Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Larvicidal effect of Hemidesmus indicus, Gymnema sylvestre, and Eclipta prostrata against Culex qinquifaciatus mosquito larvae

The larvicidal effect of aqueous extracts of Hemidesmus indicus roots, Gymnema sylvestre and Eclipta prostrata leaves were tested against Culex quinquefasciatus larvae at the concentrations of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5% up to three days. All extracts showed larval mortality. Larval mortality was 100% with the use of 5% concentration of root extract of H. indicus, leaves extracts of G. sylvestre and E. prostrata after 2 days. Qualitative analysis of the phytochemicals of aqueous extracts revealed the presence of carbohydrates, saponins, phytosterols, phenols, flavonoids and tannins in all the plants. Quantitative analysis showed that the crude saponin was the major phytochemical constituent present in highest percentage followed by crude tannin in all three plants. It is suggested that all the three plants possess larvicidal properties that could be developed and used as natural insecticides for mosquito control.
International Conference on Engineering Education The database management system for the non destructive testing of works of art at the Conservation Department of the Technological Educational Institution of Athens

This paper describes a data base management system developed for the organization and management of information acquired by non – destructive testing of artworks usually applied at the laboratory of the Physical and Chemical Methods of the Department of Conservation of Works of Art and Antiquities at the TEI of Athens. The structure and content of the system are presented, as well the interface provided to the user. The scope of the work presented in this paper is impressive, taking into account the complexities of creating such databases, enabling successful retrieval. The advantages of the system are the collection and comparison of the relevant information from the non – destructive techniques and the standardization of their conclusions. This information is particularly important for conservators because it could be used as reference and guidance to their research and conservation treatment. Key-Words: database, non destructive methods, artworks, entity relationship model, documentation.
A place to grow ? Host choice and larval performance of Microplitis similis in the host Spodoptera litura

Host selection is a key stage in the lifecycle of parasitoids, and is critical to both their function in control and to the maintenance of their population. The solitary endoparasitoid Microplitis similis (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), is a potential biological control agent of Spodoptera litura larvae (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). In this study, we examined the preference M. similis exhibits for different instars of the host, host instar effects on parasitoid development and the weight gain and food consumption of different instars of parasitized larvae. In no-choice tests, parasitization rates were highest in second and early third instar larvae, and no fourth or fifth instar hosts were parasitized. When provided with a choice of first to late third instars host larvae, M. similis preferred to parasitize early third instar host larvae (41 %) with a selection coefficient of 0.37. All morphometric features of wasp offspring increased with increasing age of the host at parasitization. A lower proportion of females emerged from first instar larvae than any other instar. Parasitized S. litura larvae showed a pronounced reduction in food consumption and weight gain. Microplitis similis may have the potential to significantly suppress population growth and the damage caused by S. litura.
Probing the anomalous extinction of four young star clusters: the use of colour-excess, main-sequence fitting and fractal analysis

Aims. We studied four young star clusters to characterise their anomalous extinction or variable reddening and asses whether they could be due to contamination by either dense clouds or circumstellar effects. Methods. We evaluated the extinction law (RV) by adopting two methods: (i) the use of theoretical expressions based on the colourexcess of stars with known spectral type; and (ii) the analysis of two-colour diagrams, where the slope of the observed colour distribution was compared to the normal distribution. An algorithm to reproduce the zero-age main-sequence (ZAMS) reddened colours was developed to derive the average visual extinction (AV) that provides the closest fit to the observational data. The structure of the clouds was evaluated by means of a statistical fractal analysis, designed to compare their geometric structure with the spatial distribution of the cluster members. Results. The cluster NGC 6530 is the only object of our sample affected by anomalous extinction. On average, the other clusters suffer normal extinction, but several of their members, mainly in NGC 2264, seem to have high RV, probably because of circumstellar effects. The ZAMS fitting provides AV values that are in good agreement with those found in the literature. The fractal analysis shows that NGC 6530 has a centrally concentrated distribution of stars that differs from the substructures found in the density distribution of the cloud projected in the AV map, suggesting that the original cloud was changed by the cluster formation. However, the fractal dimension and statistical parameters of Berkeley 86, NGC 2244, and NGC 2264 indicate that there is a good cloud-cluster correlation, when compared to other works based on an artificial distribution of points.
Design Tri-band Rectangular Patch Antenna for Wi-Fi, Wi-Max and WLAN in Military Band Applications with Radiation Pattern Suppression

Design tri-band rectangular patch antenna is presented. This research study focuses on designing an antenna that can operate with three bands; 2.4, 3.5 and 4.4 GHz, respectively. These bands are accepted by Wi-Fi, Wi-MAX and WLAN in Military band applications. The shape of the proposed design is based on simple rectangular patches with inset-feed on one surface of the FR4 substrate. On the other surface of FR4 substrate, is the infinite ground plane. Also Computer Simulation Technology (CST) microwave studio 2012 is used for the design of antenna. This design is fabricated using photolithographic process.
Correlation between Solar Energetic Particle events and Earth's surface Temperature in North-East USA

