Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The protective effects of cobalt on potato seedling leaves during osmotic stress

The protective effects of cobalt on potato seedling leaves during osmotic stress were reported and discussed in this paper. The results showed that the membrane damage was significantly alleviated after 24 h of osmotic stress when cobalt of appropriate concentrations was added in PEG solutions. During -1.0 MPa PEG osmotic stress cobalt of 25 μmol L^(-1) inhibited ethylene production rate significantly. Cobalt of 25 μmol L^(-1) had no significant influence on the content of thiobarbituric acid reacting substances or chlorophyll in the first 16 h. When the stress lasted 20 h and 24 h, treatment with cobalt effectively restrained the increment in the levels of reactive oxygen species, hampered the decline in the content of putrescine, spermidine and spermine. The decline in the activities of antioxidative enzymes, thus inhibited the accumulation of thiobarbituric acid reacting substances and alleviated the reduction of chlorophyll content. It can be concluded that when the potato leaves were deeply stressed and damaged, through the inhibition of ethylene production, cobalt alleviated the decline in polyamine content and the activities of anti-oxidative enzymes, and hence alleviated the increment in reactive oxygen species levels and membrane damage and showed protective effects on the leaves.
Arthroscopic Agreement Among Surgeons on Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tunnel Placement

Background: Little is known about surgeon agreement and accuracy using arthroscopic evaluation of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tunnel positioning. Purpose: To investigate agreement on ACL tunnel position evaluated arthroscopically between operating surgeons and reviewing surgeons. We hypothesized that operating and evaluating surgeons would characterize tunnel positions significantly differently. Study Design: Controlled laboratory study. Methods: Twelve surgeons drilled ACL tunnels on 72 cadaveric knees using transtibial (TT), medial portal (MP), or 2-incision (TI) techniques and then completed a detailed assessment form on tunnel positioning. Then, 3 independent blinded surgeon reviewers each arthroscopically evaluated tunnel position and completed the assessment form. Statistical comparisons of tunnel position evaluation between operating and reviewing surgeons were completed. Three-dimensional (3D) computed tomography (CT) scans were performed and compared with arthroscopic assessments. Arthroscopic assessments were compared with CT tunnel location criteria. Results: Operating surgeons were significantly more likely to evaluate femoral tunnel position (92.6% vs 69.2%; P = .0054) and femoral back wall thickness as “ideal” compared with reviewing surgeons. Tunnels were judged ideal by reviewing surgeons more often when the TI technique was used compared with the MP and TT techniques. Operating surgeons were more likely to evaluate tibial tunnel position as ideal (95.5% vs 57.1%; P < .0001) and “acceptable” compared with reviewers. The ACL tunnels drilled using the TT technique were least likely to be judged as ideal on the tibia and the femur. Agreement among surgeons and observers was poor for all parameters (κ = −0.0053 to 0.2457). By 3D CT criteria, 88% of femoral tunnels and 78% of tibial tunnels were placed within applied criteria. Conclusion: Operating surgeons are more likely to judge their tunnels favorably than observers. However, independent surgeon reviewers appear to be more critical than results of 3D CT imaging measures. When subjectively evaluated arthroscopically, the TT technique yields more subjectively poorly positioned tunnels than the TI and MP techniques. Surgeons do not agree on the ideal placement for single-bundle ACL tunnels. Clinical Relevance: This study demonstrates that surgeons do not currently uniformly agree on ideal single-bundle tunnel placement and that the TT technique may yield more poorly placed tunnels.
A cold cathode fluorescent lamp driving circuit without a transformer for liquid crystal display backlight unit

A cold cathode fluorescent lamp driving circuit without a transformer for liquid crystal display backlight unit is proposed. Commonly, a CCFL driver has a transformer with high turn ratio to step up low input voltage to high sinusoidal lamp voltage. This high voltage and high turn ratio transformer has large size and high cost. The proposed CCFL driving circuit which is based on parallel-loaded resonant topology features simplicity, so it reduces complexity and cost of overall system. And the proposed circuit with asymmetric control has dimming capability by duty control. In this paper, the analyses of the proposed CCFL driving circuit and experimental results for BLU of 32-inch commercial LCD TV are presented.
ASIC: Aggregate Signatures and Certificates Verification Scheme for Vehicular Networks

To achieve high safety levels in vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs), the Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) implies each vehicle to periodically broadcast a safety beacon message. Many safety-related applications in VANET are based on the safety beacon messages. To ensure secure communications, the message authentication and integrity must be verified by respectively verifying the public key certificate and the digital signature of the sender. Since each vehicle could receive a large number of messages from the neighboring vehicles, one of the inevitable VANET challenges is the ability for each vehicle to verify a large number of messages in a timely manner. In this paper, we propose an aggregate signatures and certificates (ASIC) verification scheme enabling each vehicle to simultaneously verify not only the signatures but also the certificates of the senders. ASIC significantly increases the vehicle capability to verify a large number of signatures and certificates in a timely manner. Performance evaluation demonstrates that ASIC is reliable, efficient, and scalable.
Hybrid space vector pulse width modulation voltage source inverter-a review

