Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Critical evaluation of scientiﬁc articles and other sources of information: An introduction to evidence-based veterinary medicine

The purpose of this paper is to brieﬂy review key concepts regarding critical reading of the scientiﬁc literature to make informed decisions, in the context of evidence-based veterinary medicine. Key concepts are reviewed, based on the broader experience in human medicine, with adaptations, as indicated, to veterinary medicine. That a paper has been published in a peer-reviewed journal does not guarantee its credibility; guidelines are given regarding the general merit of different kinds of articles, as well as checklists and criteria that can be used to assess a paper. Speciﬁc study designs, their merits and limitations, are brieﬂy discussed. Standard numerical indices for assessment of studies involving treatments and for assessments of diagnostic tests are summarized. Criteria for assessing drug trials are presented. The principles of statistical analysis are described, including practical considerations and common errors. Finally, numerous sources of bias are reviewed. #
Pesticides: Environmental fate, human health impacts, and analytical techniques from extraction to removal

: Pesticides are a catchall term. It includes a wide range of chemicals used to destroy several types of harmful pests (weeds, insects, etc.). They are used in large quantities due to their effectiveness. Although it is intended to eliminate the target pest, it bypasses that and reaches the environment via various sources, thus causing soil and water contamination. Also, pesticide exposure increases the possibility of human infection with poisoning and serious illness. It is impossible to know all of the pesticides' detrimental effects on their users, but many of these concerns are well-known, have manifested in the past, and have been documented in different researches, such as poisoning occurrences, malignancies
Analytical solutions of seawater intrusion in sloping confined and unconfined coastal aquifers

Sloping coastal aquifers in reality are ubiquitous and well documented. Steady state sharp‐interface analytical solutions for describing seawater intrusion in sloping confined and unconfined coastal aquifers are developed based on the Dupuit‐Forchheimer approximation. Specifically, analytical solutions based on the constant‐flux inland boundary condition are derived by solving the discharge equation for the interface zone with the continuity conditions of the head and flux applied at the interface between the freshwater zone and the interface zone. Analytical solutions for the constant‐head inland boundary are then obtained by developing the relationship between the inland freshwater flux and hydraulic head and combining this relationship with the solutions of the constant‐flux inland boundary. It is found that for the constant‐flux inland boundary, the shape of the saltwater interface is independent of the geometry of the bottom confining layer for both aquifer types, despite that the geometry of the bottom confining layer determines the location of the interface tip. This is attributed to that the hydraulic head at the interface is identical to that of the coastal boundary, so the shape of the bed below the interface is irrelevant to the interface position. Moreover, developed analytical solutions with an empirical factor on the density factor are in good agreement with the results of variable‐density flow numerical modeling. Analytical solutions developed in this study provide a powerful tool for assessment of seawater intrusion in sloping coastal aquifers as well as in coastal aquifers with a known freshwater flux but an arbitrary geometry of the bottom confining layer.
CR(VI) REDUCTION IN PACKED-COLUMN MICROCOSM REACTORS USING CHROMIUM REDUCING MICROORGANISMS

This research was the initial step towards the development of an in situ bioremediation process to contain the spread of a Cr(VI) plume in a groundwater aquifer at contaminated site in Brits, South Africa. South Africa holds about 72% percent of the world’s chromium resources the majority of which is mined in the North Eastern region of the country formally known as Transvaal. The remediation process was first observed in aquifer microcosms in which up to 50 mg/L was completely removed under a hydraulic loading of 0.304 cm 3 /h. The proposed in situ bioremediation process is expected to be more cost effective and less environmentally intrusive than the currently employed pump-and-treat method at the site. Microbial culture characterisation results showed a change in culture composition after 45 days of reactor operation, indicating Bacillus and Enterobacter species as the most dominant species in reactors that reduced Cr(VI) . The predominance of Bacillus and Enterobacter species was either due to resilience against toxicity or adaptation to the changing conditions in the reactor.
Skjern River Valley, Northern Europe’s most expensive wetland restoration project: benefits to breeding waterbirds

After circa 35 years of drainage and intensive arable tillage, the lower Skjern River, Den-mark was re-engineered to its original meanders and flooding regime, creating 22 km 2 of lakes, shallow wetlands and seasonally flooded grazed wet grassland costing €38 million. The primary motivation was to restore the sediment/nutrient retention capacity of the river valley to reduce eutrophication of Ringkøbing Fjord at its efflux. Secondary objectives were to (i) restore breeding and staging bird habitat, (ii) enhance the self-sustaining Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar population and (iii) improve recreational and tourist activities. Despite lack of specific success criteria, breeding waterbird numbers increased from 134 ± 22.9 SE (n = 3) pairs before to 1,744 ± 153 SE (n = 5) after restoration (although on average 1,004 of these were Black-headed Gulls Chroicocephalus ridibundus), species richness and diversity also increased. Twenty-nine waterbird species returned to breed, 10 of national or international significance (Danish Red List/European Union Birds Directive Annex 1 species) now ranking Skjern River amongst the top 10 most important breeding waterbird sites in Denmark. Currently, agriculture supports cost-neutral management of the restoration area, but whilst most expected wet meadow and marsh species had returned, lack of goal-orientated management targets resulted in some additional rare and threatened species remaining absent. Breeding pair density and diversity of other species could have been greatly improved by prior planning and management intervention but at additional cost.
Particle Filtering on Lie Group for Mobile Robot Localization With Range-Bearing Measurements

