Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Food subsidy distribution system through Blockchain technology: a value focused thinking approach for prototype development

ABSTRACT Developing economies provide basic food commodities to the economically backward sections of the society at subsidized prices to reduce food insecurity. The main objective of these programs is to insulate the poor from the impact of rising prices of food commodities and maintain the minimum nutritional status of the population. However, there are financial mismanagement and issues associated with the current working of these schemes that attributed to the illicit diversion of the commodities, urban bias, serious wastage of food and inefficient supervision during the distribution process. Thus, the policy implementation fails to reach its intended beneficiaries. We used principles of Value-Focused Thinking (VFT) to understand this problem at the grass root level by consulting the various stakeholders involved in the food subsidy value-chain. Based on these findings from VFT, we propose a Blockchain-based system demonstrated through a prototype to provide a robust solution for the aforementioned research context.
Aberrant rRNA 2'-O-Methylation Causes Bone Marrow Failure and Defective Immune Function

RNA modifications are emerging as key determinants of development and disease. Understanding the mechanisms regulating their functional impact is crucial to uncovering their relevance for disease pathology. The NPM1 gene is frequently a target of genetic alteration in hematological tumors, particularly of the myeloid lineage. While extensively studied, the mechanisms by which NPM1 exert its impact on HSPCs are still not fully elucidated. Recently, we have identified NPM1 as an essential regulator of rRNA 2'-O-methylation (2'OMe). We found that NPM1, through its RNA-binding activity, binds C/D box small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) in the nucleolus, to regulate rRNA 2'OMe, and thereby controls translation. Additionally, we identified NPM1 germ-line mutations in dyskeratosis congenita patients presenting with BMF. Characterization of these mutations found them as selectively deficient in snoRNA binding, and thus their expression led to reduce 2'OMe levels and aberrant translation in patient cells. To causally link reduced 2'OMe to dyskeratosis congenita manifestation, we generated mice harboring a dyskeratosis congenita germ-line NPM1 mutation. The KI mice phenocopy both hematological and non-hematological DC features, thus casually linking mutated NPM1 and reduced 2'OMe to bone marrow failure. Currently, we are taking advantage of our Npm1-mutated mouse model to explore the role of 2'OMe in mature immune cell function. We find that aberrant 2'OMe in mature macrophages (due to Npm1 mutation) does not affect their maturation, however, it leads to altered functions. Specifically, we find that Npm1-mutated macrophages, with reduced 2'OMe, display reduced production of reactive oxygen species, chemotactic properties and phagocytic capacity. These studies demonstrate a role for Npm1 and 2'OMe in adult immune cells, and reveal the importance of translation regulation in both hematopoietic stem cells and mature macrophage function. Figure No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Entrepreneurial Cooperation Model between University and SMEs: A Case Study in Iran

The purpose of this research is to design and explain an entrepreneurial cooperation model between a university and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The main research question is as follows: What are the elements and conditions of development for entrepreneurial cooperation between the university and SMEs? In this study, a qualitative research method called grounded theory has been used. Data collection was conducted through a semi-structured interview, observation and, afterwards, library studies. The number of interviews continued until theoretical saturation was reached and, in each interview, the coding was modified and edited compared to the previous interview. Based on this model, the goals and motivations of entrepreneurial cooperation were introduced as the causal conditions, entrepreneurial cooperation between the university and SMEs was introduced as the main phenomenon, environmental issues and the entrepreneurship cooperation ecosystem were introduced as the background conditions, the context and infrastructure of entrepreneurial cooperation were introduced as the mediator condition and entrepreneurial cooperation consequence was introduced as the model consequence. The strategies of the entrepreneurship cooperation model between the university and SMEs are as follows: strategies related to the private sector and strategies related to the non-private sector.
Solar-assisted membrane technology for water purification: a review

A shortage of safe drinking water is one of the leading problems in the world. Even in developed countries where water treatment systems are present, safe drinking water may not be always available due to the limitations of advanced water treatment techniques and high energy costs. On the other hand, many rural communities in Asia and Africa situated in semi-arid to arid regions are without reliable access to clean drinking water. It is, therefore, important to explore how solar energy can be linked to water treatment systems for clean drinking water production. Membrane-based water purification technologies play a major role in water purification by utilization of low-cost heat sources to make the process economically and technically viable for small, medium, and large-scale applications. Solar energy can be a viable source of power for water purification facilities in the coming years. Photovoltaic panels and solar thermal collectors are appropriate solar energy collectors for making a solar-powered water treatment system. Solar-assisted membrane-based water purification techniques could have a viable solution to the existing problems in semi-arid and arid regions. Due to the high quality of potable water demand, studies have been carried out on solar-assisted membrane-based technologies in water purification. This review considers basic concepts, specific energy consumption, water production cost, and applications of solar-driven membrane-based water purification technologies such as reverse osmosis, forward osmosis, electrodialysis, membrane distillation, and hybrid membrane systems. This review will allow the researchers to have a wider overview of the effort made by several investigators in the area of solar-assisted membrane-based water purification technology.
A Promise Kept? The Impact of the El Dorado Promise Scholarship on Student Achievement

