Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of Marker Compounds and In Vitro Toxicity Evaluation of Two Portuguese Asphodelus Leaf Extracts

The leaves of Asphodelus bento-rainhae subsp. bento-rainhae, an endemic Portuguese species, and Asphodelus macrocarpus subsp. macrocarpus have been used as food, and traditionally as medicine, for treating ulcers, urinary tract, and inflammatory disorders. The present study aims to establish the phytochemical profile of the main secondary metabolites, together with the antimicrobial, antioxidant and toxicity assessments of both Asphodelus leaf 70% ethanol extracts. Phytochemical screenings were conducted by the TLC and LC-UV/DAD-ESI/MS chromatographic technique, and quantification of the leading chemical classes was performed by spectrophotometric methods. Liquid-liquid partitions of crude extracts were obtained using ethyl ether, ethyl acetate, and water. For in vitro evaluations of antimicrobial activity, the broth microdilution method, and for the antioxidant activity, the FRAP and DPPH methods were used. Genotoxicity and cytotoxicity were assessed by Ames and MTT tests, respectively. Twelve known compounds including neochlorogenic acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, isoorientin, p-coumaric acid, isovitexin, ferulic acid, luteolin, aloe-emodin, diosmetin, chrysophanol, and β-sitosterol were identified as the main marker compounds, and terpenoids and condensed tannins were found to be the major class of secondary metabolites of both medicinal plants. The ethyl ether fractions demonstrated the highest antibacterial activity against all the Gram-positive microorganisms, (MIC value of 62 to 1000 µg/mL), with aloe-emodin as one of the main marker compounds highly active against Staphylococcus epidermidis (MIC value of 0.8 to 1.6 µg/mL). Ethyl acetate fractions exhibited the highest antioxidant activity (IC50 of 800 to 1200 µg/mL, respectively). No cytotoxicity (up to 1000 µg/mL) or genotoxicity/mutagenicity (up to 5 mg/plate, with/without metabolic activation) were detected. The obtained results contribute to the knowledge of the value and safety of the studied species as herbal medicines.
Optimizing injection molding processing parameters for enhanced mechanical performance of oil palm empty fruit bunch high density polyethylene composites.

Abstract: This study reports on the influence of injection molding processing parameters on mechanical properties of oil palm Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) filled High Density Poly Ethylene (HDPE). The biocomposite pellets were first prepared using an extruder with 20 wt% EFB content before being processed in an injection-molding machine for specimen fabrication. Two processing parameters were varied systematically and independently during the composite sample fabrication. The holding pressure was increased from 60 to 90 bars while the injection temperature was varied from 150 to 210°C. The highest tensile strength of the composites was achieved at 70 bar holding pressure and 150°C injection temperature. However, the highest fracture strength was achieved at 80 bars whilst maintaining the injection temperature at 150°C. Flexural strength was shown to be unaffected by the varying pressure. The optimal processing parameters for highest mechanical performance were found to be at holding pressure of 80 bars and injection temperature of 150°C. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) observation of the fractured surfaces revealed agglomeration of fibers which contributed to poor adhesion of the fibers to the matrix material.
The Role of Organizational Factors and Trust on FinTech Adoption in Indian Financial Organizations

Trust is a crucial factor in technology adoption decisions made by organizations. Understanding its importance is critical for accelerating the adoption of financial technologies (FinTech). Earlier studies investigated the significance of trust in new technologies and the subsequent technology adoption decisions. However, these were limited to studying the benefits of FinTech, and not the factors enabling trust in FinTech and the subsequent adoption decision. This research-in-progress paper aims to investigate the role of organizational factors in enabling trust in FinTech to support FinTech adoption among Indian financial organizations. This study adopts a quantitative method for data collection. The initial data collected from Indian financial organizations indicate the importance of senior management support, organization size and competence in enabling trust in FinTech. The role of organizational factors in enabling trust in FinTech and the subsequent adoption decision will be then assessed using the structural model.
Colonization of oak stumps by the oak pinhole borer in temperate forests and the efficacy of pheromone traps: Implications for pest management

Introduction The present changes in climate and land use have led to an increase in pest population densities. The oak pinhole borer, Platypus cylindrus, is one of the ambrosia beetles, which are known to infect wood tissue with fungi from their mycangia. These fungi are responsible for cellulose degradation. This species is now responsible for more frequent timber damage throughout Europe. Therefore, it is assumed that there is a high risk of P. cylindrus outbreaks in the future with possible subsequent oak diebacks. We focused on (1) the influence of stump diameter on P. cylindrus attraction and abundance; (2) the trapping efficacy by a specific pheromone and the impact on nontarget arthropods; and (3) interannual changes in trap catches. Methods The research was performed from 2015–2017 with a postharvest survey of stumps. We further analyzed the catches of P. cylindrus and of nontarget arthropods on pheromone traps compared to ethanol-baited traps. Results and discussion In total, 12,504 adults were trapped during the 3 years of the study. P. cylindrus abundance was positively correlated with stump diameter and interannual changes. The type of compound used for trapping positively affected the trapping efficacy. However, the pheromone type did not have an impact on nontarget beetles. We consider oak stumps to be a reservoir the oak pinhole borer. Therefore, we recommend their debarking or removal, especially in the case of stumps with a larger diameter (over 61 cm).
Swarm and Evolutionary Algorithms in Image Compression by F-Transform

