Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization and pathogenicity of soil borne pathogens inducing root rot symptoms in common bean in Rwanda

Though Rwanda is among the highest common bean producers and consumers, this crop is still challenged by different factors including root rot diseases resulting in low yield potential. Root rot diseases can cause up to 100% of yield loss. Despite different soil borne pathogens causing bean root rot diseases; there is no recent literature that clearly documents the most aggressive ones affecting common beans in Rwanda. This study aimed at identifying the root rot pathogens affecting bean crop in Rwanda. A survey was conducted to collect bean samples showing root rot symptoms in 12 agro -ecological zones where bean crop is mostly grown. The selection of samples was based on the level of contamination and the purity of cultures. A total number of 132 samples were therefore selected and considered for further analysis. The pathogen isolation was done in Rubona at Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB) Biotechnology and Pathology laboratory. Structural characterization of soil borne pathogens was also carried out along with pathogenicity evaluation. The growth rate of identified pathogens were significantly different (P<0.001). Significant differences were observed among isolates inoculated on both plantlets and seeds (P<001). Four root rot diseases were identified and characterized including Rhizoctonia spp, Fusarium spp,Sclerotium spp and several Pythium spp. The four pathogens were mostly observed in Northern and Southern parts of Rwanda than East and Western parts of Rwanda. Morphological characterization showed that Fusarium spp, Rhizoctonia spp and Sclerotium spp were predominant than Pythium species. Fusarium spp was identified as the most predominant fungal pathogen while Sclerotium spp was the most virulent pathogen. The present study suggests bean root rot disease control program to reduce losses associated with these diseases especially the use of resistant varieties since the fungi are widespread and survive in soils for a long period of time.
Formation and morphological characteristics of special root hairs on nodal roots of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Formation and characterization of special root hairs on wheat nodal roots were studied under conditions of the field experiments. The results showed that special root hairs formed around the basal portion of a nodal root in the arable layer of soil after jointing stage, and that distribution of special root hairs on a nodal root could be divided into concentrated, moderate, and sparse segment. Occurring density, length and diameter of the special root hair on the concentrated segments were greater or more than those on either the moderate or the sparse segments. Difference both in length and density between different root segments was extremely negative significant (P<0.01). Occurring density, length and diameter of the special root hair decreased with advance in growing period. All of the results from this study indicated that the special root hairs are real root hairs and functional. Key words: Triticum aestivum L. , nodal root, special root hair, formation, characterization.
Effect of Current Density on Ion Conductivity of Membrane in Proton Exchange Membrane

− In this work, we study the ion conductivity by analyzing the impedance to the high current density range that the PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) is actually operated. The effect of GDL (Gas Diffusion Layer)presence on impedance was investigated indirectly by measuring hydrogen permeability. When the RH (Relative Humidity)was higher than 60% in the low current range (< 80 mA/cm), the moisture content of the polymer membrane was sufficient and the ion conductivity of the membrane was not influenced by the current change. However, when RH was low, ion conductivity increased due to water production as current density increased. The ion conductivity of the membrane obtained by HFR (High Frequency Resistance) in the high current region (100~800 mA/cm)was compared with the measured value and simulated value. At RH 100%, both experimental and simulated values showed constant ion conductivity without being influenced by current change. At 30~70% of RH, the ionic conductivity increased with increasing current density and tended to be constant.
Recolonization of bigleaf maple branches by epiphytic bryophytes following experimental disturbance