We examine whether the El Dorado Promise, a guaranteed college scholarship program for students in the El Dorado School District (EDSD), affected elementary and middle school achievement using a quasi-experimental matching design. We first match the EDSD with similar districts to create a pool of potential comparison students then match students on prior achievement and demographics. The Promise leads to an estimated 0.11 standard deviation gain in math achievement; this effect is statistically significant and practically meaningful. Results are similar from district-level synthetic control and difference-in-differences analyses. We find larger effects on students with above-average prior achievement. We are unable to construct an appropriate comparison group to estimate the impact of the Promise on literacy achievement.
Scratch Detection in Cars Using Mask Region Convolution Neural Networks

This task depends on quality control in the vehicle business. It centers on the imprint and harms in new cars before producing to the client. This project presents the development of a system of recognition of defects and cosmetic imperfections in cars. This application gives a quick and strong robotized results. It likewise gives framework acknowledgement of scratches. In the as of now existing framework, the way toward distinguishing the scratches in car is finished by our mankind. Using the input frames, sections of the vehicles are entered for training, the last Fully-connected layer is altered so that it only has two exit categories: Sections with scratches and without scratches. This project is mainly developed to minimize manpower and maximize automation on quality department in automobile industry. It is a computer vision project. It includes task such as acquiring, processing, analyzing and understanding digital images and extraction of high dimensional data. An image processing algorithm is used in order to manipulate an image to achieve an aesthetic standard and to provide a translation between the human visual system and digital imaging services.
Effects of Oxygen on PbS Films

The effect of oxygen on the conductivity of vacuum evaporated PbS films has been experimentally investigated. When outgassed these films are n‐type semiconductors. If they are exposed to oxygen at temperatures below about 200°C, the conductivity decreases with increasing pressure and then increases again. The thermoelectric power changes from negative to positive, but less than 10—3 moleO2/molePbS is sorbed by the film.Above 200°C the conductivity merely decreases when oxygen is admitted, and the thermoelectric power becomes small. The film gradually absorbs all the oxygen in the vacuum system and evolves a good deal of SO2. When the reaction is complete, the conductivity returns to its initial value, and the thermoelectric power is once again negative. The film can repeatedly absorb large amounts of oxygen without there being any permanent change in electrical properties.It is concluded that these films are composed of two layers. Next to the substrate there is a conducting layer that chemisorbs oxygen b.
Hydrogen Fuel: Opportunities and Barriers

The fact that 65% of the oil use is by the transportation sector, the increasing gap between the oil supply and demand, and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions make the introduction of alternative fuels, together with large energy efficiency gains, a key to sustainable mobility, both nationally and globally. The history of alternative fuels has not been very successful. Various economic, social, and technological barriers have impeded the acceptance of energy carriers such as hydrogen as a major transportation fuel. An effective interaction between the societal system of vehicle owners and a supply infrastructure of alternative fuels is needed for mass adoption of these future technologies. However, hydrogen due to its production pathways, particularly from renewable resources, inexhaustible, and clean nature, an ubiquitous presence and its promise of a sustainable transportable energy source give it a strong edge to be fuel of the future. This paper discusses the economical, social, and technological implications on the use of hydrogen as a future transport fuel. Furthermore, three cases based on UK Department of Transport studies showing the penetration of high efficiency vehicles, fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), and hydrogen fuel internal combustion engine vehicles (H 2 -ICEs) into the future transport fleet are discussed. With some assumptions, it indicates clearly that by the end of 2050 the H 2 -ICEs will play a major role in the UK transport sector whereas more time is needed for FCVs due to their less compelling consumer value possibility. Also, it can be inferred that the emissions from hydrogen's full life cycle are about half those of the direct emissions from nonrenewable fuels such as the natural gas from which it is produced, thereby showing a promising future of hydrogen fuel to cope with the problem of climate change and the continuously increasing scarcity of conventional/fossil fuels.
Ductile to Brittle Transition of Short Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polypropylene Composites

