Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Manure and Urea Fertilization on Yield, Carbon Speciation and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Vegetable Production Systems of Nigeria and Republic of Benin: A Phytotron Study

Fertility management techniques being promoted in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) seek to grow indigenous vegetables economically and sustainably. This study was conducted in a phytotron chamber and compared yield, soil carbon (C) speciation and greenhouse gas (nitrous oxide (N2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2)) emissions from SSA soils of two ecoregions; the dry savanna (lna, Republic of Benin) and rainforest (Ife, Nigeria) cultivated with local amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus) under manure (5 t/ha) and/or urea (80 kg N/ha) fertilization. Vegetable yield ranged from 4331 kg/ha to 7900 kg/ha in the rainforest, RF, soils and 3165 kg/ha to 4821 kg/ha in the dry savanna, DS, soils. Yield in the urea treatment was slightly higher compared to the manure, and manure+urea treatment, but the difference was not statistically significant. Cumulative CO2 emissions over 21 days ranged from 497.06 to 579.47 g CO2-C/kg soil/day in the RF, and 322.96 to 624.97 g CO2-C/kg soil/day in the DS, while cumulative N2O emissions ranged from 60.53 to 220.86 mg N2O-N/kg soil/day in the RF, and 24.78 to 99.08 mg N2O-N/kg soil/day in the DS. In the RF samples, when compared to the use of urea alone, the combined use of manure and urea reduced N2O emissions but led to an increase in the DS samples. ATR-FTIR analysis showed that the combined use of manure and manure+urea increased the rate of microbial decomposition in the soils of the DS, but no such effect was observed in soils of the RF. We conclude that combining manure and urea fertilization has different effects on soils of the two ecoregions, and that RF farmers can reduce agricultural N2O emissions without compromising soil productivity and yield potential.
Role of Signal Transduction Pathways and Transcription Factors in Cartilage and Joint Diseases

Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are common cartilage and joint diseases that globally affect more than 200 million and 20 million people, respectively. Several transcription factors have been implicated in the onset and progression of osteoarthritis, including Runx2, C/EBPβ, HIF2α, Sox4, and Sox11. Interleukin-1 β (IL-1β) leads to osteoarthritis through NF-ĸB, IκBζ, and the Zn2+-ZIP8-MTF1 axis. IL-1, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) play a major pathological role in rheumatoid arthritis through NF-ĸB and JAK/STAT pathways. Indeed, inhibitory reagents for IL-1, IL-6, and TNFα provide clinical benefits for rheumatoid arthritis patients. Several growth factors, such as bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP), and Indian hedgehog, play roles in regulating chondrocyte proliferation and differentiation. Disruption and excess of these signaling pathways cause genetic disorders in cartilage and skeletal tissues. Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressive, an autosomal genetic disorder characterized by ectopic ossification, is induced by mutant ACVR1. Mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase (mTOR) inhibitors can prevent ectopic ossification induced by ACVR1 mutations. C-type natriuretic peptide is currently the most promising therapy for achondroplasia and related autosomal genetic diseases that manifest severe dwarfism. In these ways, investigation of cartilage and chondrocyte diseases at molecular and cellular levels has enlightened the development of effective therapies. Thus, identification of signaling pathways and transcription factors implicated in these diseases is important.
Waveforms Synthesis by Evolutionary Processes

We present a model for sound synthesis based on Genetic Algorithms (GAs) and the correspondent algorithm named ESSynth. It creates an evolutionary sequence of waveforms which converges to a Target Sound Set and can be used to several purposes such as real time sound environment, or even collect the resultant sounds for an off-time composition, electroacoustic music,etc.
Geo-Located I.T Assets Management: The Case of University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE

The University Of Sharjah (UOS) is one of the leading academic institutions in the Middle East and around the world. An important part of its appeal lies in the fact that it provides students and faculty cutting edge hardware and software facilities as well as a completely networked environment using the latest information and communication technologies. In the process of building up this vital capability, the university has acquired thousands of individual pieces of hardware equipment and software assets. The current tools used by UOS to manage these assets are not efficient since they present considerable difficulties in knowing the exact location for these assets. The present research aims to find a solution to this problem by developing and presenting a Geo-located asset management system which take benefits from the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. With GIS systems, UOS’s managers can manage its asset efficiently with an access to an informed operational picture.
To What Extent Should We Rely on Antibiotics to Reduce High Gonococcal Prevalence? Historical Insights from Mass-Meningococcal Campaigns

