Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diversity of micro-fungi associated with aerobic composting process of organic wastes

Organic waste is gradually degraded during composting process, producing carbon dioxide, water, heat, and humus, the relatively stable end product. The degradation process is carried out by living organisms, of which fungi appear to have the most important role since they break down tough debris (cellulose, lignin, and other resistant materials), enabling other microorganisms to continue the decomposition process. In Binh Duong province, municipal organic wastes, recently, being treated by aerobic composting process at industrial scale. In order to properly control the biological composting process and maximize its efficiency, the understanding of involved microorganisms is essential. Therefore, the objective of this study was to isolate and identify the fungi associated with large scale municipal biosolid waste composting process in Vietnam. In this study, we have isolated 10 morphologically different fungal strains from the composting materials, and classified based on morphological characteristics and 18S rDNA sequences. The results showed that these fungal strains belonged to four different genera, including Aspergillus, Penicillium, Monascus, and Trichoderma. Our observation is in consistent with previous study, which found that Aspergillus, Penicillium are dominant fungi in composting materials due to their able to survive high temperatures and break down variety of bio-solid wastes. Beside of that, the two other genera Trichoderma and Monascus are widely known for their ability to break down ligninrich materials which difficult for biodegradation. The results would be a useful reference for further studies of diversity, and functions of fungi that involved in municipal biosolid waste composting process in Vietnam environmental conditions.
Managing plantation density through initial spacing and commercial thinning: yield results from a 60-year-old red pine spacing trial experiment

We report on a 60-year-old red pine (Pinus resinosa Aiton) spacing trial experiment located in Ontario, Canada, that included the combinations between six initial spacings (from 1.2 to 3.0 m) and the presence or absence of a commercial thinning (CT) regime, as well as their impacts on quadratic mean diameter (QMD) and stand volume yield. The CT regime, initiated at age 30, targeted a residual basal area (BA) of 38 m2·ha−1 after each of four entries. Without thinning, as initial spacing increased, QMD increased; gross and net volume production peaked in the 2.1–2.4 m spacings. With thinning, similar trends with spacing were evident for QMD, although piece sizes were larger and differences between spacings were lower. The immediate increase of mean tree size caused by tree selection explained most of the differences in QMD between thinned and unthinned plots. Thinning to a common target BA resulted in similar standing volume across spacings. Cumulative gross yield was similar between spacings of <2.1 m for both thinned and unthinned stands and decreased for thinned plots for wider spacings. Greater net volume production in thinned stands with the narrower spacings confirmed that mortality was captured. Lower gross and net production for wider spacings suggested that thinning resulted in underutilized growing space.
Joint contribution and consumption through online crowdfunding campaigns

Abstract With the emergence of online social networks and entrepreneur projects, crowdfunding is gaining popularity to raise money for a new project. In the online crowdfunding platform, the members (including project initiators and supports) share ideas to solve a problem and create favourable exchange conditions for the individuals’ as well as social benefits. In this study, an extended expectancy confirmation model is proposed and validated to explore the influence of supports’ individual traits, consumer values as well as their evaluation of the crowdfunding projects. Through the online questionnaire survey and quantitative analysis, the results show significant antecedents of supports’ confirmation and identify the influence of consumption value on satisfaction and future intention of online crowdfunding. This study suggests that the success of online crowdfunding campaign is not just derived from individuals’ prosocial orientation. Instead, consumers’ trait and cognition should be addressed so as to increase the benefits of collective action.
Body mass index and flanker size: Does (over)weight modulate the Baldwin illusion?