The latest trend in modern industrial application is the use of variable voltage supply to the AC drives from a three phase voltage source inverter (VSI). Different types of Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) scheme are used to modulate output voltage of VSI. The most commonly used PWM schemes for three-phase VSI are carrier-based sinusoidal PWM and Hybrid Space Vector PWM (HSVPWM). Researchers adequately prefer the use of HSVPWM because of their easier digital realization and better dc bus utilization. The advantages of HSVPWM are reduction of total harmonic distortion, improvement in output voltage and reduction of torque ripple in induction motor drives. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review on different topologies of HSVPWM. These includes Advanced Bus Clamped SVPWM (ABCSVPWM), Neutral Point Clamped SVPWM (NPCSVPWM) and Diode Clamped SVPWM (DCSVPWM).
The action of hyperthermia in metastatic colorectal cancer in combination with chemotherapy

__________________________________________________________________________________________ Introduction: Hyperthermia is characterized as the fourth pillar in treating cancer, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Clinical studies suggest that the combination of hyperthermia with radiation and chemotherapy, can bring very good results in treating various types of cancer, including colon cancer. Purpose: To investigate the effects of hyperthermia in metastatic colorectal cancer in combination with chemotherapy. Materials and methods: A clinical study, which recruited 32 patients with diagnosed colorectal cancer. The patients were divided into a reference group (15 patients), which received chemotherapy and sessions of hyperthermia and in a control group (17 patients), which only received chemotherapy. For the application of hyperthermia, the Celsius 42+ machine was used. Imaging tests were performed before and after taking the regimens, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of each treatment approach. Results: Through the imaging assessment, a positive outcome of the disease was observed, for the team of hyperthermia (reference group). Specifically, when compared with the control group, the reference group showed a shrinkage of metastatic foci, derived from colon cancer. In contrast, in the control group there was an increase of dimensions compared with hepatic metastases and metastases in the abdomen, while a steady state was maintained regarding thoracic metastases. Conclusions: The beneficial effects of hyperthermia are undeniable, as year after year resulting more and more clinical trial data that support this view. The consolidation of the application of hyperthermia cancer treatment, is now a matter of time.
Crop and Soil Productivity Response to Corn Residue Removal: A Literature Review

Society is facing three related issues: overreliance on imported fuel, increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and producing sufficient food for a growing world population. The U.S. Department of Energy and private enterprise are developing technology necessary to use high-cellulose feedstock, such as crop residues, for ethanol production. Corn (Zea mays L.) residue can provide about 1.7 times more C than barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), oat (Avena saliva L.), sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench], soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ], sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.), and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) residues based on production levels. Removal of crop residue from the field must be balanced against impacting the environment (soil erosion), maintaining soil organic matter levels, and preserving or enhancing productivity. Our objective is to summarize published works for potential impacts of wide-scale, corn stover collection on corn production capacity in Corn Belt soils. We address the issue of crop yield (sustainability) and related soil processes directly. However, scarcity of data requires us to deal with the issue of greenhouse gases indirectly and by inference. All ramifications of new management practices and crop uses must be explored and evaluated fully before an industry is established. Our conclusion is that within limits, corn stover can be harvested for ethanol production to provide a renewable, domestic source of energy that reduces greenhouse gases. Recommendation for removal rates will vary based on regional yield, climatic conditions, and cultural practices. Agronomists are challenged to develop a procedure (tool) for recommending maximum permissible removal rates that ensure sustained soil productivity.
Una aproximación a la identificación y propagación de los shocks en una economía pequeña y abierta: El caso uruguayo

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo estimar el impacto de determinadas perturbaciones sobre una economia pequena y abierta. Las elevadas fluctuaciones de la economia uruguaya motivan el esfuerzo por caracterizar la naturaleza de los shocks y de su propagacion a determinadas variables macroeconomicas. Para ello se plantea un sencillo esquema teorico que sirve de base a la identificacion de un modelo VAR Estructural. Las relaciones comerciales del pais y su grado de exposicion al flujo internacional de capitales, justifican la consideracion de dos tipos de shocks adicionales a los tradicionalmente considerados (de productividad y de demanda) en este tipo de analisis: un shock en la relacion de terminos de intercambio y un shock en la cuenta capital. En general, la estimacion de las funciones impulso-respuesta arrojan los resultados esperados desde el punto de vista teorico. Luego, mediante la descomposicion de la varianza, se analiza la importancia relativa de cada perturbacion en las fluctuaciones de cada una de las variables endogenas a distintos horizontes temporales.
Social behavior and academic performance: Examining relations between forms of prosocial behavior and aggression in predicting academic outcomes

