‐ad OH > OOH > O2 > H2O > H2O2 on these catalysts. H2O2 will be directly dissociated into two co‐adsorbed OH* or O* + H2O* instead of H2O2 on the graphene series catalysts, and the process of reaction (H2O2 + * → 2OH*) on the active sites of the CNT series catalysts is strongly exothermic. Hence, desorption of H2O2* into the solution is difficult to proceed during the oxygen reduction process. All the catalysts are expected to promote a single site four electron process through the reaction path of I (O2 → O2* → OOH* → O* → OH* → H2O) except for the catalyst of FeN4CNT. The rate‐determining step (RDS) for ORR process on FeN4B2G is the first reduction step (O2* → OOH*), while the RDS is the fourth reduction step (OH* → H2O) for the other catalysts. FeN4B2G exhibits the largest on‐set potentials of 0.53 V, which is larger than the on‐set potential of un‐doped B FeN4G catalyst (0.39 V). In addition, the B‐doped FeN4CNT catalyst shows the better activity compared to the un‐doped ones.
Raman tweezers spectroscopy study of free radical induced oxidative stress leading to eryptosis

Raman tweezers spectroscopy study of effect of free radicals was carried out on erythrocytes. We prepared hydroxyl radicals using Fenton reaction (which yields hydroxyl radicals). Raman spectra were acquired from single, trapped erythrocytes after supplementing with these free radicals. The changes in the Raman bands such as 1211 cm-1, 1224 cm-1, 1375 cm-1 indicate deoxygenation of red blood cells (RBCs). Our study shows that free radicals can induce oxidative stress on erythrocytes. The changes in the Raman spectra as well as shape of erythrocytes indicate that oxidative stress can trigger eryptosis in erythrocytes.