This letter proposes a particle filtering method for mobile robot localization. The system model is created based on the robot motion and range-bearing measurements using the Lie group representation, and the perturbation system is obtained by introducing the random variable on the Lie group in order to solve the state estimation problem and reduce impacts from nonlinear approximations. The particle filter is derived to estimate the robot and landmark locations, where the posterior distribution of the robot pose perturbation is approximated by a mixture of Gaussian distributions to mitigate particle impoverishment and improve localization accuracy. The experiment is conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed method.
Dimensionality Reduction in Data Sets Without Compromising Clustering Efficiency

Feature subset selection is the effective way for increasing learning accuracy, improving result comprehensibility, plummeting dimensionality and removing extraneous data. Lots of feature subset selection methods have been presented and deliberate for machine learning applications.Whilethe effectiveness concerns the time required to find the subset of features, the efficiency is related to the excellence of subset of features.Based on the above criteria, the fast clustering-based feature selection algorithm (FAST) is presented and the experimentally evaluated in thispaper. The FAST algorithm works in the two steps. In the first step, the features are divided into clusters by using the graph-theoretic clusteringmethods. Secondly, the most representative feature, i.e., strongly related to target the classes is selected from the each of the cluster toform a subset of these features. Features in the different clusters are relatively autonomous; the clusteringbased strategy of the FAST has highlikelihood ofproducing the subset of the useful and the autonomous features. To ensure the efficiency of the FAST, we take on the proficientMinimumSpanning Tree (MST) clustering method. The competence and the effectiveness of the FAST algorithm are calculated through anexperiential study. widespread experiments are carried out to compare the FAST and the several representative feature selection algorithms,they are: FCBF, CFS, ReliefF, FOCUS-SF and Consist with respect to the four types of well-known classifiers, they are: the probabilitybasedNaive Bayes and the tree-based C4.5, before and after feature selection. Keywords—Cloud computing; Outscourcing; k Nearest neighbor; Voronoi; pre-computed;
Robust dissipativity and dissipation of a class of fractional‐order uncertain linear systems

This study addresses robust QSR-dissipativity and feedback dissipation of a class of fractional-order (FO) uncertain linear systems. Both the state and controlled output matrices are with time-varying norm-bounded parameter uncertainties. Firstly, some new notions of QSR-dissipativity and passivity for FO systems are introduced, the relationship between QSR-dissipativity and asymptotic stability and input-output stability are discussed, respectively. Then, a sufficient condition in the form of linear matrix inequality (LMI) is proposed to ensure that such system is robustly QSR-dissipative. According to this condition, a state feedback controller is proposed when the full states can be measured. Secondly, by employing LMI techniques and matrices singular value decomposition, sufficient conditions for the existence and a robust dissipation synthesis method are derived, respectively. Thirdly, a design method of dynamic output feedback controller is developed in order to guarantee that the closed-loop system is dissipative. Finally, some numerical examples are provided to show the application of the proposed methods.
Two years’ long-term follow up in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy: efficacy of intravenous immunoglobulin treatment

Background: Administration of intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIgs) is established for long-term treatment of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP). Prevention of secondary axonal loss going along with permanent clinical disability and muscular atrophy is a major aim in CIDP therapy. To assess long-term clinical efficacy of IVIg treatment despite heterogenous disease course and variable complaints reported by the patients, long-term electrophysiological monitoring was performed for systematic evaluation of therapeutic efficacy of IVIg. Methods: A total of 21 patients with CIDP treated with IVIg 1 g/kg bodyweight every 3–6 weeks were examined electrophysiologically every 12 months over a period of 2 years. Results: Assessment of clinical symptoms, using the Inflammatory Neuropathy Cause and Treatment (INCAT) and Hughes functional grading score (F-score) revealed improvement of motor and sensory symptoms over a period of 2 years. As electrophysiological results remained stable, IVIg treatment seems to be suitable to prevent axonal loss in CIDP. Conclusions: This study confirms efficacy of IVIg as firstline therapy in CIDP. Doses and frequency of IVIg application should be adapted based on clinical evaluation and analysis of long-term electrophysiological findings.
Effect of traditional food processing methods on the nutrient and anti-nutrient composition of aerial yam (Discorea bulbifera) flour