The inuence of space weather on the Earth's atmospheric weather and climate is an important scientic issue with great social interest. In this study we present, for the rst time, statistical results during times of 28 strong ICMEs observed between 1997 - May, 2015, which conrm a strong correlation between the solar activity and the temperature TM in east USA (Madison, Wisconsin). In particular we found that: (a) during a time period of 15 days (day=-7 to day=+7) centered at the day D0 of ICMEs arrival at Earth, the temperature (TM ) in Madison shows maximum values around (+/- 1 day) or after the day D0 in 89.2% of the cases examined, (b) the high (1880 - 4700 keV) energy solar proton (HESP) uxes, show a much stronger correlation with TM than the magnetospheric 68 - 115 keV ions and 38 - 53 keV electrons, before the ICME arrival, (c) the temperature increase reached on day D0 is strongly (r = 0:8;p < 0:001) correlated with the time duration of the HESP events, (d) the temperature increase during the cases examined is very strongly and signicantly
A Survey on Location Management Strategies in Cellular Networks

Now-a-days wireless networks have become very popular as they support mobility. Mobile users can access services irrespective of their locations. Wireless networks use cellular architecture for better efficiency. To support mobility the networks must have some mechanism to find terminal's current position. Location management in cellular network is related to keeping track of mobile terminals. It consists of two operations: Location updating and paging. There is a cost associated with each operation and total location management cost is sum of update cost and paging cost. There is always a trade-off between the two costs, so it is required to define a strategy which can minimize total location management cost. The paper reviews different location update and paging strategies.
A Bismut–Elworthy–Li formula for singular SDEs driven by a fractional Brownian motion and applications to rough volatility modeling

In this paper we derive a Bismut-Elworthy-Li type formula with respect to strong solutions to singular stochastic differential equations (SDE's) with additive noise given by a multi-dimensional fractional Brownian motion with Hurst parameter $H<1/2$. "Singular" here means that the drift vector field of such equations is allowed to be merely bounded and integrable. As an application we use this representation formula for the study of price sensitivities of financial claims based on a stock price model with stochastic volatility, whose dynamics is described by means of fractional Brownian motion driven SDE's. Our approach for obtaining these results is based on Malliavin calculus and arguments of a recently developed "local time variational calculus".
End-to-end steering angle prediction and object detection using convolutional neural networks

Introduction Artificial neural networks have enabled a new generation of autonomous vehicles. Public datasets can possibly be used to build networks capable of predicting steering angles and detect objects for self-driving vehicles. Objectives The objective of this paper is to investigate whether steering angles and object bounding boxes can be predicted from a single image input. A novel architecture combining both models into a steering angle predictor with incorporated object detection is also explored. Method An object detection model was created based on modern bounding box regression networks. It was trained to detect cars, trucks, traffic lights, pedestrians, bikers, and traffic signs with data from German Traffic Sign Detection Challenge and Udacity. A steering angle prediction network, which was trained using driving data provided by Udacity, was created. Both models shared pretrained layers from VGG16 for feature extraction. The models were also combined into a single model that aimed to make the steering angle predictor more robust by providing explicit object detections as additional inputs. Results The detector achieved a mean average precision of 44.02 on the validation dataset, which was a combination of images from both the German Traffic
Evaluation of Selected Cowpea Lines and Cultivars for Inherent Resistance against Cowpea Seed Beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus Fabricius (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Bruchinae)

Four cowpea lines (IT99K-494-6, IT97K-390-2, IT84S-2246-4 and IT06K-141) obtained from the Genetic Resources Centre, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan Nigeria, one cultivar (Ife Brown) obtained from Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), Obafemi Awolowo University, Ibadan and two cultivars (Drum and Oloyin) obtained from Wazobia Market, Ogbomoso, Nigeria were screened for comparative susceptibility to the infestation of cowpea seed bruchid, Callosobruchus maculatus. The number of eggs laid on IT99K-494-6 (20.05) was significantly (p < 0.05) lower than the number laid on all the local cultivars (56.33-78.83). First filial progeny emergence (0.71) observed in IT99K-494-6 was significantly (p < 0.05) lower than 2.06 and 1.65 observed in Ife Brown and Drum cowpea cultivars, respectively. Percentage seed damage for 1T99k-49-6 (10.14) was significantly lower than the value obtained in 1T06K-141 (49.93) and Drum (47.74). Alkaloids content was significantly higher in IT06K–141 (31.67 mg/100 g) than in other lines and cultivars. Oloyin had the highest flavonoid (51.7 mg/100 g), tannins (43.3 mg/100 g) whereas 1T84S-2246-4 had the highest saponins (61.7 mg/100 g) Drum had the highest terpenoid (33.33 mg/100 g). Steroid was highest in Oloyin and 1T84S-2246-4 (11.67 mg/100 g). Reducing sugar was highest in Oloyin (5.33 mg/100 g) followed by 1T84S-2246–4 (4.3 mg/100 g) and IT06K–141 (4.0 mg/100 g). Significant and positive relationship exists between saponins content and the number of grains without exit holes (r = 0.46, p = 0.04), suggesting that high saponins was contributory to cowpea host plant resistance to the cowpea seed bruchid, C. maculatus. Keywords : cowpea cultivars, Drum, Oloyin, host plant resistance
Dual stage actuation in linear drive systems