The dynamics of epiphytic bryophyte communities following natural and human disturbance have rarely been quantified. We describe the response of bryophyte communities on bigleaf maple trees (Acer macrophyllum Pursh) in Olympia, Washington, following their experimental removal. Approximately 8% of the exposed area was recolonized by bryophytes 1 year after clearing, and 27% after 3 years. Lateral encroachment from bryophytes on the sides of the 20-cm-long plots accounted for 75% of this recolonization, with growth from residual plant parts or aerially dispersed diaspores accounting for the remaining 25%. Though it was not possible to distinguish between the latter two sources of cover, the number of clear de novo colonization events over the course of the year was low (0.18 dm -2 ). Distur- bance appeared to reduce bryophyte diversity at this successional stage, as alpha and gamma diversity remained low af- ter 1 year and had not recovered after 3 years. Reflecting the preponderance of lateral encroachment as the mechanism for recolonization, disturbance size may significantly affect the time needed to recolonize disturbed branch substrates. In addition to contributing to ecologists' understanding of processes of succession, these experiments may help to de - velop sustainable practices for moss-harvesting in the Pacific Northwest.
Graphene Encapsulation for Cells: A Bio-Sensing and Device Platform

iii Acknowledgements iv List of Figures viii 1.0 Chapter 1Introduction 1 1.1 Thesis goalFormation of an electrical sensing prototype 2 1.2 Thesis goalExamination of GO-encapsulated SaC. cells as a synthesis substrate 3 2.0 Chapter 2Background information 4 2.1 Yeast CellSaccharomyces cerevisiae 4 2.2 Graphene 5 2.3 Graphene as an FET 7 2.4 Graphene for Cell Sensing 8 2.5 Electro-Mechanical Properties of Graphene 12 2.6 Shell Calculations 12 2.7 Zinc Oxide 13 3.0 Chapter 3 Methods and Materials 16 3.1 Silanization 16 3.2 Fluidic Cell 16 3.3 Graphene Oxide Preparation 17 3.4 Dielectrophoresis 18
Sentinel dominance status influences forager use of social information

Animals in social groups can acquire information about the need for antipredator behavior by personally sampling the environment or from information provided by others. Use of such social information is expected to be adjusted according to its reliability, but experimental tests are rare and tend to focus just on alarm calls. We use detailed behavioral observations, acoustic analyses, and playback experiments to investigate how differences in sentinel dominance status affect the behavioral decisions of foraging dwarf mongooses (Helogale parvula). Dominant individuals acted as sentinels considerably more often than subordinate group members and used higher sentinel posts for guarding, making them potentially higher-quality sentinels in terms of experience and optimal positioning for predator detection. Surveillance calls produced during sentinel bouts contained vocal information about dominance status. Playback experiments showed that foragers used surveillance calls to detect sentinel presence and identity, and adjusted their vigilance behavior accordingly. When a dominant sentinel was on duty, compared with a subordinate groupmate, foragers increased reliance on social information, gathered less information through personal vigilance, and focused more on foraging. Our study contributes novel evidence that a major benefit of individual- and class-specific vocalizations is the potential to assess differences in caller information quality.
Memory in an Excitable Medium: A Mechanism for Spiral Wave Breakup in the Low-Excitability Limit

The electrophysiology of cardiac tissue is altered during acute myocardial ischemia, making the tissue less excitable but, nonetheless, more susceptible to tachyarrythmias which frequently degenerate to fibrillation within several seconds. The transition from tachycardia to fibrillation is associated with the breakup of spiral waves into multiple offspring, and has been linked to steep restitution slope . 1 of action potential duration (APD). However, restitution curves become so flat during ischemia that this mechanism does not apply. We found that when the response of APD to recent activations is included in a model of excitable media, spiral breakup can occur even when the slope in APD restitutions is ,1.
Composable Markov processes

Many phenomena studied in the social sciences and elsewhere are complexes of more or less independent characteristics which develop simultaneously. Such phenomena may often be realistically described by time-continuous finite Markov processes. In order to define such a model which will take care of all the relevant a priori information, there ought to be a way of defining a Markov process as a vector of components representing the various characteristics constituting the phenomenon such that the dependences between the characteristics are represented by explicit requirements on the Markov process, preferably on its infinitesimal generator.
A Brief Review of Image Segmentation Based on Thresholding Technique