In the absence of a vaccine, current antibiotic-dependent efforts to reduce the prevalence of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in high prevalence populations have been shown to result in extremely high levels of antibiotic consumption. No randomized controlled trials have been conducted to validate this strategy and an important concern of this approach is that it may induce antimicrobial resistance. To contribute to this debate, we assessed if mass treatment in the related species, Neisseria meningitidis, was associated with the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. To this end, we conducted a historical review of the effect of mass meningococcal treatment programmes on the prevalence of N. meningitidis and the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. We found evidence that mass treatment programmes were associated with the emergence of antimicrobial resistance.
Consciousness beyond life

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Distributionally Robust Model of Energy and Reserve Dispatch Based on Kullback–Leibler Divergence

This paper proposes a distance-based distributionally robust energy and reserve (DB-DRER) dispatch model via Kullback–Leibler (KL) divergence, considering the volatile of renewable energy generation. Firstly, a two-stage optimization model is formulated to minimize the expected total cost of energy and reserve (ER) dispatch. Then, KL divergence is adopted to establish the ambiguity set. Distinguished from conventional robust optimization methodology, the volatile output of renewable power generation is assumed to follow the unknown probability distribution that is restricted in the ambiguity set. DB-DRER aims at minimizing the expected total cost in the worst-case probability distributions of renewables. Combining with the designed empirical distribution function, the proposed DB-DRER model can be reformulated into a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem. Furthermore, using the generalized Benders decomposition, a decomposition method is proposed and sample average approximation (SAA) method is applied to solve this problem. Finally, simulation result of the proposed method is compared with those of stochastic optimization and conventional robust optimization methods on the 6-bus system and IEEE 118-bus system, which demonstrates the effectiveness and advantages of the method proposed.
Experimental Analysis of Helical Coil Induction and Electric Immersion Type Water Heater

This work presents a comparative experimental analysis for energy consumption of Helical Coil Induction and Electric Immersion type water heater. The experimental setup is developed using Induction cooker with different helical coil and Electric Immersion heater of 1200 Watt power. The Energy consumption for Helical coil induction water heater with different configurations and immersion water heater is taken at constant values of water outlet temperature of 54 0 C for 5 Liters of water. It is observed from results energy consumptions for helical coil induction water heater shows less energy requirement as compared to Electric Immersion water heater. The energy consumption for experimental setup with Helical Coil with number of turns equals to four shows least energy consumptions.
Pendulums and Elliptic Integrals

Many years ago before the advent of the “PC on every desktop” age, I became fascinated with the design of LC elliptic filters. As part of that endeavor, I also became intimately acquainted with elliptic integrals. Having an equal intrigue for numerical precision, I found that computing the elliptic integrals with high accuracy was very difficult if simple integration methods like Simpson’s Rule or Gaussian quadrature were resorted to. Thus began my search for a precision method of computations. Some readers will no doubt be familiar with the solution path involved, but to those who are not, I invite you to read on.
Energy-Efficient Method for Wireless Sensor Networks Low-Power Radio Operation in Internet of Things

The radio operation in wireless sensor networks (WSN) in Internet of Things (IoT) applications is the most common source for power consumption. Consequently, recognizing and controlling the factors affecting radio operation can be valuable for managing the node power consumption. Among essential factors affecting radio operation, the time spent for checking the radio is of utmost importance for monitoring power consumption. It can lead to false WakeUp or idle listening in radio duty cycles and ContikiMAC. ContikiMAC is a low-power radio duty-cycle protocol in Contiki OS used in WakeUp mode, as a clear channel assessment (CCA) for checking radio status periodically. This paper presents a detailed analysis of radio WakeUp time factors of ContikiMAC. Furthermore, we propose a lightweight CCA (LW-CCA) as an extension to ContikiMAC to reduce the Radio Duty-Cycles in false WakeUps and idle listening though using dynamic received signal strength indicator (RSSI) status check time. The simulation results in the Cooja simulator show that LW-CCA reduces about 8% energy consumption in nodes while maintaining up to 99% of the packet delivery rate (PDR).
Implementation of Universal Authentication Framework in the Electron- ic Archive Management

The paper describes requirements for electronic archive secure access and management. In each section the credible archive, access options and universal authentication framework are described. For the user authentication, a port-able hardware device stored certificates are used. The aim of this article is to propose a universal authentication framework as a secure way of an archive management. Key-Words: Authentication, Authentication framework, Electronic archive, Archive management.
Bøtker HE, Schmidt M. Positive predictive value of cardiac examination, procedure, and surgery codes in the Danish National Patient Registry: a population-based validation