ABSTRACT Visuospatial processing is a complex process that is vulnerable to bias. Line bisection paradigms are used to help detect the factors that balance left and right hemispatial attention that go beyond the domains of perception and action. For example, studies have indicated the “pseudoneglect” phenomenon in the bisection of horizontally presented lines in healthy subjects. Among the modified versions of the traditional line bisection task is the “Baldwin illusion”. In the Baldwin illusion, the subjective midpoint of a line flanked by squares of different sizes is displaced towards the small square. The goal of the study was two-fold. First, we wanted to investigate whether there is an asymmetry in the Baldwin effect depending on leftward or rightward arrangement of the small square and second whether obesity (as measured by body mass index—BMI) would affect bisection of Baldwin-like flanked lines. Thirty-one healthy, right-handed female subjects (20 normal-weight and 11 overweight) had to repeatedly bisect a horizontal straight line using a series of Baldwin-type stimuli, including a photography of their own and the experimenter’s body. As predicted, this displacement was larger when the small square was on the left end of the line (M = −1.80 mm, SD = 2.71 mm, t = −10.48, p = <0.001) than when it flanked the right end (M = +0.71 mm, SD = 2.90 mm; t = 3.83, p = t = 4.35, p = <0.001). Across all stimulus types (irrespective of the size or type of a flanker), overweight subjects placed the subjective midpoint more leftward than the normal-weight subjects. In 13 out of 16 types the results differed significantly and in the remaining 3 types the tendency was clear (0.074 < p < 0.13). Limitations were addressed. Our results confirmed our asymmetry hypothesis. Also, these preliminary results demonstrated an influence of BMI on line bisection performance, i.e. a larger pseudoneglect for the overweight/obese subjects.
The Evolution of Mantle Plumes in East Africa

Global tomography models show a large low‐velocity anomaly extending from the core‐mantle boundary (CMB) beneath South Africa to the upper mantle in East Africa. Although it is believed that this anomaly is linked to mantle upwellings that control key surface features of the African continent, its origin and evolution are still debated. Here we assemble geochemical and seismological constraints along with information from new seismic analyses and geodynamic laboratory experiments to propose that presently there are at least two different plume heads beneath Afar and Kenya that originated at the CMB. A third plume between Kenya and Afar may have caused the Ethiopia‐Yemen traps 30 Ma, now merging with the Afar plume. We infer that the Afar plume is presently detached from the CMB probably because of an interaction with the subducted Tethyan slab and that it is likely a dying plume. This may imply that rifts along the Main Ethiopian Rift would fail by the loss of thermal sources, which consequently hampers continental breakup.
Current therapeutic options for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)—lessons learned from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) therapy: a systematic review protocol

Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), also known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, first manifested in December 2019, and spread rapidly worldwide. Facing this lethal disease, there is an urgent need to develop potent therapies against SARS-CoV-2 infection. SARS-CoV-2 phylogenetically and symptomatically resembles SARS-CoV and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Numerous agents have been utilised during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) epidemics, which may show some benefit against SARS-CoV-2. Methods MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CBM Disc, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data, and the China Science and Technology Journal Database will be searched. Manual searches will be conducted by searching pre-printing websites, clinical trial registers, and screening the reference lists of inclusive studies. The screening of all citations and the selection of inclusive articles will be conducted by two reviewers. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and controlled cohort studies reporting antiviral therapies, including ribavirin, remdesivir, lopinavir/ritonavir, arbidol, chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, and interferon, for SARS, MERS, and COVID-19 will be included. The primary outcomes will be mortality, incidence of acute respiratory distress syndrome, and utilisation of mechanical ventilation and intensive care unit admission. The secondary outcomes will be improvement in symptoms and chest radiography results, virus clearance, changes in blood test results, and serum tests. The quality of the retrieved RCTs and observational studies will be appraised according to the Cochrane risk of bias tool and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale, respectively. If feasible, we will perform a fixed- or random-effects meta-analysis. Discussion This systematic review and meta-analysis will summarise all the available evidence for the efficacy and safety of current therapeutic options in SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, or SARS-CoV-2-infected patients. The findings of this study may inform subsequent antiviral interventions for patients with COVID-19. Study registration The protocol of this study has been submitted to the PROSPERO platform (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/), and the registration number is CRD42020168639.
Perceived Organisational Support and Organisational Commitment among Oil and Gas Offshore Employees in Malaysia

With the fast growth of business and rapid changes in the economic landscape, organisational commitment remains an important subject to be discussed in any part of an organisation. Thus, the present study examines the effects of perceived organisational support on organisational commitment among offshore employees in Malaysia. A study was conducted by distributing online questionnaire via Google Forms among offshore employees. A total of 246 completed responses were collected, and data collected were then analysed using PLS-SEM 3.3. 2. The outcomes suggest that all dimensions of perceived organisational support have a significant relationship towards organisational commitment among offshore employees in Malaysia, except for supervisor support.
From the Bureau on applied botany to the Institute for plant genetic resources (commemorating the 125th Anniversary of VIR)

