Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Some Botanicals on Root - Knot Nematode (Meloidogyne javanica) in Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum, Mill) in Yola Adamawa State, Nigeria

Laboratory and screen house experiments were carried out to evaluate the effect of two botanicals- Oil palm fibre and cocoa bean testa in the control of root knot nematode (M. javanica) on tomato. Approximately 100 eggs and juveniles were dispensed into petridishes containing both the crude and diluted extracts of the botanicals except the control which contained only distilled water. In the screen house 10, 20 and 30 g (equilvalent to 5.7, 11.4 and 17.1 t/ha respectively) of powdered plant material was applied on top of soil in form of mulch to each pot except the control which received no treatment. Carbofuran a chemical nematicide was used as a check and applied at the rate of 1 g/cm 3 of soil. The results in both experiments indicated that cocoa bean testa crude extract gave the best egg hatch inhibition (only 8 % of eggs hatched after 96 hrs), recorded highest juvenile mortality of 100 %, and recorded the highest growth parameters and least nematodes population. It is recommended that Cocoa bean testa extracts and powder be tried in the field before recommending to tomato farmers for the control of M. javanica.
Determinants Influencing Accounting Quality of Transportation Service Firms

The study aimed to determine what determinants influencing the accounting of transportation service firms working the area of Da Nang of Vietnam. A study model was developed, investigated and analyzed with the involvement of 250 transportation service firms in Da Nang. The results show five determinants influencing the accounting works including industry characteristics; legal guidance; material facilities for accounting; interest in accounting of business owners; accountants’ qualifications. Among them, the two most important determinants influencing the quality of the accounting were legal guidance and interest in accounting of business owners. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made to improve the quality of accounting of transportation service firms. Keywords : Determinants, accounting, transportation services DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/11-4-08 Publication date: February 29 th 2020
Exploring Green Innovation Practices: Content Analysis of the Fortune Global 500 Companies

Green innovation has been attracting increasing attention due to its contributions to the conservation of resources and environmental protection. However, in the process of exploring green innovation, the allocation of resources and the direction of innovation are often inaccurate, which leads to a low efficiency of green innovation. If we can learn the green innovation practices from successful companies, we can certainly provide reference strategies for those companies that are exploring green innovation. Therefore, taking the Fortune Global 500 companies as the analysis object, this research develops the criteria of green innovation practices and conducts a cluster analysis of these companies by using a content analysis method. Finally, this article summarizes the green innovation practices of the six types of industries and provides corresponding countermeasures and suggestions, which provide a strong reference for relevant companies to carry out green innovation.
Evaluation of Black Tea Consumption In Terms Of Substance Use Disorders, Sleep Quality, and Mental Symptoms among Medical Students

Aim This study aimed to investigate black tea consumption, substance use disorders, sleep disorders, and psychological symptoms among medical students of various ages and grades. Materials and methods The study involved face-to-face interviews of 356 students which is accepted study from 650 medical students, including 101 participants daily consuming black tea. Addiction Profile Risk Screening Index (BAPI-T), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and Psychiatric Symptom Check List-90 were applied to the students. The Addiction Profile Index was administered to individuals found to be at risky consumption using BAPI-T. Results Although 72.3% of the participants had a risk for addiction profile, 27.7% had none. Further, 50.1% of substance users were first grade, and being in the first grade increased substance use 9896 times. 73% of the people who said that they drank black tea every day met the diagnostic criteria of addiction. Sleep quality was found to be low in the group with and without addiction profile risk. Anger status was high in patients with impaired sleep quality without risk of addiction profile. A significant difference was found between the effect on life and craving behavior in substance use groups and API subscales. Conclusions Especially in eastern cultures where black tea consumption is consumed, the approach is important considering the risk of addiction profile. Being in the first grade is a risk factor for substance abuse such as tea. Psychological symptom screening is important for university students. Keywords: Caffeine, psychological symptom, sleep quality, tea Special Issue of Health Sciences DOI: 10.7176/JSTR/6-03-07
Adaptive Single Neuron Anti-Windup PID Controller Based on the Extended Kalman Filter Algorithm

In this paper, an adaptive single neuron Proportional–Integral–Derivative (PID) controller based on the extended Kalman filter (EKF) training algorithm is proposed. The use of EKF training allows online training with faster learning and convergence speeds than backpropagation training method. Moreover, the propose adaptive PID approach includes a back-calculation anti-windup scheme to deal with windup effects, which is a common problem in PID controllers. The performance of the proposed approach is shown by presenting both simulation and experimental tests, giving results that are comparable to similar and more complex implementations. Tests are performed for a four wheeled omnidirectional mobile robot. Tests show the superiority of the proposed adaptive PID controller over the conventional PID and other adaptive neural PID approaches. Experimental tests are performed on a KUKA® Youbot® omnidirectional platform.
The pest-management attitude (PMA) scale: a unidimensional and versatile assessment tool