I. Sundbøll J, Adelborg K, Munch T, Frøslev T, Sørensen HT, Bøtker HE, Schmidt M. Positive predictive value of cardiovascular diagnoses in the Danish National Patient Registry: a validation study. BMJ Open 2016 Nov 18;6(11) II. Adelborg K, Sundbøll J, Munch T, Frøslev T, Sørensen HT, Bøtker HE, Schmidt M. Positive predictive value of cardiac examination, procedure, and surgery codes in the Danish National Patient Registry: a population-based validation study. BMJ Open 2016 Dec 9;6 (12) III. Adelborg K, Schmidt M, Sundbøll J, Pedersen L, Videbech P, Bøtker HE, Egstrup K, Sørensen HT. Mortality Risk Among Heart Failure Patients With Depression: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study. J Am Heart Assoc. 2016 Sep 7;5(9) IV. Adelborg K, Horváth-Puhó E, Ording A, Pedersen L, Sørensen HT, Henderson VW. Heart failure and risk of dementia: a Danish nationwide population-based cohort study. Eur J Heart Fail. 2017 Feb 19(2):253-260 V. Adelborg K, Szépligeti S, Sundbøll J, Horváth-Puhó E, Henderson VW, Ording A, Pedersen L, Sørensen HT. Risk of Stroke in Patients With Heart Failure: A Population-Based 30-Year Cohort Study. Stroke. 2017 Apr 4 [Epub ahead of print]
Evaluating Soft Error Reliability in Multi-core Processors using OVPSim-FIM

Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) processors have been widely used in embedded systems. The increasing complexity of underlying processors along with the increasing chip power densities and the continuous technology shrink is making COTSbased systems more vulnerable to soft errors. The soft errors occurrence may cause critical failures on system behavior. This project utilised a fault injection framework, called OVPSimFIM to access the soft error reliability of different ARM instruction set architectures and evaluates the finding.
9b.1 The Demonstration of Enhancement/Depletion-Mode pHEMT Technology with Optimized E-mode Characteristics for Better Yield

E/D pHEMT technology has become important for wireless switch and LNA applications. To meet the requirements of both low cost and tight E-mode pHEMT threshold voltage control, one has to compensate for natural variation of the epitaxial layer growth. WIN has developed a manufacturable gate sinking method to achieve tight control of E-mode pHMET pinch-off voltage of commercially supplied epitaxial E/D material.
MONITORING AND CONTROLLING OF SMART

This paper describes the implementation of controlling physical parameters through IoT applications with GSM module. The ever increasing requirements for information being accessible at any time, from any place, regardless the type of remote device or planned operation, together with the need of complete control of a specific scenario or device has paved the way towards the next technological revolution: Internet of Things (IoT). In this project, the parameters are sensed by the respective sensors and are monitored by the individual microcontrollers. Finally, the values are displayed with the help of individual LCD displays. The microcontroller is connected to the PC through zigbee bus and the output will be displayed in that PC with the help of RS232 serial communication. This data is stored in the Pc and uploaded to the cloud. The system is reliable and stable. It is the most effective and most economical means of equipment safety monitoring. Keywords—Zigbee, GSM, IoT, Android, Microcontroller,
When Does Race Matter? Exploring White Responses to Minority Candidates in a “Post-Racial” Era

In what many view as a “post-racial” world, does race still matter in minority candidate evaluation? I argue that an increasingly racially diverse array of candidates necessitates a more dynamic look at how race might help or hurt minority candidacies. My study is unique in three ways: ﬁrst, I test the relative role race plays in the evaluation of white voters for black, Asian, and Latino candidates of both major parties, examining observational data on Latinos and Asian candidates for the ﬁrst time. Second, my study uses combines new data that allows me to account for the main factors outside of race that could drive the vote - incumbency, spending, and candidate ideal points. Finally, using the 2010 and 2012 CCES, I am able to look at voter perceptions about their candidates that might drive their vote choice, namely ideological assessments and competence assessments. I ﬁnd that even after accounting for non-racial variables, white voters are less likely to vote for Hispanic and black Democrats because they are viewed as less competent and more ideologically extreme than similar white candidates. Meanwhile, I ﬁnd that Asian candidates and minority Republicans are largely unaffected by these biases.
Wii Health: A Preliminary Study of the Health and Wellness Benefits of Wii Fit on University Students

Objective: The aim of this preliminary study was to determine the effectiveness of the Nintendo Wii Fit as an occupation to promote weight loss in undergraduate students. Participants: Five first-year female students living on campus at a northeastern university in the United States were recruited to participate in this study. Method: An A-B single subject design was created where participants were separated into three groups: a typical activity group and two Wii conditions (Wii Fit individually and Wii Fit with another participant). In all conditions, participants recorded their daily food intake and daily number of steps using a pedometer. Body mass index (BMI) and weight were recorded at baseline, at 6 weeks and at 12 weeks (the conclusion of the intervention). At baseline and 12 weeks, motivation and activity level were measured. Results: There was a significant change in BMI, weight and motivation for participants in the singles group. Conclusion: Although the sample size was very small, the results of this preliminary study suggest that the Wii Fit should be considered by occupational therapists as a potential occupation of weight control in undergraduate students when performed individually.
Construction and Evaluation of Collagen-Based Corneal Grafts Using Polycaprolactone To Improve Tension Stress

