Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Signalling Crosstalk of Plant Defence Responses to Xylem-invading Pathogens

Xylem is a plant vascular tissue that transports water and dissolved minerals from the roots to the rest of the plant. It consists of specialized water-conducting tracheary ele‐ ments, supporting fibre cells and storage parenchyma cells. Certain plant pathogenic fun‐ gi, oomycetes and bacteria have evolved strategies to invade xylem vessels and cause highly destructive vascular wilt diseases that affect the crop production and forest eco‐ systems worldwide. In this chapter, we consider the molecular mechanisms of root-spe‐ cific defence responses against vascular wilt pathogens, with an emphasis on the most important and well-studied fungal ( Verticillium spp. and Fusarium oxysporum ) and bacteri‐ al ( Xanthomonas spp. and Ralstonia solanacearum ) pathogens. In particular, we present the current understanding of plant immune responses, from invasion perception to signal transduction and termination. Furthermore, we address the role of specific transcription factors involved in plant immunity and their regulatory network. We also highlight the crucial roles of phytohormones as signalling molecules in local and systemic defence re‐ sponses. Finally, we summarize the current knowledge of plant defence responses to xy‐ lem-invading pathogens to devise new strategies and methods for controlling these destructive plant pathogens.
Understanding Student Learning Behavior and Predicting Their Performance

Despite the increase in the adoption of online educational platforms, student retention is still a challenging task with a number of students having low performance margins during these courses. This chapter intends to predict student performance based on their learning behavior on the basis of their logging data history, using the publicly available Open University Learning Analytics Dataset. To model this problem, logistic regression (LR) is used as a baseline technique. Additionally, random forest (RF), multiple layered perceptron with multiple activation functions, and Gaussian Naïve Bayes are also deployed. The results demonstrate that RF outperforms the baseline LR and other models with 89% accuracy, 89% precision, 88% recall, and 88% F1-score. Finally, the authors conclude that using the above-mentioned models, students “at-risk” can be identified which can be managed by an alert mechanism to improve student success rate by making timely interventions.
Coprinus comatus , a newly domesticated wild nutriceutical mushroom in the Philippines

The mycelial growth performance on indigenous culture media and the optimum physical conditions (pH, aeration and illumination) of C. comatus as a prelude to its domestication were investigated in this study. In our desire to develop technology for its aseptic cultivation for our immediate plan of using this mushroom for nutriceutical purposes, we have tried growing this mushroom under sterile condition. As such, the amino acid profile and toxicity of C. comatus were also elucidated. Results of our investigation revealed that C. comatus grown in sealed plates of coconut water gelatin (pH 6.5) produced very dense mycelial growth, 6 days after incubation in the dark. Early initiation of fruiting bodies was observed in bottles containing previously sterilized sawdust (8 parts): rice grit (2 parts) formulation. Matured fruiting bodies were harvested 8 days after inoculation having 18% biological efficiency. C. comatus contains more standard (1643 mg/100g sample) than non standard amino acid (465 mg/100g). Eight essential amino acids were detected namely Valine>Leucine>Lysine>Isoleucine>Threonine>Phenylalanine>Tryptophan>Methionine in decreasing order of abundance. Glutamic acid though non-essential is also present in high proportion (441.6 mg/100g). The presence of γamino butyric acid (GABA) and Ornithine as non-standard amino acid in addition to its standard amino acid contents make this mushroom a nutriceutical species. Results of the in vitro assay for the inhibition of angiotensin converting enzyme confirmed its importance as antihypertensive natural source of nutriceutical.
Comparison of the lenstar optical biometer and A-scan ultrasonography to measure ocular components

The purpose of this study was to compare ocular component dimensions and treated minus control eye differences measured with the Lenstar optical biometer to those measured with A-scan ultrasound in the tree shrew model of refractive development and induced myopia. A-scan ultrasonographic measures (A-scan) were taken with a 15 MHz focused pulser/receiver and compared with measures made with the Lenstar LS900 optical biometer (Haag-Streit, Basel, Switzerland). Anterior segment depth (ASD), lens thickness (LT), vitreous chamber depth (VCD), and axial length (AL) were measured in treated eyes (30), fellow control eyes (30), and normal eyes (86) in tree shrews (n=146), between 10 days after eye opening (days of visual experience [DVE]) and 1973 DVE. Lenstar VCD analyses were made using the retinal cursors. Treated vs. control eye differences were measured (n=60) in eyes made hyperopic or myopic by treatment with a monocular lens or by form deprivation. The A-scan measures and Lenstar measures were generally comparable (3.5% smaller) when the Lenstar was compared to the A-scan excluding vitreous chamber, which was substantially smaller (23%). If either the lens cursors or the retinal cursors (international software version) were used to measure vitreous chamber depth, Lenstar
Stress effect on the kinetics of silicon thermal oxidation