Abstract Context Pest species are a widespread environmental and biodiversity threat and understanding people’s attitudes towards managing pests is critical for nature conservation. Attitudes towards pest species and their management are often contextually dependent on the species and location, and no domain-free measure is currently available. This prevents straightforward comparisons of studies and generalisation of attitudes towards pest species globally. Aim Undertake initial psychometric tests of a unidimensional pest-management attitude (PMA) scale in three community samples from the two largest cities of New Zealand. The PMA scale comprises statements intentionally absent of specific reference to pest species or pest-management methods, and avoids terminology that has the potential to become outdated, as a result of evolving management methods and technology or the emergence of new pests. This broad focus aims to enable the ongoing use of the scale, within differing geographical contexts. Method Two studies tested the psychometric properties of the PMA scale. Tests comprise assessing the scales dimensionality through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and measurement equivalence across samples. Internal consistency was tested through Cronbach’s α, and demographic and context-specific measures were used to validate the scale using correlation measures. Results Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the nine-item, one-factor model of the PMA scale in Study 1 (n = 1190). Measurement and structural invariance of the one-factor model was confirmed across two distinct samples in Study 2 (n = 739 and 705). Internal consistency (Cronbach’s alphas = 0.73 to 0.81) and criterion-related validity of the PMA scale was supported in both studies, with greater PMA scores being associated with membership of a conservation or environmental organisation, active participation in conservation over the past 12 months, active actions for pest control, and not owning a pet. Conclusions Results demonstrated high construct and criterion validity of the PMA scale, which might have powerful global utility as a context-independent measure of attitudes to pest species and their management. Implications Through generalising the social components of pest management, regardless of target species or method, there is potential to unify global studies in pest management.
Effectiveness of a school-based smoking cessation program for adolescents in Taiwan - individual intervention versus group intervention

ABSTRACT Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two methods to intervene in adolescent smoking in Taiwan and evaluate quitting behavior 6 months later. Methods: A total of 143 adolescent smokers were randomly assigned to individual or group intervention. The participants completed a questionnaire with demographic information items and items based on the theory of planned behavior. Quitting success was measured after 6 months. Results: In all, 46 participants (32.2%) had successfully quit smoking at the 6-month follow-up. The individual intervention abstinence rate was significantly higher (41.7%) than that of the group intervention (25.3%). A multiple logistic regression analysis revealed intervention was positively related to quitting behavior. Smoking adolescents with low quitting intention had a higher quit rate following individual intervention, although pa high quitting intention was associated with a higher quit rate among group intervention participants. Conclusions: Both individual and group intervention greatly helped participants quit successfully. However, participants receiving individual intervention exhibited a higher success rate. Adolescent smokers with high quitting intention had remarkably similar success rates in either individual or group intervention. Adolescents with low quitting intention only achieved a high success rate in smoking cessation with individual intervention. Therefore, different interventions can be applied according to level of quitting intention.
Accurate Semidefinite Relaxation Method for 3-D Rigid Body Localization Using AOA

This paper addresses the rigid body localization problem using angle-of-arrival measurements. We formulate the problem as a constrained weighted least squares (CWLS) minimization problem with the rotation matrix and position vector as variables, which is a challenging non-convex problem. To approximately solve this problem, we first relax it as a convex semidefinite program (SDP), and then tighten the relaxed problem by adding some reasonable second-order cone constraints. Simulations show that the tightened SDP problem is able to reach the performance of the original CWLS problem, making its solution achieve the Cramer-Rao lower bound accuracy, when the noise level is not too high.
Embedding The Guided Inquiry On Blended Learning To Enhance Conceptual Understanding

: The issue of understanding concepts in physics learning is continuing to be studied by educators, especially by utilizing information and communication technology. This study aims to reveal an increase in understanding of physics concepts with blended learning strategies integrated with guided inquiry models. The design of this study was a pre-test and post-test controlled group with the subject of research being eleventh-grade students in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Online learning activities use EDMODO as a learning management system. Understanding the concept was measured using several 30 validated essays. Items validation aspects included subject matter, construction, and language. The statistical analysis used to determine the increase is to look at the category of gain value and T-test using alpha equal to 0.05. To avoid the other influenced factors, the numerical ability, verbal knowledge were used as covariate and those were analyzed the contribution using the linear regression. The results of this study indicate that blended learning by integrating guided inquiry has a better impact on understanding physics concepts .
siRNA knockdown of Tau kinases in primary neurons