The emergence of innovative surgical procedures using partial thickness corneal transplant has created a need for the development of corneal grafts to replace pathologic corneal tissue. Corneal repair materials have been successfully prepared in the past 10 years, but they were difficult to be used in clinics because of the unbearable tension caused by interrupted suture during routine surgery. However, polycaprolactone (PCL), a medical polymer material, can solve this problem. Therefore, a hierarchical collagen (Col)-based corneal graft with curvature, consisting of a transparent core part composed of collagen in the center and a mechanically robust fixed part containing collagen and polycaprolactone in the edge, was used as a potential corneal graft for corneal repair and regeneration in this study. The hierarchical collagen-based corneal grafts [collagen–polycaprolactone (Col–PCL) membranes] that are capable of mimicking the native cornea were developed based on chemical and thermal crosslinking mechanisms. The water adsorption of Col–PCL membranes could reach over 80% similar to that of human cornea, and its swelling could reach over 400%. More importantly, the formed Col–PCL membranes could resist a larger tensile strength (1.1 ± 0.03 MPa) before rupturing in comparison with pure collagen membranes and polycaprolactone membranes. Furthermore, the biodegradable Col–PCL membranes could facilitate cell adhesion and proliferation as well as cell migration (exhibiting epithelial wound coverage in <5 days), which showed promise as corneal grafts for cornea tissue engineering.
Dihydroartemisinin suppresses bladder cancer cell invasion and migration by regulating KDM3A and p21

Emerging evidences have shown that Dihydroartemisinin (DHA), used in malaria treatment, possess anti-cancer activity. However, the study of its potential functional roles and the anti-cancer mechanisms in bladder cancer is limited. We performed this study to elucidate the influence of DHA in the biological behavior of bladder cancer cells and tried to explore the molecular mechanism. The results of CCK-8 assay showed that DHA significantly inhibited bladder cancer cell 5637, UMUC3 and T24 proliferation and the inhibitory effect is dose- and time- dependent. Further mechanism study showed that DHA performed its function via down-regulating the expression of histone demethylase KDM3A and inducing p21 expression. Moreover, wound healing and transwell migration/invasion assays revealed that DHA inhibited the ability of migration and metastasis in bladder cancer cell line T24. Finally, flow cytometry and colony formation assays demonstrated that DHA significantly promoted apoptosis of T24 cells and suppressed tumorigenesis as expected. Taken together, our study identifies the anti-cancer capacity of DHA in bladder cancer and explores the underlying mechanism.
Lateral Sinus Augmentation: A Safer Technique

The posterior maxilla presents with a common problem clinically following tooth extraction or crestal bone loss resulting in loss of osseous height sufficient to place implants. Resorptive patterns in some patients along with sinus enlargement result in minimal bone that can accommodate implant placement. Maxillary sinus augmentation over the past 18 years with various bone graft materials has become routine treatment. Numerous studies have reported highly successful implant survival rates when placed into the augmented sinus. The most common complication of the lateral sinus elevation approach is typically tearing of the Schneiderian membrane which could allow for bacterial contamination or loose particles to gain access to the sinus cavity. A safer lateral window approach sinus augmentation procedure will be discussed using specialized safe cutting end drills with vertical stoppers for osseous window formation and subsequent membrane elevation.
Complementarity of empirical and process-based approaches to modelling mosquito population dynamics with Aedes albopictus as an example—Application to the development of an operational mapping tool of vector populations

Mosquitoes are responsible for the transmission of major pathogens worldwide. Modelling their population dynamics and mapping their distribution can contribute effectively to disease surveillance and control systems. Two main approaches are classically used to understand and predict mosquito abundance in space and time, namely empirical (or statistical) and process-based models. In this work, we used both approaches to model the population dynamics in Reunion Island of the 'Tiger mosquito', Aedes albopictus, a vector of dengue and chikungunya viruses, using rainfall and temperature data. We aimed to i) evaluate and compare the two types of models, and ii) develop an operational tool that could be used by public health authorities and vector control services. Our results showed that Ae. albopictus dynamics in Reunion Island are driven by both rainfall and temperature with a non-linear relationship. The predictions of the two approaches were consistent with the observed abundances of Ae. albopictus aquatic stages. An operational tool with a user-friendly interface was developed, allowing the creation of maps of Ae. albopictus densities over the whole territory using meteorological data collected from a network of weather stations. It is now routinely used by the services in charge of vector control in Reunion Island.