Oxidation of silicon wafers under external mechanical stress was studied in this work. From the oxide thickness profile measured by an automatic-scanning ellipsometer, it was found that the oxidation kinetics of silicon were significantly affected by mechanical stress. There are two distinct features of oxide thickness distribution corresponding to short and long times. By comparing the kinetic constants taken from experiments and the simulated stress distribution on the silicon wafer, we can possibly explain the two features of oxide thickness distribution: the initial rate constant is deformation dependent and the parabolic rate constant is stress dependent. The observed stress-dependent oxidation rates are important in the study of thin gate oxide reliability.
Effect of physical and inhaled euthanasia methods on hormonal measures of stress in pigs

Materials and methods: Plasma concentrations of cortisol, norepinephrine, and lactate were determined immediately before and after two-step electrocution (n = 39; 7.1 ± 0.5 kg), captive bolt (n = 61; 12.3 ± 1.9 kg), 70% N2/30% CO2 at a displacement rate equivalent to 20% of the chamber volume per minute (n = 16; 2.3 ± 0.3 kg), and 100% CO2 at 10% (n = 4; 1.9 ± 0.2 kg) and 20% (n = 12; 1.9 ± 0.1 kg) chamber volume displacement rate per minute. Results: Mean cortisol concentrations did not differ following captive bolt, electrocution, and 70% N2/30% CO2 or 100% CO2 at 20% of the chamber volume per minute (P > .05). The decrease in cortisol concentrations with 100% CO2 at 10% of the chamber volume per minute was different (P < .05) than the increase observed with 100% CO2 at 20% of the chamber volume per minute and different (P < .05) than the increase observed with captive bolt; however, differences were small. All methods increased mean lactate and norepinephrine concentrations post euthanasia, with no observed differences between methods. Times to loss of consciousness and loss of heartbeat were shorter with CO2 than with 70% N2/30% CO2 (P < .05).
Application of chitosan solutions for rice production in Vietnam

Preparing chitosan solutions from shrimp shells for rice production was investigated. The chitosan produced from shrimp shells using dilute acetic acid proved effective in controlling plants infection by microbial agents leading to higher yields. The field data of our studies showed that the yields of rice significantly increased (~31%) after applying chitosan solution. In general, applying chitosan increased rice production and reduced cost of production significantly. Keywords: Chitosan solution, rice production, common brown backed rice plant hoppers African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(4), pp. 382-384
Black-White Intergroup Relations in France . The Impact of Social Desirability and Antiracist Norm in Interethnic Relations Using the RepMut Tool

The aim of this research is to characterize Black-White interethnic relations in France, differentiating between the weight of the antiracist norm and the categorization effects. The specificity of this study is based on the methodology used to understand these relationships. Our methodology, which uses the RepMut tool, allows us to identify intergroup relations based on data produced and evaluated by the two groups studied. The results of our approach show a) an in-group favoritism strategy for the Black group underpinned by conventional mechanisms of categorization, b) an out-group favoritism strategy for the White group underpinned by the antiracist norm. The discussion focuses on the antiracist norm and its implications for understanding intergroup relations according to the specific context of interethnic relations.
Opportunities and obstacles for rangeland conservation in San Diego County, California, USA

Working landscapes such as rangelands are increasingly recognized as having high conservation value, providing a variety of ecosystem services, including food, fiber, habitat, recreation, open space, carbon storage, and water, in addition to a broad range of social benefits. However, conversion of rangelands to other land uses has been prevalent throughout the western United States, leading to greater attention in the conservation community to the importance of collaborating with private landowners. The level of interest in collaborative conservation among private landowners and the types of conservation programs they choose to participate in depend on the social, economic, and environmental context. We used GIS analysis and interviews with ranchers to evaluate rangeland conversion and participation in conservation programs among ranchers in San Diego County, California, USA, which is part of a biodiversity hotspot with high plant species richness and a large number of endemic and rare species. We found that 21,210 ha (3.1%) of rangelands were converted to other uses over the past 25 years, primarily for urbanization, while the area of public rangeland increased by 9%. Interviews revealed that ranchers in San Diego County have had limited involvement with most conservation programs, and a critical factor for nonparticipation was providing programs access to private land, along with other issues related to trust and social values. Among ranchers who had participated in conservation programs, the payment level and the agency or organization administering the program were key factors. Our results provide insight into factors influencing whether and when ranchers are likely to participate in conservation initiatives and illustrate that private and public land conservation are strongly linked and would be more effective if the two strategies were better integrated.
Homotopy Meaningful Hybrid Model Structures

