Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Selection of white oat genotypes for contrasting fungicide management conditions

Abstract The objective of this work was to select white oat (Avena sativa) genotypes for environments with and without fungicide application, as well as to identify relationships between meteorological variables and agronomic traits. Two experiments were carried out: one without and the other with the use of the tebuconazole fungicide. In each experiment, 26 genotypes were evaluated, conducted during ten years in the same experimental area; cultivation years were considered as one environment. The methodologies of genotype and of the genotypes x environments interaction were used to define the ideal genotype. 'URS Corona' is considered an ideal genotype due to its excellent responses in the environment with tebuconazole. The 'Brisasul', 'IPR Aphrodite', and 'URS Taura' genotypes respond better in the environment without the fungicide. However, based on multitraits, the 'URS Taura' and 'IPR Afrodite' genotypes can be positioned in environments with or without the use of tebuconazole. Genotypes with a rust incidence lower than 15% and a height higher than 93 cm in an environment with a relative humidity lower than 70.75% have a higher grain yield regardless of fungicide use. Greater magnitudes of air temperature and solar radiation result in a higher grain yield of white oat, regardless of fungicide use.
Metacognition in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders—Current Methods and Approaches

Metacognition essentially represents “thinking about thinking”, or the individual’s capacity to control and monitor their own cognitive processes. Metacognition impairment in schizophrenia represents a core feature of the disease, and, in the last fifteen years, the subject has evolved into a growing study area concentrating on a wide variety of processes, such as clinical insight, autobiographical memory, cognitive beliefs, reasoning, and memory biases. Since metacognition is a complex subject, we wanted to focus on the different nuances of metacognition transposed into the lives of patients diagnosed with either schizophrenia or a schizoaffective disorder. Therefore, this narrative review aims to analyze the literature in order to provide an insight regarding the current methods and approaches in the study of metacognition in schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders, as well as the results provided. Results from the reviewed studies showed that patients with schizophrenia have a lower metacognitive ability, which is strongly reflected in their lives. Studies to date have highlighted the interaction between schizophrenia symptoms and metacognition, which shows how metacognition impacts work performance, autobiographical memory, motivation, the severity of symptoms, and social cognition.
LATVIAN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION STUDENT FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES

The study focused on the frequencies of Latvian higher education institution student self-reported foreign language learning strategies. From the 86 participants 44 were males and 42 – females; sport science was studied by 48 respondents, and health care by 38; 44.20% were freshmen and 55.80% - sophomores; 76.70% were full-time and 23.30% – part-time students. The study employed the Strategy Inventory for Foreign Language Learning (SILL), consisting of 50 statements divided into 6 categories: memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, social and affective. One statement from the memory strategies was removed, as it was considered non-relevant for the students. Likert scale of three choices - never, sometimes and often – was used. SPSS Version 26 was used for the data analysis. Results: 1) the investigated students tended to use cognitive (mean =2.12; st.dev.=0.29; min,=1,43; max.=3) and compensation (mean =2.11; st.dev.=0.36; min.=1,33; max.=2.83) strategies more often; 2) the students tended to use affective (mean =1.78; st.dev.=0.39; min.=1.00; max.=2.67) strategies less often; Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test showed that compensation strategies are used more often than memory strategies (Z=5.08; Sig. =0.00) and metacognitive strategies were used more often than affective strategies (Z=5.00; Sig. =0.00).
Linking morphology to thermal conductivity in PEDOT: an atomistic investigation

Among different conducting polymers, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) and its doped mixtures are promising candidates for thermoelectric applications due to their intrinsically low thermal conductivity. An accurate estimate of the overall thermoelectric figure of merit requires a sharp thermal conductivity measurement. However, even for pristine PEDOT, the estimated thermal conductivity values show high fluctuations depending on the synthesis procedure employed, suggesting that morphology can be one of the key factors affecting PEDOT thermal conductivity. In this work, we elucidate this issue by demonstrating how morphology ultimately governs thermal transport properties. By means of the approach to equilibrium molecular dynamics method, we estimate thermal conductivity of PEDOT systems with a controlled degree of crystallinity. We show that by going from pure crystalline to nearly amorphous PEDOT samples, a thermal conductivity reduction of more than two orders of magnitude is obtained. Moreover a strong thermal conductivity increase with the PEDOT chain length is observed independently of the degree of crystallinity.
On Dirichlet series similar to Hadamard compositions in half-plane