The article provides a historical background on the activities of the N. I. Vavilov All‑Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR) for a 125‑year period. The Institute began its history as the Bureau of Applied Botany in the end of the 19th century, the times of the Russian Empire; it went through the crucible of World War I, the October Revolution and the Civil War, to become the All‑Union Institute of Plant Industry (VIR) in the Soviet times. The Institute overcame the period of Stalin’s repressions and the devastating irreparable losses sustained during the World War II and the Siege of Leningrad. In the post‑war period, VIR underwent revival, and since 1967 has been proudly bearing the name of N. I. Vavilov. The most successful period in the history of VIR was in the 60‑70s of the 20th century, while in the 90s there followed a period of a sharp drop in funding of all research, and the institute staff was preserving and saving the Vavilov collection at the cost of incredible efforts. In the 21st century, VIR continues its work as a globally known leader in the spheres of systematic collection, comprehensive study, reliable conservation and rational use of genetic resources of cultivated plants and their wild relatives for solving the problems directly related to ensuring national and global food security.
Modeling Coronavirus Spread Rate Utilizing Dimensional Analysis via an Irredundant Set of Fundamental Quantities

The phenomenon of spread of a (pathogenic) virus involves many physical variables, and is not amenable to satisfactory analysis via conventional methods. Dimensional Analysis (DA) is singled out as a simple and accessible way that can determine (at least qualitatively) how virus spread is related to seven physical quantities that are thought to influence it. However, classical DA deduces Original Research Article Rushdi and Rushdi; IJPR, 5(3): 8-21, 2020; Article no.IJPR. 61778 9 four dimensionless products only, none of which incorporates temperature and humidity, despite the obvious relevance of these two meteorological factors. This paper proposes an alternative version of dimensional analysis using a novel irredundant set of three fundamental quantities only. This new DA version produces five dimensionless products, four of which are essentially a replication of the old ones, while the fifth is a novel product that relates both humidity and temperature to other influencing factors. Our novel DA solution is a significant contribution, since it provides a more realistic model for virus spread rate, and it does not ignore any of the essential influencing factors. Such a model might lead to a better understanding of the determinants of spread for the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that causes the ongoing COVID-19 fatal pandemic.
TiAl-Based Materials by In Situ Selective Laser Melting of Ti/Al Reactive Composites

Additive manufacturing (AM) of refractory materials requires either a high laser power or the use of various easily melting binders. In this work, we propose an alternative—the use of spherical reactive Ti/Al composite particles, obtained by preliminary high-energy ball milling. These powders were used to produce high-temperature TiAl-based materials during the selective laser melting (SLM) process. When laser heating is applied, mechanically activated composite particles readily react with the release of a considerable amount of heat and transform into corresponding intermetallic compounds. The combustion can be initiated at relatively low temperatures, and the exothermic effect prevents the sharp cooling of as-sintered tracks. This approach allows one to produce dense intermetallic materials with a homogeneous structure in one step via SLM and eliminates the need for powerful lasers, binders, or additional post-processing and heat treatments.
Spatial-Spectral Density Peaks Based Discriminant Projection for Classification of Membranous Nephropathy Hyperspectral Pathological Image

Microscopic hyperspectral imaging has become an emerging technique for various medical applications. However, high dimensionality of hyperspectral image (HSI) makes image processing and extraction of important diagnostic information challenging. In this paper, a novel dimensionality reduction method named spatial-spectral density peaks based discriminant projection (SSDP) is proposed by considering spatial-spectral density distribution characteristics of immune complexes. The proposed SSDP coupled with support vector machine classifier (SVM) yields high-precision automatic diagnosis of membranous nephropathy (MN). Detailed ex-vivo validation of the proposed method demonstrates the potential clinical value of the system in identifying hepatitis B virus-associated membranous nephropathy (HBV-MN) and primary membranous nephropathy (PMN).
Performance estimation of the state-of-the-art convolution neural networks for thermal images-based gender classification system