In this work, the ductile to brittle transition behavior of short carbon fiber (SCF)-reinforced polypropylene (PP) composite is studied. Initially, the SCF-reinforced PP composites with a varying composition of SCF in the range of 0–40 wt% loading were first melt-mixed in a twin-screw extruder and later injection-molded to produce the testing samples. The experimental results indicate that with an increase in SCF loading, an increase in the tensile modulus and strength was observed along with a rapid decrease in the values of strain at break. A sudden decrease in strain at break was observed in composites in the range of 10–15 wt% SCF. To further study the sudden decrease in strain at break, an investigation was performed on composites that contained 10–15 wt% of SCF loading, starting from 10 wt% with a 1% increment to 15 wt% of SCF. The results of this study show that a decrease in strain at break was not linear; on the contrary, it was accompanied by a ductile to brittle transition, which specifically occurred in the range of 12–13 wt% of SCF loading and then continued to decrease with an increase in SCF loading.
The Role of a Permeable Sand Column in Modifying Tidal Creek Nutrient Inputs into the Coastal Ocean

Estuarine tidal creeks are an important conduit for freshwater run-off into the coastal ocean. In Long Bay, South Carolina, tidal creeks terminate in swashes—broad sandy fields constantly reworked by discharged creek water. We examined the role of a highly permeable sandy column in altering the nutrient loading of the passing water at Singleton Swash, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Seasonal transects along the swash’s primary channel documented gradients in physical and biogeochemical parameters. The nutrient and chlorophyll a concentrations were higher in the sediment than in the overlying water, consistent with coastal sediments as a major site of organic matter degradation, nutrient regeneration, and benthic primary productivity. Oxygen, nutrient, and chlorophyll concentrations exhibited a strong seasonal component, explained by a photosynthesis–respiration balance shift between summer and winter. The conservative mixing model approach to elucidate the sink–source patterns was moderately informative due to the lack of a gradual salinity gradient from land to ocean, due to substantial tidal flushing and observable nutrient-rich surface freshwater discharges along the channel that fueled substantial submerged aquatic macroalgal growth. Future studies should focus on the role of benthic photosynthesizers, both microbial and macroalgal, in retaining land-derived nutrients in irrigation freshwater inputs prior to them reaching the coastal ocean.
Grain-scale characterization of transformation textures

Orientation relationships during the austenite-to-ferrite (gamma-to-alpha) phase transformation were investigated using electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) on a bainitic steel containing retained austenite. The steel was hot rolled within the austenite phase field, but below the 'no-recrystallization' temperature, to two different strains. The observed orientation relationships between the bainite and retained austenite are expressed in Rodrigues - Frank space. The exact Kurdjumov - Sachs relation was never found. The local spread of orientation in the parent austenite ( owing to deformation) is seen to be inherited by the bainite. This is attributed to the displacive mode of transformation to bainite. The influence of austenite prior deformation on the occurrence of variant selection was also studied. It is shown that a critical strain is necessary in order to observe a significant amount of variant selection.
A Preliminary Study on the Occurrence of Pharmaceutically Active Compounds in Hospital Wastewater and Surface Water in Hanoi, Vietnam

The presence of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) belonging to different therapeutic classes (including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, analgesics, antiepileptics, and lipid regulators) in hospital wastewater and surface water samples was investigated for the first time in Vietnam. Analytical results showed that 10 PhACs, including naproxen, indomethacin, ketoprofen, ibuprofen, propyphenazone, diclofenac, clofibric acid, gemfibrozil, and carbamazepine were detected at least once in the hospital wastewater samples. The detection of these PhACs in hospital wastewater demonstrates that hospital effluents are considered a significant source of pollution of the environment by pharmaceuticals. Our initial results showed that only ibuprofen was removed efficiently by the wastewater treatment plant at sampling site S2. The presence of PhACs in surface water samples may reflect the impacts of wastewater contamination in surface water bodies. The ubiquitous occurrence of carbamazepine in both wastewater and surface water may suggest that carbamazepine can potentially serve as a good molecular marker indicating wastewater contamination in surface water. A tentative assessment of environmental risk of PhACs for surface water has been discussed. Risk quotients higher than one were observed only for carbamazepine, diclofenac, ibuprofen, and naproxen, suggesting that these compounds seem to show high risk for aquatic ecosystems.
Online disinformation on Facebook: the spread of fake news during the Portuguese 2019 election

ABSTRACT Elections worldwide have been marked by the spread of fake news. Online disinformation is everywhere, used as a political weapon in the battlefield of manipulation. This study focused on the Portuguese 2019 elections to assess the reach of fake news compared to mainstream media news and to verify whether fake news had specific targets. We reviewed all posts (N=1197) from newspaper Facebook pages and fake news Facebook pages published during the campaign to verify their engagement. BuzzSumo assessed popularity by counting all posts’ shares, reactions and comments. Iramuteq software related the content of all published headlines by analyzing clusters of the most frequent words. Findings show that fake news had no greater reach than real news during the election campaign. However, fake news are more likely to be shared, while real news tend to get more reactions and more comments. In fake news headlines the terms associated with left-wing and government are the most common. The prime minister and the Socialist Party are associated with negative connotations. Results suggest that Portuguese fake news are related to rightwing extremism and publish hate content targeting corruption and leftist policies in general. Unlike other countries, anti-immigration discourse and fearmongering were not prominent contents.
DO ORGANIC FARMING PRACTICES REDUCE NITRATE LEACHING?