Numerous researchers have argued early adolescent behavior patterns are among the best predictors of later achievement and social-psychological adjustment outcomes. In the current study, a secondary data analysis was conducted to determine the extent to which four prosocial behaviors (cooperation, assertiveness, self-control and prosocial behaviors toward peers) and two forms of aggression (overt and relational) influence academic performance (as indexed by GPA and standardized achievement scores). Additionally, the potential moderating role of two school environment variables (perception of school climate and teacher bonding) were also considered in order to further examine the social-emotional environment of middle schools. Examining concurrent relations between grade 5 social behaviors and academic performance revealed all four forms of prosocial behavior were positively related to higher academic performance. Predictive relations between grade 6 social behaviors and academic outcomes at grade 9 indicated that of the four prosocial behaviors and two forms of aggression, cooperation alone predicted the likelihood of later academic achievement. Finally, it was hypothesized that prosocial behaviors, perception of school climate and teacher bonding would serve as moderators between aggression and academic performance; however, this prediction was unsupported. By drawing attention to the limited typology employed in studying prosocial behavior, as well as the methodological challenges that arise when examining these behaviors during adolescence, the hope is to spur research geared towards a more comprehensive understanding of prosocial development.
Aggregate hybrid flowshop scheduling with assembly operations

This paper deals with the hybrid flow shop scheduling (HFS) problem with assembly operation. The parts process on the hybrid flow shop stages and after that in order to produce the final product, several parts go under the assembly operations based on the predefined hierarchy structure of products. Each product has some sub-assembly operations and the final product obtains after completion of the last sub-assembly operation. Our aim in this study is finding the schedule that minimizes the completion time of last final product. For considered problem, we first propose an integer programming model and two heuristic algorithms are then employed. Since this problem is NP-hard, we apply the simulated annealing (SA) approach for large sized problems.
DSP-based control of main traction converter containing medium-frequency transformer

This paper deals with a main traction converter containing a medium-frequency transformer determined primarily for a new generation of suburban units operating on both ac electrification systems of 15 kV/ 16.7 Hz and 25 kV/ 50 Hz. The paper introduces proposed control of primary (trolley-wire connected) converters based on a predictive mathematical model and proportional-resonant controllers. A control strategy of secondary voltage source active rectifiers based on hysteresis current control is optimized for effective power flow through a medium-frequency transformer. The theoretical findings of this research are verified by experiments made on developed small-scale converter prototype of rated power of 12 kW.
Current Status of the Mollicute (Mycoplasma) Lung Disease: Pathogenesis, Diagnostics, Treatment and Prevention

Silvia Giono-Cerezo1,*, Guadalupe Estrada-Gutierrez2, Jose Antonio Rivera-Tapia3, Jorge Antonio Yanez-Santos3 and Francisco Javier Diaz-Garcia4 1Departamento de Microbiologia, Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biologicas, IPN 2Departamento de Infectologia, Instituto Nacional de Perinatologia, Mexico, D.F. , 3Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico 4Departamento de Salud Publica, Facultad de Medicina, UNAM Mexico
Une denrée trouble : la viande dans l'abattoir

L'A. nous entraine dans un abattoir afin de comprendre comment l'animal destine a etre transforme en objet viande constitue l'enjeu des interactions entre les differents employes. Presentant le processus historique de separation de l'activite de boucherie et d'abattage, l'A. se demande comment interagissent les travailleurs de l'abattoir alors que l'origine animale de la viande ne peut etre facilement oubliee. Cette ethnographie, qui se veut tres attentive a l'action en train de se faire, montre ainsi comment les tueurs se distinguent des non-tueurs dans les interactions en apparence les plus ordinaires. On mesure ainsi a quel point des identites se negocient et se construisent simultanement a la construction d'une nature
Towards a Development Approach to Serious Games

This chapter reviews some of the key research supporting the use of serious games for training in work contexts. The review indicates why serious games should be used to support training requirements, and in particular identifies "attitudinal change" in training as a key objective for deployment of serious games demonstrators. The chapter outlines a development approach for serious games and how it is being evaluated. Demonstrating this, the chapter proposes a game-based learning approach that integrates the use of a "four-dimensional framework", outlines some key games principles, presents tools and techniques for supporting data collection and analysis, and considers a six-stage development process. The approach is then outlined in relation to a serious game for clinical staff concerned with infection control in hospitals and ambulances, which is being developed in a current research and development project. Survey findings from the target user group are presented and the use of tools and techniques explained in the context of the development process. The chapter proposes areas for future work and concludes that it is essential to use a specific development approach for supporting consistent game design, evaluation and efficacy for particular user groups.
Real time license plate detection using openCV and tesseract