:Image processing plays an important role in computer vision. The process of image segmentation provides the partition of image into different segments per their feature attribute. Image segmentation divided into two types based on similarity and based on discontinuity. Region based segmentation is a type similarity based segmentation. Another type of segmentation is called thresholding based segmentation. In thresholding based segmentation method some thresholding techniques are used. Moreover, technologies required for one field of image may not suitable for other types of image. Many image applications can be found on binary or gray image but almost none for color image segmentation. In this paper, we present the study of various image segmentation techniques.
Towards a contribution to modularity concepts and principal domains

Modularity concept emerged in the 1960's within the computer industrial sector, bringing considerable competitive advantages and benefits. Since this period, modular approach has been applied in many industrial sectors, such as automotive, electronics, furniture and others. In this sense, this study examined papers regarding modularity and their applications in the industrial and organizational perspectives, towards a concept better understanding and context where it is applied. A theoretical-conceptual paper was carried out through a hypothetical-deductive method to analyze the publications. Results show similarities and discrepancies among modularity concept variations. In addition, it was perceived that automotive industry has been sorely using modularity in design, production and use. Lastly, benefits, difficulties and recommendations were identified in the modular approach adoption. Thus, it can be concluded that a difficult still remains in defining a unique and broad modularity concept, due to variants according to the modularity approach (design, production, organizational, etc.) utilized. Future studies should search for a better understanding about variations of modularity concept, trying to find what characteristics are predominant throughout all concept variants.
The liability of some haematological parameters in chickens and ducks

In hierdie studie is die invloed van beperking van lewensruimte (aanhouding in hokke) op die hematologie van hoenders en eende (soos vergclyk met di6 van vryJopende voels) ondersoek. Statisties beduidende verskil le is waargeneem in verskeie hematologiese parameters en die studie het bewys dat gevolgtrekkings wat gemaak kan word betreffende interen intraspesie-verskil le afhang van hoe die vodls aangehou was en in hoe 'n mate spanning hulle beihvloed. Dit word voorgestel dat projekbeplanning vir studies wat die hematologie
Physio-agronomic performance of spring cultivars T. aestivum and T. spelta grown in organic farming system

One of the goals of organic crop production is to grow species which combine traditional pro-healthy properties, innovative cultivation practices and harmony with the environment. Among the ancient species the spring spelt is especially predisposed for organic farming. In comparison with common wheat spring spelt has a relatively short research history on physiological analysis of growth and development. The objective of this study has been to compare the agronomic performance and growth characteristics of spring varieties of Triticum spelta L. and Triticum aestivum L. cultivated in the organic farming system and sown on different dates. The basis for the research were data from field plot experiments arranged in completely randomized blocks carried out in 2010 and 2011. The factors were cultivars: two cultivars of T. aestivum (Trappe, Waluta) and two cultivars of T. spelta (Roter Sommerkolben, Speltz aus Tzaribrod) and sowing terms: optimal and postponed by two weeks. During the seasons there were assessed: weed infestation and disease resistance, leaf chlorophyll index, biometric measurements associated with plant morphology and yielding and nutritional value of grains. It was stated that cultivars of T. spelta are more tolerant to unfavorable environmental conditions than cultivars of T. aestivum, showing better adaptability to habitat conditions, when-due to the worse weather-the uptake of nutrients from soil can be limited, stronger competitiveness against weeds and higher tolerance to diseases of leaves and stems. The content of chlorophyll in spelt wheat grown in
Predicting the frequencies of diverse exo-planetary systems

Extrasolar planetary systems range from hot Jupiters out to icy comet belts more distant than Pluto. We explain this diversity in a model where the mass of solids in the primordial circumstellar disc dictates the outcome. The star retains measures of the initial heavy-element (metal) abundance that can be used to map solid masses on to outcomes, and the frequencies of all classes are correctly predicted. The differing dependences on metallicity for forming massive planets and low-mass cometary bodies are also explained. By extrapolation, around two-thirds of stars have enough solids to form Earth-like planets, and a high rate is supported by the first detections of low-mass exo-planets.
Indução à repelência à água em solo arenoso o partir de extratos naturais hidrofóbicos.