The aim of this research was to contribute to the transfer of knowledge and experience of research in HDD dual-stage actuation to dual-stage actuation in linear drive systems. As a case study, application of dual-stage actuation to the Fast Component Mounter (FCM) is considered. Dual-stage actuation is the combination of a first-stage actuator, which has a relative large stroke and small bandwidth, with a second-stage actuator, which has a relative small stroke and large bandwidth. The combination of these two actuators can result in a larger bandwidth, compared to using only the first-stage actuator. In literature, it is reported that the principle of dual-stage actuation is applied to increase the bandwidth of HDDs. As a result, the response time of positioning the read/write head can be decreased and at the same time, the accuracy of positioning the read/write head can be increased. In applying dual-stage actuation to HDDs, decoupled operation of the two actuators is assumed. Consequently, it is shown that two controllers for each of the actuators can be independently designed using SISO-design methodologies. During this research, the topic of decoupling has been investigated. It has been shown that decoupling occurs only if the load mass to the second-stage actuator is very small. Hence, the SISO-design methodologies from literature cannot be applied directly to the coupled system. In that case, the dual-stage actuated system becomes unstable. Therefore, a tuning procedure is presented to tune the controller parameters of the decoupled designed controllers, such that the coupled system is stabilized. Furthermore, attention is paid to the sensory system, which is required for effective dual-stage operation. Since in HDDs the position of the read/write head is measured, the sensory system need not be adapted for effectively including a second-stage actuator. However, in case of the FCM, the position of the end-effector is not measured. For both the coupled and decoupled model it is investigated which changes to the sensory system should be made, in order to increase the bandwidth of the dual-stage actuated FCM. Finally, for both models, it was shown how much the sensitivity bandwidth and the closed-loop bandwidth can be increased by including a piezo-actuator as second-stage actuator. In this analysis, also the load mass to the second-stage actuator is varied, in order to evaluate the achievable bandwidth.
Comparison of Potential ASKAP Hi Survey Source Finders

Abstract The large size of the ASKAP Hi surveys DINGO and WALLABY necessitates automated 3D source finding. A performance difference of a few percent corresponds to a significant number of galaxies being detected or undetected. As such, the performance of the automated source finding is of paramount importance to both of these surveys. We have analysed the performance of various source finders to determine which will allow us to meet our survey goals during the DINGO and WALLABY design studies. Here we present a comparison of the performance of five different methods of automated source finding. These source finders are duchamp, gamma-finder, a cnhi finder, a 2d–1d wavelet reconstruction finder and a sigma clipping method (s + c finder). Each source finder was applied to the same three-dimensional data cubes containing (a) point sources with a Gaussian velocity profile and (b) spatially extended model-galaxies with inclinations and rotation profiles. We focus on the completeness and reliability of each algorithm when comparing the performance of the different source finders.
Optimizing beef cattle performance using rumen-protected lysine supplementation in diets balanced for predicted amino acid and effective energy requirement

The objectives of these experiments were to determine the bypass value of rumen-protected lysine and performance responses of beef cattle fed encapsulated lysine. During experiment 1 singe-flow continuous culture fermenters were fed a Lys-deficient control (CON), a Lys-sufficient diet supplemented with rumen-protected soybean meal (RPSBM; AminoPlus, Ag Processing Inc., Omaha, NE), or a Lys-sufficient diet containing a commercially available rumen-protected Lys product (RPLYS; USA Lysine, Kemin Industries Inc., Des Moines, IA). Results from continuous culture showed greater degradation of RPLYS than RPSBM and CON. During Experiment 2, an in vitro dry matter digestibility study showed DM degradation was 23% greater for pure USA Lysine than another encapsulated lysine product (AjiPro 2G, Ajinomoto Heartland, Inc., Omaha, NE). The next objective was to test if AjiPro would increase plasma Lys levels in vivo (and therefore indicate its successful ruminal bypass and small intestinal absorption). Experiment 3 involved a 3 x 3 Latin Square study conducted on cannulated crossbred steers fed a combination of rumen-protected soybean meal and two increased levels of the rumen-protected product, where it was fed to meet 100% (AJ100) and 150% (AJ150) absorbable AA to effective energy (EE) ratio. Plasma Lys levels were greater when steers were fed diets containing AjiPro in comparison to when they were fed a negative control (NEGCON) which did not contain the product and was deficient in absorbable Lys. From both the in vitro dry matter degradation experiment and the 3 x
Non-Linear Analysis of Rheological Effects in Slender Composite Columns