Let $F(s)=\sum\limits_{n=1}^{\infty}a_n\exp\{s\lambda_n\}$ and $F_j(s)=\sum\limits_{n=1}^{\infty}a_{n,j}\exp\{s\lambda_n\},$ $j=\overline{1,p},$ be Dirichlet series with exponents $0\le\lambda_n\uparrow+\infty,$ $n\to\infty,$ and the abscissas of absolutely convergence equal to $0$. The function $F$ is called Hadamard composition of the genus $m\ge 1$ of the functions $F_j$ if $a_n=P(a_{n,1},\dots ,a_{n,p})$, where $$P(x_1,\dots ,x_p)=\sum\limits_{k_1+\dots+k_p=m}c_{k_1\dots\, k_p}x_1^{k_1}\cdots x_p^{k_p}$$ is a homogeneous polynomial of degree $m$. In terms of generalized orders and convergence classes the connection between the growth of the functions $F_j$ and the growth of the Hadamard composition $F$ of the genus $m\ge 1$ of $F_j$ is investigated. The pseudostarlikeness and pseudoconvexity of the Hadamard composition of the genus $m\ge 1$ are studied.
Expectations of Maritime University Students of Future Work on a Ship

: The main goal of education at a maritime university is to provide students with knowledge and practical skills necessary for future work on a ship. To receive the diploma of merchant navy officer, students are required to complete a 12 ‐ month maritime internship. During the internship, as well as during the entire course of studies, students ʹ expectations regarding their future professional work are developed, related to, among others, working and living conditions on a ship, employment conditions and cooperation with the shipowner. These expectations determine the students’ subsequent choices towards a given shipowner as a potential employer, as well as their decisions about further professional development in this field. From the point of view of operational management, it is therefore important for the shipowner to know the requirements that must be met in order to have a motivated and competent staff. This article aims to classify the requirements for students relative to their future work on a ship based on assessing the impact of the requirement fulfilment level against the level of their satisfaction. The results obtained made it possible to indicate those requirements regarding working conditions, the fulfilment of which should be treated by shipowners as a priority, because they determine the students’ satisfaction to the highest degree.
Compact Biharmonic Computation of the Navier-Stokes Equations: Extension to Complex Flows

The work is mainly concerned with the development of compact finite difference formulations for the biharmonic equation in irregular geometries. We specifically focus our attention towards the computation of solutions of complex flow problems by using biharmonic form of the Navier-Stokes (N-S) equations. When irregular physical domains are transformed onto computational domains that are expressible in terms of conformal mappings, the system of incompressible two dimensional NS equations reduces to a single biharmonic semi-linear equation. The formulation has the advantage that the entire flow field can be described in terms of only one equation with stream function as the dependent variable. Other flow field variables can easily be post processed from stream function. The work has been divided into two parts. In the first part we develop a new fourth order accurate essentially compact finite difference scheme for the steady N-S equations. The efficiency of the scheme is highlighted by performing numerical experiments on (i) a known constructed solution and is followed by its application on three different problems with varied complexities, viz. (ii) fluid flow in a constricted channel, (iii) driven polar cavity, and (iv) flow past an impulsively started circular cylinder. The computed solutions are then compared with the existing experimental and standard numerical results, and excellent agreement is found in all the cases. In the second part we propose a new compact implicit scheme for transient biharmonic form of the N-S equations. This scheme is second order accurate both temporally and spatially. Our main objective here is not only to document the versatility of biharmonic pure stream function formulation, but also the efficiency of the newly proposed scheme in simulating the dynamics of flow inside curved regions as well as fluid-embedded body interaction. We have carried out a von Neumann stability analysis of this scheme and have also provided an algorithm for
High-Voltage Autonomous Current-Fed Push–Pull Converter With Wireless Communication Applied to X-Ray Generation

This brief presents an adjustable 100 kV high voltage DC power supply with ZigBee wireless feedback for the X-ray system. The proposed system is powered by a 48 V DC power source, and a combination of an autonomous current-fed push-pull converter with a high voltage transformer is used to step up the output voltage. At the end of the secondary of the high voltage transformer, a combination of half-wave voltage multipliers is used to achieve desired output of DC high voltage. Two microcontrollers with wireless communication modules are used to control the output voltage. Moreover, the equivalent inductance of the high voltage transformer with an extra capacitor is utilized to form a parallel resonant circuit to lead the power switch of the autonomous current-fed push-pull converter can achieve zero voltage switching to reduce the switching loss. The mathematical model of the system is derived, and the complete design considerations are established. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed system is verified by the experimental results efficiency of the developed model reaches 95% under low power high voltage applications.
New Intercampaign Bias Estimates for ICESat Elevation Data Over Dome A in Antarctica