1 Engenheira Agronôma, Doutora, Pesquisadora da Embrapa Florestas. claudia.maia@cnpf.embrapa. br 2 Engenheiro Agronômo, Doutor, Pesquisador da Embrapa Florestas. dedecek@cnpf.embrapa. br 3 Engenheira Florestal, Mestranda, Universidade Federal do Paraná. yorchang@hotmail.com 4 Químico, Doutor, Analista da Embrapa Florestas. hansel@cnpf.embrapa. br A repelência à água ou hidrofobicidade em solos tem sido reportada como um aspecto negativo para seu manejo e uso pois, sob esta condição, o solo resiste a ser molhado pela água da chuva ou irrigação, por períodos que vão de poucos segundos até horas, dias ou semanas (DOERR et al., 2000; DEKKER; RITSEMA, 2003; BUCZKO et al., 2005). Este problema leva à diminuição da taxa de infiltração e da quantidade de água disponível no solo, conseqüentemente, prejudicando a germinação de sementes e o crescimento vegetal. Além disso, pela menor infiltração, pode ocorrer o aumento do escoamento superficial da água em áreas declivosas, aumentando a erosão.
Duration calculus semantics for statecharts

Statecharts and Duration Calculus are two formalisms used in the development of reactive systems. Statecharts provide a powerful visual formalism to specify systems. Duration Calculus is a formal logic to specify and reason about temporal requeriments. In this work, we propose a description of statecharts semantics using Duration Calculus. Thus we build a common semantic model for Duration Calculus speci cations and statecharts. The formalization is done in two steps. First, the structure of a statechart is represented using Duration Calculus formula. Then, the semantics of the execution of a step is introduced.
A Method for Calculating the Frequency-Dependent Properties of Microstrip Discontinuities

A method is described for calculating the dynamical (frequency-dependent) properties of various microstrip discontinuities such as unsymmetrical crossings, T junctions, right-angle bends, impedance steps, and filter elements. The method is applied to an unsymmetrical T junction with three different linewidths. Using a waveguide model with frequency-dependent parameters, a field matching method proposed by Kuhn is employed to compute the scattering matrix of the structures. The elements of the scattering matrix calculated in this way differ from those derived from static methods by a higher frequency dependence, especially for frequencies near the cutoff frequencies of the higher order modes on the microstrip lines. The theoretical results are compared with measurements, and theory and experiment are found to correspond closely.
Wheat bran dietary fiber: promising source of prebiotics with antioxidant potential.

The potential of wheat bran (WB) addition as a prebiotic source were demonstrated using yogurt with probiotics ( Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium lactis ). Yogurts (with 4% WB) were significantly ( P < 0.05) different in total bacterial counts (9.1 log CFU/mL), and total titratable acidity % (TTA, 1.4%) compared to controls during 28 days cold storage (4°C). Additionally, WB-total dietary fiber contents and their bound phenolic profiles were investigated as well as the antioxidant activity of WB-water extractable polysaccharides (WEP) was studied. HPLC analysis of alkaline hydrolyzed DF fractions showed that insoluble DF had higher phenolic acids (84.2%) content than soluble DF (15.8%). Also, crude-WEP showed stronger antioxidant activity compared to purified-WEP with an ORAC of 71.88 and 52.48 µmol TE/g, respectively. Here we demonstrate WB has potentials as a source of prebiotics, which may have the potentials for functional foods and nutraceutical applications.
Electronic structures and stabilities of endohedral metallofullerenes TM@C34 using DFT approach