Background: Aerial yam bulbil is one of the high-yielding food crops with quality nutrients. It has great potential to contribute to food security. However, this food crop is often underutilized. Therefore, the traditional methods of processing it into flour to increase food diversity, reduce post-harvest loss, improve nutrient quality, and reduces anti-nutrients are often unexploited in Nigeria. Objective: The study evaluated the effect of traditional food processing methods on the nutrient and anti-nutrient composition of Aerial Yam bulbil flours. Results: Germinated and fermented aerial yam flour had higher Protein (21.30%) and Fat (3.32%) and least carbohydrate (65.78%) and ash (3.95%), while sample UAYF and GFAYF had higher fibre (3.95%). GFAYF had higher zinc (0.13mg), iron (3.55mg), calcium (3.34mg), and phosphorous (84.39mg). GFAYF had reduced Phytate 4.73mg; Tannins (1.24mg); Hydrogen Cyanide (4.16mg); Oxalate (2.38mg); but increased Saponin (0.12mg) respectively. Conclusion: Combined germination and fermentation improved nutritional quality and decreased the anti-nutritional content of Aerial yam flour. This product can be used for the preparation of healthy and therapeutic dishes.
Target Tracking Based on Improved Kernel Correlation Filter

: In response to the shortcomings of using a single feature to describe targets and the limitations of target scale invariance in traditional kernel correlation filter tracking algorithms, this paper proposes a scale adaptive kernel correlation filter algorithm that integrates color attribute features. Using principal component analysis to obtain color attribute features with strong discrimination, in order to reduce computational complexity and achieve color adaptation, and designing scale adaptive filters to dynamically adjust the target scale. Compared with the original kernel correlation filter and its improved algorithm, this method has good adaptability in situations such as occlusion, deformation, rotation, and background cluster interferences.
CFD Prediction of Ramjet Intake Characteristics at Angle of Attack

The characteristics of installed intakes of a ramjet engine at angle of attack are predicted numerically. Three dimensional Navier Stokes equations are solved alongwith k - ε turbulence model using commercial CFD software. The software was first validated for isolated intake and computed results match very well with theoretical results available in literature. Pressure recovery Vs. mass flow characteristics of four installed intakes placed in a rear location of a ramjet vehicle is evaluated at different angles of attack upto 6°. Intake performance matches reasonably well with experimental results. It has been observed that significant variation of intake performance exists between windward and leeward intakes. For higher angle of attack, the leeward intake move towards the subcritical operation faster and the intake flowfield is seen to interact with the corebody boundary layer causing significant spillage.
Utility of Feathers for Avian Influenza Virus Detection in Commercial Poultry

The present study evaluated the potential utility of feather samples for the convenient and accurate detection of avian influenza virus (AIV) in commercial poultry. Feather samples were obtained from AIV-negative commercial layer facilities in Iowa, USA. The feathers were spiked with various concentrations (106 to 100) of a low pathogenic strain of H5N2 AIV using a nebulizing device and were evaluated for the detection of viral RNA using a real-time RT-PCR assay immediately or after incubation at −20, 4, 22, or 37 °C for 24, 48, or 72 h. Likewise, cell culture medium samples with and without the virus were prepared and used for comparison. In the spiked feathers, the PCR reliably (i.e., 100% probability of detection) detected AIV RNA in eluates from samples sprayed with 103 EID50/mL or more of the virus. Based on half-life estimates, the feathers performed better than the corresponding media samples (p < 0.05), particularly when the samples were stored at 22 or 37 °C. In conclusion, feather samples can be routinely collected from a poultry barn as a non-invasive alternative to blood or oropharyngeal–cloacal swab samples for monitoring AIV.
Antisemitism in social work findings from an exploratory national survey

Abstract Antisemitism is one of the oldest forms of prejudices. It is hatred against Jewish people based on stereotypes that leads to persecution and oppression. As such, it threatens social justice and the security of people and community. Social work with its focus on social justice and promoting diversity has an obligation to confront antisemitism which, unfortunately, continues to increase. However, it is seldom included in social work education or in DEI programs. This paper reports on the findings of a national survey of social workers that details their experiences with antisemitism in school, in practice, and in the community. The findings show that Jewish respondents were more aware of antisemitic incidents in the community and in schools than the non-Jewish respondents. However, both groups very strongly believed that antisemitism was a significant problem and that it should be a concern for social work. Recommendations based on these findings are presented.
The relationship between oceanic transform fault segmentation, seismicity, and thermal structure