This article investigates the application of swarm and evolutionary algorithms, namely the SOMA, DE, and GA, for optimizing the F-transform-based image compression. To do this, we introduce the cost function, evaluating the approximation of decompressed images to the original image, concerning the parameters that control the approximation quality of the F-transform. This function is then minimized by the selected algorithms to find optimal settings for image compression and decompression. We design experiments to compare the performance of the original F-transform method and the methods optimized by SOMA, DE, and GA on a dataset of 10 pictures. In all considered cases, the results obtained with the optimized method completely surpass those obtained by the original one. We also apply a statistical test (called Wilcoxon signed-rank test) for ranking the performance of selected algorithms in this issue. The results show that the SOMA and DE perform well in cases where the compressed image sizes are small. However, the GA algorithm shows outperformance in comparison with the others in more complicated cases where the compressed image size is bigger. The outperformance of the GA is in terms of decompression quality and computation time. Finally, we provide a visual comparison between the original F-transform-based method and the method optimized by the GA, tested on a $128\times 128$ picture. The decompressed image by the latter is much sharper and more detailed than that obtained by the former.
Individual Tree-Crown Detection and Species Identification in Heterogeneous Forests Using Aerial RGB Imagery and Deep Learning

Automatic identification and mapping of tree species is an essential task in forestry and conservation. However, applications that can geolocate individual trees and identify their species in heterogeneous forests on a large scale are lacking. Here, we assessed the potential of the Convolutional Neural Network algorithm, Faster R-CNN, which is an efficient end-to-end object detection approach, combined with open-source aerial RGB imagery for the identification and geolocation of tree species in the upper canopy layer of heterogeneous temperate forests. We studied four tree species, i.e., Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst. ), silver fir (Abies alba Mill.), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), growing in heterogeneous temperate forests. To fully explore the potential of the approach for tree species identification, we trained single-species and multi-species models. For the single-species models, the average detection accuracy (F1 score) was 0.76. Picea abies was detected with the highest accuracy, with an average F1 of 0.86, followed by A. alba (F1 = 0.84), F. sylvatica (F1 = 0.75), and Pinus sylvestris (F1 = 0.59). Detection accuracy increased in multi-species models for Pinus sylvestris (F1 = 0.92), while it remained the same or decreased slightly for the other species. Model performance was more influenced by site conditions, such as forest stand structure, and less by illumination. Moreover, the misidentification of tree species decreased as the number of species included in the models increased. In conclusion, the presented method can accurately map the location of four individual tree species in heterogeneous forests and may serve as a basis for future inventories and targeted management actions to support more resilient forests.
A New Interpretation of Relative Importance on an Analysis of Per and Polyfluorinated Alkyl Substances (PFAS) Exposures on Bone Mineral Density

Background: The relative contribution of environmental contaminants is an important, and frequently unanswered, question in human or ecological risk assessments. This interpretation of relative importance allows determination of the overall effect of a set of variables relative to other variables on an adverse health outcome. There are no underlying assumptions of independence of variables. The tool developed and used here is specifically designed for studying the effects of mixtures of chemicals on a particular function of the human body. Methods: We apply the approach to estimate the contributions of total exposure to six PFAS (perfluorodecanoic acid, perfluorohexane sulfonic acid, 2-(N-methyl-PFOSA) acetate, perfluorononanoic acid, perfluoroundecanoic acid and perfluoroundecanoic acid) to loss of bone mineral density relative to other factors related to risk of osteoporosis and bone fracture, using data from subjects who participated in the US National Health Examination and Nutrition Surveys (NHANES) of 2013–2014. Results: PFAS exposures contribute to bone mineral density changes relative to the following variables: age, weight, height, vitamin D2 and D3, gender, race, sex hormone binding globulin, testosterone, and estradiol. Conclusion: We note significant alterations to bone mineral density among more highly exposed adults and significant differences in effects between men and women.
Body location embedded 3D U-Net (BLE-U-Net) for ovarian cancer ascites segmentation on CT scans