Theoretical study of the electronic structure using, Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations at the B3PW91/6-31G (d) level of theory have been employed to the TM@C34 (TM =Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu) in order to investigate the geometries, electronic structures, binding energies, linear polarizability ⟨Δ𝛼⟩, first order hyperpolarizability ⟨𝛽⟩, natural bonding orbital (NBO), was studied based on the ''C34'' fullerene. The results found that the most stable structure is e(C2). Minimal energy structures of each endohedral metallofullerene were obtained. Hybridizations were found between the Ti, V, Cr, Fe, Co, and Ni, 3d valence orbitals and the ''C34'' cage orbitals, while none was found between the Mn and Cu orbitals and the ''C34'' cage orbitals. These findings were obtained with the preferential position of the metal atom inside the fullerene cage, i.e. these results are found suitable for the metal Mn and Cu orbitals present inside the fullerene cage. Natural bonding orbital (NBO) shows that the charges always transfer from the TM atoms to the ''C34'' cage. In going from isolated TM atom to TM@C34, the occupation of the 4s orbital is strongly reduced. The introduction to TM to the empty ''C34''leads to more active NLO performance. The TM@C34 (TM =Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu) interactions are characterized in terms of several theoretical parameters such as density of states (DOS), molecular electrostatic potentials (MEPs), non-linear optical (NLO) properties and electrophilicity and thermodynamic properties were also performed at B3PW91/6-31G (d) level of theory.
Neural Modelling for the Analysis of Changes in Selected Features of Plant Products

The work investigates possibilities of plant products quality assessment by means of neural networks. A quick method of plant products assessment was proposed based on the correlations occurring between selected features of plant products and neural modelling. This approach facilitates sustainable agricultural production, which often requires making decisions based on approximate but quick assessment of the quality of produced or processed products. The method of quality assessment is presented using changes in the features of pumpkin being dried as an example. Changes in selected features of chemical composition and colour were analysed, including correlations between them. Initial analysis involved cluster analysis, which allowed for grouping data into cases characterized by similar quality. Based on the analysis, a neural model was developed, which, based on easily obtainable features, allowed for classification of products according to their quality features. This approach was positively verified based on the results of chemical composition and quality assessment performed using statistical analysis of data. INTRODUCTION Methods used for the assessment of plant materials include organoleptic and laboratory tests. The first method involves assessing a given object by using one’s own senses: sight, smell, taste, feel or hearing, while the second mainly involves assessing an object by means of appropriate equipment and analysis of physicochemical and microbiological features. Both methods are usually time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, attempts are made to improve the assessment process. In order to achieve this, other, easily obtainable features of the product are used, e.g. image features such as geometry, colour and texture, which may be correlated with other features of plant products, or dependencies between ultrasonic wave propagation and selected features of the product, Ratajski, et al (2014). This forms the base for a neural model, which allows for the assessment of product quality based on these easily measurable features. MATERIALS AND METHODS A database containing 39 cases of research results for three different varieties of dried pumpkin: Ambar, Amazonka and Justynka was used for the analysis, Sojak et al (2016), Król (2017). The pumpkins were dried by three methods: convection, tunnel and hybrid method. Input data used for the analysis of changes in pumpkin features being studied were chemical composition (dry mass, total and reducing sugars, lutein, lycopene and beta carotene) as well as colour discriminant in the CIE system L, a, b, Hunter (1948). The dataset was analysed using cluster analysis in order to find and classify similar cases, homogeneous in terms of features. Objects belonging to the same group should be as similar as possible to one another and as different as possible from objects belonging to other groups. The classification was based on k-means algorithm, Hartigan (1975). Chemical composition and colour discriminants parameters were used as classification variables.
VOICE QUALITY AND VARIATION IN ENGLISH

This study is, to our knowledge, the first to compare the voice quality of several accents of the British Isles. Our hypothesis is that voice quality can vary according to the regional accent of the speaker. The Long Term Average Spectrum (LTAS) was measured for each of the 50 speakers. Then, in order to test our hypothesis, a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was carried out to compare the spectra. The results showed that at least two accent groups could be isolated from the others. The spectra of the Belfast accent were particularly concentrated around the negative part of the first component. This can be explained by the fact that the Belfast accent is still strongly influenced by the Celtic languages spoken in the region.