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OCEANIC TRANSFORM FAULT SEGMENTATION, SEISMICITY, AND THERMAL STRUCTURE by Monica Wolfson-Schwehr University of New Hampshire, December, 2015 Mid-ocean ridge transform faults (RTFs) are typically viewed as geometrically simple, with fault lengths readily constrained by the ridge-transform intersections. This relative simplicity, combined with well-constrained slip rates, make them an ideal environment for studying strike-slip earthquake behavior. As the resolution of available bathymetric data over oceanic transform faults continues to improve, however, it is being revealed that the geometry and structure of these faults can be complex, including such features as intra-transform pull-apart basins, intra-transform spreading centers, and cross-transform ridges. To better determine the resolution of structural complexity on RTFs, as well as the prevalence of RTF segmentation, fault structure is delineated on a global scale. Segmentation breaks the fault system up into a series of subparallel fault strands separated by an extensional basin, intra-transform spreading center, or fault step. RTF segmentation occurs across the full range of spreading rates, from faults on the ultraslow portion of the Southwest Indian Ridge to faults on the ultrafast portion of the East Pacific Rise (EPR). It is most prevalent along the EPR, which hosts the fastest spreading rates in the world and has undergone multiple changes in relative plate motion over the last couple of million years. Earthquakes on RTFs are known to be small, to scale with the area above the 600◦C isotherm, and to exhibit some of the most predictable behaviors in seismology. In order to determine whether segmentation affects the global RTF scaling relations, the scalings are recomputed using an updated seismic catalog and fault database in which RTF systems are broken
Detection of genetic variations in the GDF9 and BMP15 genes in Kazakh meat–wool sheep

Abstract Kazakh meat–wool sheep are of great interest because of the intrabreed multifetal type's high productivity of 140 %–160 %. Genes encoding growth differentiation factor-9 (GDF9) and bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP15) are promising candidates for studying sheep productivity, as they affect fertility in mammals, including sheep. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess the fertility of the Kazakh meat–wool sheep breed based on GDF9 and BMP15 candidate genes of fecundity for the selection of animals with valuable genotypes. We selected 300 heads of the Kazakh meat–wool sheep breed from two populations for PCR-RFLP (polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism) analysis, 15 of which were subsequently used for sequencing of exon regions of the GDF9 and BMP15 genes. The sheep populations were tested for G1 and G8 mutations of the GDF9 gene and B2 and B4 mutations of the BMP15 gene. The PCR-RFLP analysis revealed that 59 (19.7 %) of the 300 Kazakh meat–wool breed sheep were heterozygous carriers of the G1 mutation (genotype AG) of the GDF9 gene, and sequencing analysis supported these results. The comparative phylogenetic analysis showed a clear separation of Kazakh meat–wool sheep wild types and carriers of the G1 mutation. This mutation was reported to have a relationship with the animals' litter size in other sheep breeds. For this reason, similar relationships should be investigated in Kazakh meat–wool sheep. However, G8, B2, and B4 mutations were not detected among the studied animal populations, showing that these mutations are not characteristic of the Kazakh meat–wool sheep breed.
Influence of Mounting Incline and Natural Environmental Factors on Pin-Type Silicone Rubber Insulator Leakage Currents Using Internet-Based Monitoring

High-voltage insulators are essential components in overhead transmission and distribution lines. Various environmental factors and probable mounting inclines may influence the performance of insulators. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously and simultaneously investigate these influences using an internet-based data-logging system. Here, the test samples were vertical, thirty-degree, sixty-degree, and horizontal mounting inclinations on 7.5 kV-subjected pin-type silicone rubber (SiR) insulators. The recorded data included 7,917 measurements acquired every five minutes for a month and then analyzed using statistical tools. At midday, the surrounding environmental temperature, illuminance, and ultraviolet (UV) radiation reached their peak values, whereas the humidity reached its lowest value. The air pollution concentration reached its highest levels in the morning, and rain rarely occurred. The insulator leakage currents reached their top values before dawn and their lowest values at midday. Originally, the typical highest leakage current was the vertical mounting insulator, which reached 1.36 up to 2.36 times that of the remaining insulators; the maximum and maximum typical values were <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$24.27~\mu \text{A}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$4.9~\mu \text{A}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, respectively. Increasing illuminance, UV radiation, and temperature influenced the leakage currents to decrease, but the corresponding leakage currents rose as the humidity, air pollution concentration, and rainfall increased. Based on extrapolations of the data, the vertical mounting insulator is the most vulnerable installation for severe air pollution concentrations, reaching a predicted warning condition of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$287.2~\mu \text{g}/\text{m}^{3}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. However, the horizontal mounting insulator is the least suitable for rainfall above 16.86 mm. The typical shortest forecasted warning condition is 10.3 years on the thirty-degree mounting insulator.