Agriculture is a contributor of nitrate to natural waters and there is concern about the excess nitrogen burden loadings from agriculture on natural waters. Agricultural practices that reduce nitrate leaching from arable land are needed. It is postulated by certain groups that organic farming practices reduce nitrate leaching among other environmental benefits. The objectives of this paper are: (1) to compile, summarize and critically analyse information about NO3-N leaching from farming systems that were managed according to organic farming principles; (2) to compare NO3-N leaching from organic farming systems with that from conventional systems. This review consists of several parts. The available literature on leaching of NO3-N from organic farming and conventional farming systems was analysed. Leachable amounts of NO3-N in soils from two types of farming systems were compared. Finally NO3-N leaching from animal manure versus inorganic fertilizer was examined. In all studies we found in the literature, both the sequence and type of crops grown, and the input intensity of N was different in organic and conventional systems. Organic farming systems had on average a lower N input and more legumes in rotation. Average leaching of NO3-N from organic farming systems over a crop rotation period was somewhat lower than in conventional agriculture. If the different input intensities of N between organic and conventional systems were taken into account and corrected for, no differences in leaching losses between systems were found. However, a proper comparison of leaching between the two types of systems should take the yield into account. Attempting to do this in this review, we found only two studies which provided data for this. In both studies, specific conditions of the soil—a high organic matter content resulting in a high N mineralization at one site and a heavy clay texture resulting in very small leaching losses at the other site—did not enable us to come up with a clear-cut answer. Nevertheless, we could not find any evidence that nitrate leaching will be reduced by the introduction of organic farming practices, if the goal is to maintain the same crop yield levels as in conventional farming systems. Reduction of nitrate leaching is not a question of organic or conventional farming, but rather of introduction and use of appropriate counter- measures. This insight should guide our thinking when developing environmentally friendly and sustainable cropping systems.
Estimation of Watermelon Nutrient Requirements Based on the QUEFTS Model

Estimating balanced nutrient requirements for a watermelon plantation is essential to increase its fruit yield and nutrient use efficiency. This is vital for China, which produces 60% of world’s watermelons with excessive fertilizer application. Therefore, datasets between 2000 and 2019 from field experiments in major watermelon producing regions across China were collected to assess relationships between fruit yield and nutrient uptake, and to estimate nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) requirements for a target yield using a modified Quantitative Evaluation of the Fertility of Tropical Soils (QUEFTS) model. The results showed that the QUEFTS model predicted a linear increase in fruit yield to 60–70% of the total potential yield when balanced amounts of N, P, and K nutrients were absorbed. To produce 1000 kg of watermelon, 2.11 kg N, 0.27 kg P, and 2.69 kg K were required in shoot, and the corresponding internal efficiencies (IE) were 475, 3682, and 372 kg fruit per kg of N, P, and K, respectively. The modified QUEFTS model also simulated a balanced N, P, and K removal by fruit (accounting for 50.9%, 58.2%, and 66.4% of these nutrient accumulations in shoots, respectively). Field validation experiments further verified that the modified QUEFTS model could be used for estimating balanced nutrient requirements. Results from this study can provide practical guidance on fertilizer recommendations for improving fruit yield while preventing excessive or deficient nutrient supplies in China’s watermelon plantations.
Sensing Nature’s Electric Fields: Ion Channels as Active Elements of Linear Amplification

Given the parameters of familiar cellular elements — voltage‐sensitive ion channels, carriers, pumps, phospholipid insulators, and electrolytic conductors — is it possible to construct an amplifier whose sensitivity matches the 5 nV/cm threshold found in behavioral experiments on elasmobranch fish? Or, in addition to clever circuitry that uses commonly known elements and principles, do we need something else to understand this sensitivity? The resolution of this question is important not only for studies in sensory biophysics seeking to reveal underlying mechanisms and molecular structures. More generally, it deepens our appreciation of the stochastic nature of inter‐ and intra‐cellular control circuits. Here I analyze a simplified circuit involving negative differential resistance of voltage‐sensitive ion channels. The analysis establishes an off‐equilibrium criterion for amplification, shows that ion channels are the dominant noise sources, and, by minimizing channel noise within the given constraints, .