Hybrid systems are systems that display both discrete and continuous behavior and, therefore, have the ability to model a wide range of robotic systems such as those undergoing impacts. The main observation of this paper is that systems of this form relate in a natural manner to very special diagrams over a category, termed hybrid objects. Using the theory of model categories, which provides a method for "doing homotopy theory" on general categories satisfying certain axioms, we are able to understand the homotopy theoretic properties of such hybrid objects in terms of their "non-hybrid" counterparts. Specifically, given a model category, we obtain a "homotopy meaningful" model structure on the category of hybrid objects over this category with the same discrete structure, i.e., a model structure that relates to the original non-hybrid model structure by means of homotopy colimits, which necessarily exist. This paper, therefore, lays the groundwork for "hybrid homotopy theory. "
Network Lifetime Enhancement for Wireless Body Area Networks

The increasing use of wireless networks and the constant miniaturization of electrical devices have empowered the development of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). WBAN is designed to operate autonomously by establishing a wireless communication link. Various medical sensors and appliances are attached or implanted inside and outside of a human body. The media access control (MAC) layer plays an important role in deciding the energy efficiency. We do the research on the adaptive energy efficient Medium Access Control protocol used in WBAN, so to increase the network lifetime. The proposed protocols show increase in common node remaining energy, cluster node remaining energy, BAN co-or node remaining energy and decreasing in delay. This is achieved because of dynamic duty cycle and priorities based message passing schemes.
A FRAMEWORK FOR AUTOMATIC OPTIMIZATION OF MAPREDUCE PROGRAMS BASED ON JOB PARAMETER CONFIGURATIONS By PRAVEEN KUMAR LAKKIMSETTI

Recently, cost-effective and timely processing of large datasets has been playing an important role in the success of many enterprises and the scientific computing community. Two promising trends ensure that applications will be able to deal with ever increasing data volumes: first, the emergence of cloud computing, which provides transparent access to a large number of processing, storage and networking resources; and second, the development of the MapReduce programming model, which provides a high-level abstraction for data-intensive computing. MapReduce has been widely used for large-scale data analysis in the Cloud [5]. The system is well recognized for its elastic scalability and fine-grained fault tolerance. However, even to run a single program in a MapReduce framework, a number of tuning parameters have to be set by users or system administrators to increase the efficiency of the program. Users often run into performance problems because they are unaware of how to set these parameters, or because they don't even know that these parameters exist. With MapReduce being a relatively new technology, it is not easy to find qualified administrators [4]. The major objective of this project is to provide a framework that optimizes MapReduce programs that run on large datasets. This is done by executing the MapReduce program on a part of the dataset using stored parameter combinations and setting the program with the most efficient combination and this modified program can be executed over the different datasets. We know that many MapReduce programs are used over and over again in applications like daily weather analysis, log analysis, daily report generation etc. So, once the parameter combination is set, it can be used on a number of data sets efficiently. This feature can go a long way towards improving the productivity of users who lack the skills to optimize programs themselves due to lack of familiarity with MapReduce or with the data being processed.
The basic theory underlying the quasi-steady-state cosmology

Outside cosmology, the procedure normally followed in science requires the integration of hyperbolic partial differential equations subject to initial data given on a free surface, which is usually taken to be a time section of spacetime. The initial data are determined in experimental science from observation and the results of the integrations are also checked by observations. Friedmann (Big Bang) cosmology suffers, however, from the fact that the observations cannot determine initial conditions. Thus in that theory the initial conditions have only the weak status of guesses. There is also some question whether the correct equations are being used, since the gravitational equations of that cosmology are not scale invariant, a situation unlike the rest of physics. Since matter exists in what is supposed to be a space of finite temporal duration its origin should be explained, working from a suitable lagrangian and action. Otherwise the origin is placed outside science. This is what is done in Big Bang cosmology. In this paper we depart from the standard procedure by first deriving gravitational equations that are scale invariant, whence it is shown that in a scale invariant gravitational theory particles have the property that the two lengths associated with them, the Compton wavelength and gravitational radius, must be comparable, i.e. they are Planck particles. It is then shown that the theory has the scope to explain the genesis of the so-called cosmological constant, and the usually required magnitude of the cosmological constant is derived. When interactions other than gravitation are included, Planck particles are unstable. The effect of instability on newly created Planck particles is to introduce terms into the gravitational equations additional to those of general relativity. In particular, there are negative pressure terms which act to expand the universe. The energy terms are such as to suggest that particle creation must be of an explosive nature and that it must occur in the neighbourhoods of highly compacted bodies, a property which appears to provide a connection between cosmological theory and high-energy astrophysics.
Optimal performance from center pivot sprinkler systems

A good supply of groundwater and the commercial development of center pivot irrigation systems significantly increased sprinkler-irrigated acreage in southern Idaho during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Today, center pivot systems, with their automation, large areal coverage, reliability, high application uniformity, and ability to operate on relatively rough topography, are replacing surface; handline, and wheelline systems. The irrigated area under a center pivot system expands substantially with increasing system length. To accommodate the increased area, the application rate increases linearly along the center pivot lateral through one of two methods: increased flow rates through equally spaced Sprinklers or gradually decreased spacing of equal-flow sprinklers along the center pivot lateral. The most common approach is to have equally spaced sprinklers with increasing flow rates (nozzle sizes) along the center pivot lateral.
Chapter 3 Can Organic Crop Production Feed the World ?