Ascites is often regarded as the hallmark of advanced ovarian cancer, which is the most lethal gynecologic malignancy. Ascites segmentation contributes to track the progress of ovarian cancer development by providing accurate ascites measurement, which can effectively guide subsequent treatment and potentially reduce the mortality. Segmentation of ascites is challenging due to the presence of iso-intense fluids such as bile, urine, etc., near the ascites region. In this work we propose a novel 3D U-Net segmentation method called body location embedded U-Net (BLE-U-Net) that integrates anatomical location information with the segmentation process. BLE-U-Net incorporates body part regression to predict the approximate anatomical location of each CT slice along the z- axis. The regression scores are discretized to indicate different body regions and embedded into a modified 3D U-Net to improve the ascites segmentation. Twenty contrast-enhanced body CT scans were used to evaluate the proposed method. Dice coefficients of 38 ±10 and 65 ±06 were achieved for a conventional 3D U-Net and BLE-U-Net, respectively (with t-test p <0.05). Volumes of segmented ascites were 0.51±0.74 and 0.57±0.85 liters for each method where the ground-truth volume was 0.58±0.84 liters. These results suggest that the embedded location information is the key factor to improve the ascites segmentation, which could potentially benefit ovarian cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Fatigue and switching in ferroelectric memories: Theory and experiment

A theoretical model of fatigue in ferroelectric thin‐film memories based upon impact ionization (e.g., Ti+4 to Ti+3 conversion in PbZr1−xTixO3), resulting in dendritic growth of oxygen‐deficient filaments, is presented. The predictions of spontaneous polarization versus switching cycles Ps(N) are compared with both Monte Carlo simulations for a two‐dimensional Ising model and with experimental data on small‐grain (40 nm) sol‐gel PZT films. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment is obtained. In addition to modeling the Ps(N) curves, the theory developed explains the observed linear proportionality between switching time ts(N) and polarization Ps(N) during fatigue; other models of aging do not account for this. Earlier theories of switching are also extended to include finite grain sizes, surface nucleation, triangular drive pulses, and dipolar forces. Good agreement with sol‐gel PZT switching data is obtained.
Study of the Bcl-2 Interactome by BiFC Reveals Differences in the Activation Mechanism of Bax and Bak

Evasion of apoptosis is one of the hallmarks of cancer cells. Proteins of the Bcl-2 family are key regulators of the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis, and alterations in some of these proteins are frequently found in cancer cells. Permeabilization of the outer mitochondrial membrane, regulated by pro- and antiapoptotic members of the Bcl-2 family of proteins, is essential for the release of apoptogenic factors leading to caspase activation, cell dismantlement, and death. Mitochondrial permeabilization depends on the formation of oligomers of the effector proteins Bax and Bak after an activation event mediated by BH3-only proteins and regulated by antiapoptotic members of the Bcl-2 family. In the present work, we have studied interactions between different members of the Bcl-2 family in living cells via the BiFC technique. Despite the limitations of this technique, present data suggest that native proteins of the Bcl-2 family acting inside living cells establish a complex network of interactions, which would fit nicely into “mixed” models recently proposed by others. Furthermore, our results point to differences in the regulation of Bax and Bak activation by proteins of the antiapoptotic and BH3-only subfamilies. We have also applied the BiFC technique to explore the different molecular models proposed for Bax and Bak oligomerization. Bax and Bak’s mutants lacking the BH3 domain were still able to associate and give BiFC signals, suggesting the existence of alternative surfaces of interaction between two Bax or Bak molecules. These results agree with the widely accepted symmetric model for the dimerization of these proteins and also suggest that other regions, different from the α6 helix, could be involved in the oligomerization of BH3-in groove dimers.
Efficient Observer Design for Ambulatory Estimation of Body Centre of Mass Position

Complementary Linear Filter (CLF) is a common techinque employed for estimating the ground projection of body Centre of Mass starting from ground reaction forces. This method fuses centre of pressure position and double integration of horizontal forces, selecting best cut-off frequencies for low-pass and high-pass filters. Classical Kalman filter is a substantially equivalent approach, as both methods rely on an overall quantification of error/noise and don’t analyze its origin and time-dependence. In order to overcome such limitations, a Time-Varying Kalman Filter (TVKF) is proposed in this paper: the effect of unknown variables is directly taken into account by employing a statistical description which is obtained from experimental data. To this end, in this paper we have employed a dataset of 8 walking healthy subjects: beside supplying gait cycles at different speeds, it deals with subjects in age of development and provides a wide range of body sizes, allowing therefore to assess the observers’ behaviour under different conditions. The comparison carried out between CLF and TVKF appears to highlight several advantages of the latter method in terms of better average performance and smaller variability. Results presented in this paper suggest that a strategy which incorporates a statistical description of unknown variables and a time-varying structure can yield a more reliable observer. The demonstrated methodology sets a tool that can undergo a broader investigation to be carried out including more subjects and different walking styles.
Turbulent boundary-layer control with spanwise travelling waves