A thorough analysis of slender columns under axial force and bending moment requires second order effects assessment. Concrete’s creep is one of the factors that increase lateral displacements of the bar in the long run. This phenomenon propitiates the instability and reduces its bearing capacity. This paper shows a procedure for assessing rheological effects based on Eurocode 2 method. This procedure will be added to structural analysis software which takes into consideration geometrical and mechanical non-linearity. As an example interaction diagrams for concrete-encased composite columns with different slenderness values are obtained. These diagrams will demonstrate that rheological effects have a greater influence as axial force eccentricity and slenderness values increase.
The effect of nutrients on extracellular polymeric substance production and its influence on sludge properties

The effect of nutrients on extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) production and its impact on sludge properties and removal efficiencies were investigated in an in-depth field survey of wastewater treatment plants. Thereafter, laboratory studies were performed to evaluate the effect of a combination of nutrients - nitrogen and phosphorus and operational conditions on EPS production, and sludge settling and dewatering characteristics. Multiple regression analysis was performed to assess the effect of variables in nutrient operational conditions on the EPS production and sludge properties. The field survey revealed that although filamentous micro-organisms were found in most of the sludge samples, they did not always cause sludge bulking. Further, it was observed that EPS production was lower in anaerobic than in aerobic processes. An evaluation of the effect of the deficiency and excess of nitrogen and phosphorus was conducted in batch experiments on synthetic wastewater with glucose as the carbon source. The study revealed that the EPS components, namely proteins and carbohydrates had a more profound effect on sludge properties compared to total EPS, with protein being more significant than carbohydrate. Both nitrogen deficiency (COD: N 100:10) improved the sludge properties. The optimum phosphorus ratio determined was COD:P, ranging from 100:3 to 100:5, at which sludge properties in terms of settling, dewatering and the final clarification improved.
Constant Boost Control Method for ImprovedTrans-Z-Source Inverter

This paper deals with high boost voltage inverters that improve upon conventional Z-Source inverters. The conventional Z-Source inverter has an impedance network for buck-boost function to interface the DC source and inverter bridge. This proposed Improved Trans-Z-Source inverter has a transformer to obtain high voltage. This proposed inverter has increased voltage boost gain, reduced voltage stress and high boost factor due to the use of transformer. We can able to obtain high voltage from this inverter by making the turn’s ratio of the transformer more than unity. This paper presents the operating principles, analysis and simulation results of Improved Trans-Z-Source inverter and compares with the conventional Z-Source inverter. Both the shoot-through states and the turn’s ratio can be regulated to control the boost voltage gain. Index Terms-shoot through state, boost voltage gain, Improved Trans-Z-Source inverter
Semantics from narrative

We study two aspects of information semantics: (i) the collection of all relationships, (ii) tracking and spotting anomaly and change. The first is implemented by endowing all relevant information spaces with a Euclidean metric in a common projected space. The second is modelled by an induced ultrametric. A very general way to achieve a Euclidean embedding of different information spaces based on cross-tabulation counts (and from other input data formats) is provided by Correspondence Analysis. From there, the induced ultrametric that we are particularly interested in takes a sequential e.g. temporal ordering of the data into account. We exemplify this with filmscript related to cinema and television.
Heterogeneous Preferences for Public Goods Provided by Agriculture in a Region of Intensive Agricultural Production: The Case of the Marchfeld

The aim of this paper is to elicit the marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) for the improved provision of public goods (PGs) by agriculture in a region of intensive agricultural production, embodying many of the environmental problems related to agriculture within and outside the European Union (EU). Our analysis was based on a participatory approach, combining the involvement of local stakeholders and a discrete choice experiment (DCE) in the Marchfeld region in Austria. We estimated a random parameters logit model (RPL), including interactions with socio-demographic factors, to disentangle preference heterogeneity and find a positive MWTP of the local population for all three PGs analyzed: (i) groundwater quality; (ii) landscape quality; and (iii) soil functionality in connection with climate stability. Furthermore, MWTP varies considerably with respect to age, farmers/non-farmers and locals/incomers. Further research could combine the results of this demand-side valuation with those of a supply-side valuation, where the opportunity costs of different management options for farmers are estimated. Based on such a cost–benefit analysis and further participation of local stakeholders, new governance mechanisms for the smart and sustainable provision of PGs by agriculture could be developed for the Marchfeld region and for comparable European regions.