This paper presents the implementation of image to text conversion. The paper describes various steps required to extract text from any image file (jpeg/png) and create a separate text file consisting of information extracted from image file. It considers the shortcomings of various image processing applications available and works on overcoming them by employing variable level of image processing and filtration. The CV2 OpenCV library using Python language is used for image processing and Tessaract is used for text extraction from the processed image. The variable level of image processing ensures that different images get different levels of treatment in order to produce optimized text results. After the image processing step is employed the output text file are formatted by filtering out commas, semicolons, apostrophes, colons and other such characters using ASCII filtering as these characters are not part of any standard license plate.
Nonlinear statistical methods for atrial fibrillation detection on electrocardiogram

The rapid and disorganized electrical activity that characterizes Atrial Fibrillation generates an increases in both variability and complexity of RR intervals series. Based on these characteristics which are variability and complexity, we have developed an algorithm combining two nonlinear statistical techniques in order to detect the presence of Atrial Fibrillation. These two nonlinear statistical methods are: Poincare plot which quantifies the variability of RR intervals series and the sample entropy which characterizes the complexity of the RR intervals series. We used the MIT-BIH Atrial Fibrillation database to train the algorithm and then we tested it on the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia database. Using thresholds and segment length determined by Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves we achieved Se=97.01% and Sp=93.92% for the MIT-BIH Atrial Fibrillation database and we obtained Se=98.67% and Sp=86.14% for the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia database. The proposed algorithm is compared to another method, namely “Dash's” detection method [1]. For the Dash's method, we achieved Se=97.09% and Sp=90.98% for the MIT-BIH Atrial Fibrillation database and we obtained Se=96% and Sp=82.31% for the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia database.
Indirect cost of non-communicable diseases deaths in the World Health Organization African Region

Background: In 2012, a total of 9 398 809 deaths from all causes occurred in the WHO African Region; out of which 2 788 381 (29.67%) were due to non-communicable diseases (NCD). The objective of this study was to estimate future gross domestic product (GDP) losses associated with NCD deaths in the African Region for use to advocate for increased investments into prevention and management of NCDs. Methods: Human capital approach is used to estimate non-health GDP losses associated with NCD deaths. Future non-health GDP losses were discounted at 3%. The analysis was done for three income groups of countries and six age groups. One-way sensitivity analysis at 5% and 10% discount rates was undertaken to assess the impact on expected non-health GDP loss estimates.Results: The 2 788 381 NCD deaths that occurred in the African Region in 2012 are estimated to have resulted in a total discounted GDP loss of Int$ 61 302 450 005. Out of that total loss, 20.36% was borne by those aged 0-4 years; 12.76% by 5-14 years; 16.64% by 15-29 years; 44.93% by 30-59 years; 2.99% by 60-69 years; and 2.33% by those aged 70 years and above. Thus, those aged between 15 and 59 years bore 61.57% of the GDP losses.Approximately 47.4%, 33.1% and 19.5% of the total loss was borne by high and upper middle-, lower middle- and low-income countries respectively. The average total non-health GDP loss was Int$ 21 985 per NCD death. The average non-health GDP lost per NCD death was Int$ 54 534 for Group 1, Int$ 21 492 for Group 2 and Int$ 9 096 for Group 3. Conclusion: Premature NCD deaths are associated with substantive GDP losses in countries of the African Region. Therefore, unless African countries and their development partners bolster their investments to assure universal population coverage of cost-effective promotive, preventive and management interventions for NCDs, prospects of achieving the United Nations General Assembly Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) might be greatly undermined in Africa.Key words: Non-communicable diseases, non-health GDP loss, NCD prevention and management, human capital approach
An Application Layer DDoS Real-Time Detection Method in Flash

In recent years, real-time and effective DDoS attack detection system is desired since new application-layer-based DDoS attacks are more undetectable and frequent and the imperceptibility of the attack is increasing. There is therefore a need for a new effective detection for such new DDoS attacks. For the detection of application-layer-based DDoS attacks in Flash Crowd, this paper sets up user activity degree index and proposes a detection method based on Pearson correlation coefficient. The performance of the proposed real-time detection method is tested by the real data from network and has less misjudgment rate.
Visualizing Linked Data as Habitable Cities

The comprehension of linked data, consisting of classes, individuals, attributes, relationships, and other elements, is challenging yet important for eﬀective use of linked data. An approach to improve software program comprehension is through the code city metaphor, in which object-oriented source code is visualized as a habitable city in 3D. We propose the linked-data city metaphor to support comprehension of linked data. Through improved linked data comprehension we in turn aim to support users in browsing linked data and in analyzing the structure of linked data. We discuss how diﬀerent mappings and visualization of properties in the city metaphor may support users in browsing and structural analysis of linked data. A prototype implementation of linked data city in LD-R, a linked data-aware faceted browser, is presented.