Abstract. Gender classification has found many useful applications in the broader domain of computer vision systems including in-cabin driver monitoring systems, human–computer interaction, video surveillance systems, crowd monitoring, data collection systems for the retail sector, and psychological analysis. In previous studies, researchers have established a gender classification system using visible spectrum images of the human face. However, there are many factors affecting the performance of these systems including illumination conditions, shadow, occlusions, and time of day. Our study is focused on evaluating the use of thermal imaging to overcome these challenges by providing a reliable means of gender classification. As thermal images lack some of the facial definition of other imaging modalities, a range of state-of-the-art deep neural networks are trained to perform the classification task. For our study, the Tufts University thermal facial image dataset was used for training. This features thermal facial images from more than 100 subjects gathered in multiple poses and multiple modalities and provided a good gender balance to support the classification task. These facial samples of both male and female subjects are used to fine-tune a number of selected state-of-the-art convolution neural networks (CNN) using transfer learning. The robustness of these networks is evaluated through cross validation on the Carl thermal dataset along with an additional set of test samples acquired in a controlled lab environment using prototype uncooled thermal cameras. Finally, a new CNN architecture, optimized for the gender classification task, GENNet, is designed and evaluated with the pretrained networks.
The History of Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis) Conservation and Management in Kouchibouguac National Park, New Brunswick, Canada

Abstract - The Kouchibouguac region, located in Atlantic Canada on New Brunswick's eastern coast was declared a provincial game refuge in 1969 and a National Park in 1979. Morone saxatilis (Striped Bass), a species of ecological and socio-economic importance, has long been considered a conservation priority within the park and the surrounding region. The creation of the National Park resulted in the closure of the region's commercial Striped Bass fishery and regulation of recreational fishery retention, turning the area into a key focal point for monitoring and conservation of Striped Bass within the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. In the early 1990s, the Northwest Miramichi River was confirmed as a key spawning location for Striped Bass and the likely origin of all southern Gulf of St. Lawrence Striped Bass, a discovery which would remove the burden of local Striped Bass conservation and recovery from the park. Now, following a precipitous population decline, a 13-year fishing moratorium, and an unprecedented population recovery, Striped Bass have returned in great numbers to the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. This review summarizes the history of the study of Striped Bass in Kouchibouguac National Park to prompt the continuation of research of Striped Bass under the climate of a presently recovered population. It remains possible that the recovered population could once again re-colonize spawning habitat within the rivers of Kouchibouguac National Park that may have been occupied historically.
Effect of Bioactivity of Surface Topography and Coating Forming by Infrared Light-Induced on Titanium for Bone Repair

Calcium ions and phosphate ions are usually present in biological organisms and human bodies. Different ratios of calcium to phosphorus result in different types of calcium-to-phosphorus crystals. Hydroxyapatite (HA) is the main component of human hard bony tissues. It has good biocompatibility and is often used in bone repair. With the addition of cobalt ions, it can act as a hypoxia-inducing factor to accelerate the regeneration of hard bony tissues. At present, the laser-assisted biomimetic (LAB) method can very quickly deposit calcium phosphate coatings, which can be used on polymer and titanium surfaces. In this study, we first used anodization treatment (with TiO2 nanotubes (TNTs)), alkali treatment (with NaOH), and acid treatment (with HCl) to form nanopore structures on titanium surfaces in the laboratory. Subsequently, LAB treatment was used to deposit calcium phosphate and cobalt-substituted hydroxyapatite onto titanium pieces with different surface treatments. The results showed that smaller holes resulted in better deposition (TNTs), and controlling the pH value in the solution changed the crystal morphology. LAB treatment imbued the titanium surface with super-hydrophilic properties and improved biocompatibility. A human osteoblast cell line (MG-63) used for the cell viability test showed that LAB treatment can improve cell growth. In particular, TNT-CoHA (cobalt-substituted hydroxyapatite) cells grew the best. Immersion in simulated bodily fluid confirmed that LAB treatment with a CoHA solution improved the hydrophilicity, biocompatibility, and bioactivity of titanium surfaces. It is hoped that this study provides useful information for surface coating of biomedical materials in the future.
In Situ Measurement of the FT-IR Spectra of Phospholipid Monolayers at the Air/Water Interface

External reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy has been applied to the in situ measurement of the infrared spectra of insoluble phospholipid monolayer films that were spread at the air/water interface. The spreading conditions for the phospholipids [1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DSPC) and 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC)] were chosen to mimic those of liquid-condensed and liquid-expanded surface films, respectively. It is shown that the infrared reflection spectra can identify vibrations due to the hydrocarbon acyl chains, carbonyl ester, and phosphate groups for these monolayer films on water. Detailed examination of the frequencies and polarization properties of the C-H stretching region shows that the liquid-condensed DSPC acyl chains are in a rigid, mostly all-trans configuration, while the liquid-expanded DMPC acyl chains are highly fluid. The spectra demonstrate that the external reflection FT-IR experiment can differentiate between the physical conformation of monomolecular films when water is used as a reflective substrate.