Tau kinase TTBK1, as well as functional read out pS422 and acetylated a -tubulin ( a -tub), the latter of which is a marker for microtubule stability (Lim et Abstract In Alzheimer’s disease, there are two prominent histopathological features, namely extracellular senile plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles, the latter consisting at least in part of hyperphosphorylated Tau protein. This in turn implicates a dysfunction of at least one of the many kinases and/or phosphatases, and many examples are mentioned in the literature, among which one is TTBK1. So far, most experiments suggesting various pathology inducing kinases have been overexpression studies, and this has been an effort to confirm these findings through knockdown experiments in murine primary cortical neurons. qPCR results show that different mRNA species can be specifically suppressed by between half and two-thirds without apparent toxicity, and that subsequent lowered protein signals can be measured by in cyto fluorescence for GAPDH. However, no decrease of protein signal could be detected for the one kinase measured, TTBK1. If this is due to an an tibody lacking in specificity or sensitivity, or because protein levels simply aren’t decreased is at this time impossible to say, and further experiments will need to be performed to answer this question. A proof of concept experiment was performed, wherein mRNA suppression could be measured by means of FISH, al though more work is needed to routinely perform this experiment with the same accuracy as the current gold standard qPCR. This study demonstrates a specific and efficient transfection platform without obvious toxicity with potential to be used in target validation as well as screening. Abstract I Alzheimers sjukdom finns det två framträdande histopatologiska kännetecken: extracellulära senila plack, och in tracellulära neurofibrillära nystan, det senare åtminstone delvis bestående av hyperfosforylerat Tau-protein. Detta implikerar i sin tur att åtminstone ett kinas och/eller fosfatas är dysfunktionellt, och många exempel av dessa finns nämnda i literaturen, bland dessa TTBK1. Än så länge har de flesta experiment som har försökt påvisa sjukdomsal strande kinaser utförts medelst överuttrycksstudier, och detta har varit ett försök att bekräfta dessa resultat genom knockdown-experiment i primärkortikalneuron från mus. qPCR-resultat visar att mRNA av olika slag kan bli specifikt undertryckta med mellan hälften och två-tredjedelar utan uppenbar toxicitet, och att följdaktigt sänkta proteinsignaler av GAPDH kan mätas med in cyto-fluorescens. Däremot kunde ingen sänkt proteinsignal upptäckas för det enda kinas som undersökts: TTBK1. Om detta beror på att antikrop pen saknar specificitet eller sensitivitet, eller för att proteinnivåerna helt enkelt inte har sänkts är än så länge omöjligt att säga, och vidare studier behövs för att kunna besvara denna fråga. uppenbar toxicitet, potentiellt för neurologisk målvalidering likväl som screening.
A GAMIFICAÇÃO APLICADA À FORMAÇÃO INICIAL DE PROFESSORES DE FÍSICA EM TRÊS OPÇÕES METODOLÓGICAS

Este artigo trata do conceito e da pratica da gamificacao na formacao inicial docente, particularmente aplicada no curso de Licenciatura em Fisica. Metodologicamente, foi desenvolvido a partir da revisao de literatura e da analise de praticas desenvolvidas no referido curso de uma instituicao federal de ensino, no interior do estado de Sao Paulo. Foram localizados poucos artigos publicados nas revistas de ensino de maior impacto no Brasil, sendo que nenhuma producao trata da particularidade da gamificacao no ensino superior, direcionada para a formacao docente de Fisica (ou Ciencias). Apresentam-se tres opcoes metodologicas, a saber, a gamificacao para analogias, na promocao da memorizacao e revisao, e como possibilidade de experimentacao de papeis. Ao final, reconhece-se o potencial da gamificacao nao apenas no engajamento das atividades de aprendizagem, mas seu papel na avaliacao formativa de futuros professores. Como limites deste trabalho, apontam-se a investigacao realizada em um centro de formacao especifico, tendo como indicacao de novas pesquisas, outros centros de formacao de professores de Fisica.
Antibiotic resistance genes in the viral DNA fraction of environmental samples = Gens de resistència a antibiòtics en el DNA de la fracció vírica de mostres ambientals