The fidelity of intercampaign biases (ICBs) estimates for Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) ice elevation products is critical for ice sheet mass balance research. Prior studies have confirmed that ICBs are significantly dependent on data products, released versions, and surface types, leading to the hypothesis that ICBs for Level 2 Geosciences Laser Altimeter (GLA12) newly released products remain poorly determined. Here, we propose a new method to estimate ICBs using altimetry crossovers relative to a known stable ice surface, Dome A summit, East Antarctica, and a multitime reference framework, which maximizes the number of crossovers. The ICBs of GLA12 release 634 product range from <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-8.1\,\,\pm $ </tex-math></inline-formula> 1.1 cm (L3A) to 19.3 ± 0.8 cm (L2C), and most of them range from −5 to 10 cm. However, the ICBs for a few campaigns show significant campaign-dependent variations (L2B and L3D). They exhibit insignificant trend (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-0.9\,\,\pm $ </tex-math></inline-formula> 0.8 cm/yr) during entire ICESat mission, but there is a clear trend at <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-3.0\,\,\pm $ </tex-math></inline-formula> 0.3 cm/yr since February 2006 (L3E). We conclude that the time-variable ICBs should be carefully considered on ice sheet mass balance estimate, especially for specific campaigns.
Superpixel-based Vehicle Detection using Plane Normal Vector in Dispar ity Space

This paper proposes a framework of superpixel-based vehicle detection method using plane normal vector in disparity space. We utilize two common factors for detecting vehicles: Hypothesis Generation (HG) and Hypothesis Verification (HV). At the stage of HG, we set the regions of interest (ROI) by estimating the lane, and track them to reduce computational cost of the overall processes. The image is then divided into compact superpixels, each of which is viewed as a plane composed of the normal vector in disparity space. After that, the representative normal vector is computed at a superpixel-level, which alleviates the well-known problems of conventional color-based and depth-based approaches. Based on the assumption that the central-bottom of the input image is always on the navigable region, the road and obstacle candidates are simultaneously extracted by the plane normal vectors obtained from K-means algorithm. At the stage of HV, the separated obstacle candidates are verified by employing HOG and SVM as for a feature and classifying function, respectively. To achieve this, we trained SVM classifier by HOG features of KITTI training dataset. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed vehicle detection system outperforms the conventional HOG-based methods qualitatively and quantitatively.
Non-Hermitian skin effect and nonreciprocity induced by dissipative couplings

We study the mechanism for realizing non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) via dissipative couplings, in which the left-right couplings have equal strengths but the phases do not satisfy the complex conjugation. Previous realizations of NHSE typically require unequal left-right couplings or on-site gain and loss. In this work we find that when combined with the multichannel interference provided by a periodic dissipative-coherent coupling structure, the dissipative couplings can lead to unequal left-right couplings, inducing NHSE. Moreover, we show that the non-Hermiticity induced by dissipative couplings can be fully transformed into nonreciprocity-type non-Hermiticity without bringing extra gain-loss-type non-Hermiticity. Thus, this mechanism enables unidirectional energy transmission without introducing additional insertion loss. Our work opens a new avenue for the study of non-Hermitian topological effects and the design of directional optical networks.
From Acute Phase to Long COVID: A Cross-Sectional Study of the Epidemiological Profile and Clinical Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Employees at a Pediatric Hospital

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic began in Brazil on 26 February 2020. By 6 May 2023, 37.4 million cases had been confirmed, causing 701 thousand deaths in the country. We aimed to describe the epidemiological profile and clinical development of COVID-19 cases among the employees of a health institution, from acute infection to long COVID. Methods: This was a longitudinal study using a retrospective and prospective approach via questionnaires referring to epidemiological investigation, which was the inclusion criteria, and about long-term symptoms. Results: A total of 809 employees were detected with SARS-CoV-2 infection via RT-PCR, 466 of them answered the epidemiological investigation, and 101 completed the Long COVID Symptom Questionnaire. The most commonly affected employees were women (88.6%) working in patient care (68.6%). Headache, myalgia, cough, odynophagia, and runny nose were the most frequent symptoms. Only three employees (0.6%) required hospitalization, while the other employees required outpatient management due to mild symptoms. We identified 19 (4.1%) cases of reinfection, and 42 (41.6%) employees reported long-term symptoms, such as myalgia, dyspnea, and headache. Conclusions: Although most cases were mild with good outcomes, long COVID cases identified are noteworthy, as these symptoms may impact quality of life even months after SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Interactive Effects of Ceftriaxone and Chitosan Immobilization on the Production of Arachidonic Acid by and the Microbiome of the Chlorophyte Lobosphaera sp. IPPAS C-2047