Agriculture provides the most essential service to mankind, as production of crops in sufficient amounts is necessary for food security and livelihood. This chapter examines the question of whether organic agriculture can produce enough food to meet future demand. This question relates to a moral imperative and any evaluation must therefore be based on objective scientific facts excluding ideological bias, political correctness, economic incentives or environmental opinions. The chapter begins by defining the conditions necessary for a stringent evaluation of crop yields and explains potential pitfalls. Yield data from national statistics, organic and conventional long-term experiments and comparative studies are then compiled and evaluated, followed by a discussion of the main factors behind low-yielding production. In a global perspective, the scientific literature shows that organic yields are between 25 and 50% lower than conventional yields, depending on whether the organic system has access to animal manure. The amount of manure available on organic farms is usually not sufficient to produce similar crop yields as in conventional systems and therefore green manures are commonly used. However, organic crop yields reported for rotations with green manure require correction for years without crop export from the field, which reduces average yield over the crop rotation. When organic yields are similar to those in conventional production, nutrient input through manure is usually higher than nutrient addition in conventional agriculture, but such high inputs are usually only possible through transfer of large amounts of manure from conventional to organic production. The main factors limiting organic yields are lower nutrient availability, poorer weed control and limited possibilities to improve the nutrient status of infertile soils. It is thus very likely that the rules that actually define organic agriculture, i.e. exclusive use of manures and untreated minerals, greatly limit the potential to increase yields. Our analysis of some yield-related statements repeatedly used by advocates of organic agriculture reached the following conclusions: Organic manure is a severely limited resource, unavailable in quantities sufficient for sustaining high crop yields; legumes are not a free and environmentally sound N source that can replace inorganic fertilisers throughout; and low native soil fertility cannot be overcome with local inputs and untreated minerals alone.
Photofermentative Poly-3-Hydroxybutyrate Production by Rhodopseudomonas Sp. S16-VOGS3 in a Novel Outdoor L-Shaped Row Photobioreactor

In the present study, the performance of a 70 L photobioreactor, operating outdoors, was investigated using a purple bacterial strain as Rhodopseudomonas sp. S16-VOGS3 for producing poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB). The novel photobioreactor was equipped with 5L-shaped rows; the bottom of every row was placed in a stainless-steel tank containing water with controlled temperature. The photofermentation trials were carried out under fed-batch mode and under a semi-continuous regimen using lactic acid as carbon source. The effect of the irradiance and the C/N ratio on the PHB accumulation was investigated, in order to evaluate the optimal bacterial growth. The results showed the feasibility of the prototype photobioreactor for the production of PHB by Rhodopseudomonas sp. S16-VOGS3 under the natural light/dark cycle. During the fed-batch growth (144 h long), the cumulative PHB increased quickly reaching the maximum value of 377 mg/L and decreased to 255 mg/L during the semi-continuous regimen (336 h long).
Identifying Free-riding in Home Renovation Programs Using Revealed Preference Data

Summary Identifying free-ridership is significant to several issues relevant to program evaluation, including the calculation of net program benefits and assessments of political acceptability. Despite the potential of free-ridership to seriously undermine the economic efficiency of a program intervention, for instance to foster energy efficiency, the issue remains largely absent from contemporary environmental and energy policy discussions in Europe. One reason for this neglect is the inherent difficulty of assessing which households would have undertaken the energy conservation activity even without the program. This paper proposes a procedure to calculate the free-rider share using revealed preference data on home renovations from Germany’s residential sector.We employ a discrete-choice model to analyze the effect of grants on renovation choices, the output from which is used to assess the extent of free-ridership under a subsidy program very akin to an implemented grants program in Germany. Our empirical results suggest only very moderate energy savings induced by the program, making free-riding a problem of outstanding importance.
The Association between Urban Sprawl and Obesity: Is it a Two-Way Street?

We empirically examine the relationship between obesity and urban de- velopment patterns where individuals reside. Previous analyses treat urban form as exogenous to weight, and find higher body mass indices (BMI) among residents of areas with sprawl patterns of development. Using samples of recent movers, we find that the causality runs in both directions. Individuals who move to denser locations lose weight. As well, BMI is a determinant of the choice of a dense or sprawling location. In sum, while moving to a dense area results in weight loss, such locations are unlikely to be selected by individuals with high BMI.