The PhD thesis presented here has as a main objective the study of antibiotic resistance genes clinically relevant in the DNA fraction of bacteriophage particles isolated from environmental samples of different origin in order to determine the importance of bacteriophages as vehicles for the mobilization of antibiotic resistance genes between bacteria. Specifically, a broad range of antibiotic resistance genes were studied as representative of the main groups recently described in our geographical area belonging to three ? -lactamases (blaTEM, blaCTXM-1 and blaCTX-M-9), the mecA gene conferring resistance to methicillin in staphylococci, and the quinolones resistance genes qnrA and qnrS. To achieve these goals samples of urban wastewater, river water and animal faecal wastes were analysed quantifying the antibiotic resistance genes of interest in bacteriophages DNA. During the development of this Thesis, it was attempted to optimize the available methodology for bacteriophage DNA extraction, as well as the necessary controls to guarantee the amplification of encapsidated DNA and to remove any free DNA in the samples and any possible vesicles containing DNA. In addition, the ability of phage-encoded genes to confer antibiotic resistance in bacterial strains was assessed by performing transformation experiments. It was also studied the influence of various compounds involved in the induction of the lytic cycle of temperate bacteriophages, on the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes in DNA from the phage fraction in wastewater samples. Finally, due to the importance of horizontal gene transfer as a mechanism for antibiotic resistance dissemination in clinical and environmental settings, transduction experiments were attempted to reproduce in vitro the process that would take place in nature. The research developed in this Thesis is divided into 5 studies included in 4 chapters: (1) Antibiotic resistance genes in the bacteriophage DNA fraction of water samples (wastewater, river water and animal wastewater); (2) Quinolone resistance genes (qnrA and qnrS) in bacteriophage particles from wastewater samples and the effect of inducing agents on packaged antibiotic resistance genes; (3) Evaluation of ARGs in the DNA of bacterial and bacteriophage fraction in wastewater samples from Tunisia and comparison with results obtained in Barcelona area; (4) Detection of quinolone-resistant Escherichia coli isolates belonging to clonal groups O25b:H4-B2-ST131 and O25b:H4-D-ST69 in water samples from Barcelona area. Each of the studies has given rise to a scientific article already published or submitted for scientific publication.
A Novel Subarray Digital Modulation Technique for Wideband Phased Array Radar

A novel wideband digital array radar system is introduced in this article. The system has an open software-based processing architecture that provides a high degree of digitization and a flexible processing mode that employs digital stretch processing and digital modulation techniques to solve the beam divergence problem caused by the wide-angle scanning of both broadband and wideband array radar. The system simultaneously realizes a large range window, a wide dynamic range, and interpulse coherence for wideband array radar. The system is applicable not only to wideband linear frequency modulated (LFM) signals but also to wideband nonlinear frequency modulated (NLFM) signals. An engineering implementation scheme is also introduced. Key techniques, including wideband waveform generation, low data rate transmission, high-precision digitally modulated time-delay compensation, and high-precision system synchronization, are described in detail. In addition, an X-band experimental system is constructed, and the performance of this system is verified using typical target detection experiments.
The Effect of Essential Oil Formula and Para Menthane Diol on Mortality and Oviposition Deterrent of Brown Planthopper

Essential oils such as clove, lemongrass, and citronella are known as botanical insecticides. Mixed-essential oils and a single compound of the oil itself may increase its efficacy. The experiment aimed to examine the effect of the essential oil mixture and para-menthane-3,8-diol (PMD) formulas in inhibiting of the egg-laying and mortality of brown planthopper. The study conducted at the greenhouse of Indonesian Spices and Medicinal Crops Research Institute, Bogor. The formula tested were clove+citronella oils (1:1), clove+lemongrass oils (1:1), the single essential oil, solvent materials (a mixture of tween 80, Turpentine, and surfactant), PMD-solvent substances (emulsifier, alcohol 96%, and surfactant). A contact application was applied to the insect. Observation parameters were egg numbers laid and brown planthopper adult and nymph mortalities. The result of the insect contact application method showed that adult mortality was not significantly different compare with control and synthetic insecticide. Based on the plant residue test, nymph mortality due to clove oil + citronella oils were not significantly different from control and insecticide. Meanwhile, based on the insect and plant spray test, adult mortality on clove oil + citronella was not differently significant from the synthetic insecticide. However, the effectiveness of clove+lemongrass oils was slower. The efficacy of the oil formula to the egg laid was significantly different from the synthetic insecticide treatment, i.e., fewer eggs laid. PMD was less effective than the essential oil formula on the nymphs and adult mortalities of brown planthopper . Further field evaluations of the clove oil + citronella formulas are required.
Crown Wall Modifications as Response to Wave Overtopping under a Future Sea Level Scenario: An Experimental Parametric Study for an Innovative Composite Seawall

The overtopping phenomenon at the rear side of breakwaters has particular importance in harbor protection. Undoubtedly, this topic needs to be taken even more seriously, considering the sea level rise. The present study focuses on the effectiveness in the reduction of the wave overtopping of a triangular parapet placed on the top of an innovative concrete superstructure. The last is part of the OBREC device (Overtopping BReakwater for wave Energy Conversion), an overtopping structure which is integrated into a traditional rubble-mound breakwater, to convert wave energy into electricity. Parametric laboratory tests, including the influence of water depth, have led to the evaluation of the accuracy of the main literature formulations and to the introduction of a new overtopping formula to take into account the influence of the parapet geometry. The results highlight the capability of the parapet in significantly increasing the hydraulic protection compared to a breakwater with a traditional crown wall. The findings from this work are expected to support in promoting and developing adaptive management strategies for existing coastal defenses and smart approaches in the construction and maintenance of new ones, with special reference to future sea-level-rise scenarios.