Pharmaceuticals including antibiotics are among the hazardous micropollutants (HMP) of the environment. Incomplete degradation of the HMP leads to their persistence in water bodies causing a plethora of deleterious effects. Conventional wastewater treatment cannot remove HMP completely and a promising alternative comprises biotechnologies based on microalgae. The use of immobilized microalgae in environmental biotechnology is advantageous since immobilized cultures allow the recycling of the microalgal cells, support higher cell densities, and boost tolerance of microalgae to stresses including HMP. Here, we report on a comparative study of HMP (exemplified by the antibiotic ceftriaxone, CTA) removal by suspended and chitosan-immobilized cells of Lobosphaera sp. IPPAS C-2047 in flasks and in a column bioreactor. The removal of CTA added in the concentration of 20 mg/L was as high as 65% (in the flasks) or 85% (in the bioreactor). The adsorption on the carrier and abiotic oxidation were the main processes contributing 65–70% to the total CTA removal, while both suspended and immobilized cells took up 25–30% of CTA. Neither the immobilization nor CTA affected the accumulation of arachidonic acid (ARA) by Lobosphaera sp. during bioreactor tests but the subsequent nitrogen deprivation increased ARA accumulation 2.5 and 1.7 times in the suspended and chitosan-immobilized microalgae, respectively. The study of the Lobosphaera sp. microbiome revealed that the immobilization of chitosan rather than the CTA exposure was the main factor displacing the taxonomic composition of the microbiome. The possibility and limitations of the use of chitosan-immobilized Lobosphaera sp. IPPAS C-2047 for HMP removal coupled with the production of valuable long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids is discussed.
Rendu Progressif basé Metropolis-Hasting dans des scènes à contextes topologiques multiples

Dans ce papier, nous proposons une nouvelle methode de rendu basee Metropolis-Hasting et lancer de photons stochastiques. En s'appuyant sur la connaissance a priori de la topologie de la scene, notre methode adapte au- tomatiquement les parametres de la marche aleatoire realisee par l'algorithme de Metropolis-Hasting. Un taux d'echantillonnage optimal est ainsi obtenu pour chacun des contextes topologiques de la scene en leur associant une chaine de Markov independante. Notre methode peut etre combinee avec toute les avancees recentes concernant ce type d'algorithme (Replica Exchange, Adpative Markov Chain Monte Carlo). Aussi, notre papier propose une analyse detaillee des problemes souleves par l'utilisation de Metropolis-Hasting et nous montrons comment notre methode offre des resultats de meilleure qualite que les approches recentes du domaine.
Problem-based Learning (PBL) with Reading Questioning and Answering (RQA) of Preservice Elementary School Teachers

Preservice elementary school teachers' critical thinking skills were compared during this quasi-experimental study of PBL (Problem-based Learning) and RQA (Reading-Questioning and Answering) science practicum learning. Following the Covid-19 protocol, the science practicum course was completed online in both the PBL and the PBL with RQA. Face-to-face interaction was limited. Blended learning is completed synchronously by Google Meet and asynchronously by Schoology. The science practicum was conducted offline regarding the limited face-to-face material discussed at the Laboratory. The independent variable consists of two learning models, PBL (control group) and PBL with RQA (treatment group), with critical thinking skills as the dependent variable. The program, which emphasized students' critical thinking skills, lasted about eight weeks. The instrument utilized in this study was a 16-item critical thinking skills test includes indicators of interpretation, analysis, explanation, evaluation, and inference. The data were analyzed by one-way ANCOVA, with critical thinking skills pretest scores as covariates. The findings show that the PBL with RQA has more significant potential to increase students' critical thinking skills than the PBL. RQA allows students to learn independently by reading, summarizing, asking, and answering questions.
Multi-Omics Data Analysis Identifies Prognostic Biomarkers across Cancers

Combining omics data from different layers using integrative methods provides a better understanding of the biology of a complex disease such as cancer. The discovery of biomarkers related to cancer development or prognosis helps to find more effective treatment options. This study integrates multi-omics data of different cancer types with a network-based approach to explore common gene modules among different tumors by running community detection methods on the integrated network. The common modules were evaluated by several biological metrics adapted to cancer. Then, a new prognostic scoring method was developed by weighting mRNA expression, methylation, and mutation status of genes. The survival analysis pointed out statistically significant results for GNG11, CBX2, CDKN3, ARHGEF10, CLN8, SEC61G and PTDSS1 genes. The literature search reveals that the identified biomarkers are associated with the same or different types of cancers. Our method does not only identify known cancer-specific biomarker genes, but also proposes new potential biomarkers. Thus, this study provides a rationale for identifying new gene targets and expanding treatment options across cancer types.
Google speech recognition of an English paragraph produced by Korean college students in clear or casual speech styles

These days voice models of automatic speech recognition software are sophisticated enough to process the natural speech of people without any previous training. However, not much research has reported on the use of speech recognition tools in the field of pronunciation education. This paper examined Google speech recognition of a short English paragraph produced by Korean college students in clear and casual speech styles in order to diagnose and resolve students’ pronunciation problems. Thirty three Korean college students participated in the recording of the English paragraph. The Google soundwriter was employed to collect data on the word recognition rates of the paragraph. Results showed that the total word recognition rate was 73% with a standard deviation of 9.1%. The word recognition rate of clear speech was around 77.3% while that of the casual speech amounted to 68.7%. The reasons for the low recognition rate of casual speech were attributed to both individual pronunciation errors and the softwar.