It has been demonstrated through numerical simulations using Lorentz forcing that spanwise travelling waves on turbulent wall flows can lead to a skin-friction drag reduction on the order of 30%. As an aeronautical application of this innovative flow control technique, we have investigated into the use of Dielectric-Barrier-Discharge (DBD) plasma actuators to generate spanwise travelling waves in air. The near-wall structures modified by the spanwise travelling waves were studied using the PIV technique in a wind tunnel, while the associated turbulence statistics were carefully documented using hot-wire anemometry. We observed the spreading of low-speed fluid by the spanwise travelling streamwise vortices, which seems to have greatly attenuated the turbulence production process. This is very much in line with the finding of DNS studies, where wide low-speed ribbons replaced the low-speed streaks.
Large-scale patterning of indium tin oxide electrodes for guided mode extraction from organic light-emitting diodes

We describe a cost-efficient and large area scalable production process of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with photonic crystals (PCs) as extraction elements for guided modes. Using laser interference lithography and physical plasma etching, we texture the indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode layer of an OLED with one- and two-dimensional PC gratings. By optical transmission measurements, the resonant mode of the grating is shown to have a drift of only 0.4% over the 5mm length of the ITO grating. By changing the lattice constant between 300 and 600nm, the OLED emission angle of enhanced light outcoupling is tailored from −24.25° to 37°. At these angles, the TE emission is enhanced up to a factor of 2.14.
Electrodynamics of solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions

The authors present a coherent picture of fundamental physical processes in three basic elements of the SW-I (solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere) coupling system: (i) the field-aligned potential structure which leads to the formation of auroral arcs; (ii) the magnetosphere coupling which leads to the onset of magnetospheric substorms; and (iii) the solar wind-magnetosphere dynamo which supplies the power for driving various magnetospheric processes. The field-aligned potential structure on auroral lines is forced into existence by the loss-cone constriction effect when the upward field-aligned current density exceeds the loss-cone thermal flux limit. The substorm onset occurs when the ionosphere responds fully to the enhanced magnetospheric convection driven by the solar wind. The energy is transferred from the solar wind to the magnetosphere by a dynamo process primarily on open field lines. >
Hopf Galois Extensions and Forms of Coalgebras and Hopf algebras

The results of this thesis are motivated by problems in the descent theory of coalgebras and Hopf algebras. If H and H ′ are coalgebras (or Hopf algebras) over the same field K, we attempt to find out when they are isomorphic after an extension of the base field. In other words, when is L⊗K H ∼= L⊗K H ′ for some field extension K ⊆ L? If H and H ′ are related in this way, they are said to be L-forms of each other. In the course of studying descent theory, it becomes apparent that the nature of the field extension plays a key role. In the descent theory of Hopf algebras, this leads us naturally to the notion of Hopf Galois extensions. Hopf Galois extensions are generalizations of classical Galois field extensions, and are of interest in their own right. The first three chapters of this thesis are devoted primarily to background material. Only 3.30 was previously unknown. Chapter 1 defines coalgebras and Hopf algebras, and gives an introduction to some of the elementary results in Hopf algebras. Chapter 2 contains the basic definitions of descent theory, and shows how these concepts can be applied to coalgebras and Hopf algebras. Chapter 3 introduces Hopf algebra actions and coactions on associative algebras, and develops these ideas to give us the definition of Hopf Galois extensions. In Chapter 4, we begin the original results with the study of U(g)-Galois extensions. We use a result of Bell to construct a “PBW”-like basis for faithfully
A Data Augmentation Method for English-Vietnamese Neural Machine Translation

The translation quality of machine translation systems depends on the parallel corpus used for training, particularly on the quantity and quality of the corpus. However, building a high-quality and large-scale parallel corpus is complex and expensive, particularly for a specific domain-parallel corpus. Therefore, data augmentation techniques are widely used in machine translation. The input of the back-translation method is monolingual text, which is available from many sources, and therefore, this method can be easily and effectively implemented to generate synthetic parallel data. In practice, monolingual texts can be collected from different sources, in which sources from websites often contain errors in grammar and spelling, sentence mismatch, or freestyle. Therefore, the quality of the output translation is reduced, leading to a low-quality parallel corpus generated by back-translation. In this study, we proposed a method for improving the quality of monolingual texts for back-translation. Moreover, we supplemented the data by pruning the translation table. We experimented with an English-Vietnamese neural machine translation using the IWSLT2015 dataset for training and testing in the legal domain. The results showed that the proposed method can effectively augment parallel data for machine translation, thereby improving translation quality. In our experimental cases, the BLEU score increased by 16.37 points compared with the baseline system.
The truncated second-order nonlinear filter revisited

By rederiving the truncated second-order nonlinear filter, it is shown that the original derivations of this filter contain errors, or at least illogical approximations. The so-called modified truncated second-order nonlinear filter is, furthermore, shown to be the correct form of this filter provided a small correction is made in the discrete-time case.