Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Traditional therapeutic uses of animals among tribal population of Tamil Nadu

Studies on the therapeutic use of animals and animal parts have been neglected compared to plants. This paper presents the findings of an ethno-zoological study carried out among nine tribes spread over four districts of Tamil Nadu, India. Detailed information was obtained on the traditional therapeutic uses of sixteen different animal species, consisting of mammals (6), birds (5), reptiles (2), arthropods (2) and annelid (1), for the treatment of over 17 kinds of diseases or ailments, including asthma, arthritis, epilepsy, paralysis, hydrocele and leprosy. Community research to confirm the medicinal value of these traditional remedies would go a long way leading to the discovery of novel drugs from bugs.
Online Estimation of a Mechanical Driveline Parameters of a Hybrid Bus

This paper addresses issues in real-time identification of mechanical driveline parameters of a hybrid-electric bus. The mechanical system is excited by an artificially generated excitation signal, namely a pseudo-random binary signal (PRBS), and the parameters are identified using a recursive output error algorithm with filtered observations (OEFO). The identification routine is experimentally validated by using a hybridized bus as a test vehicle and considering on-road measurements with a moderate velocity in series electric operation mode.
Expectant Fathers’ Attachment Orientation and Preparation for Parenthood

ii Dedication . iii Acknowledgments . iv Vita . v List of Tables. vii List of Figures . viii Expectant Fathers‟ Attachment Orientation and Preparation for Parenthood . 1 References . 24 Appendix A: Correlation and Regression Analyses . 27
Design and Characterization of Mesalamine Loaded Nanoparticles for Controlled Delivery System

Objective(s): Nanoparticles (NPs) are known for their specific accumulation in the inflamed tissues of the colon and thus allow a selective delivery to the site of inflammation with minimum adverse effects. The main objective of this work is to attain mesalamine loaded chitosan nanoparticles as a carrier for oral delivery. Methods: In this study, mesalamine loaded chitosan nanoparticles were prepared using an ionic gelation method. Experimental design Box-Behnken response surface methodology was used for the optimization of the nanoparticles. The nanoparticles size and gelation process of the polymeric nano-drug controlled release system depends on several variables including the concentration ratio of chitosan-TPP, concentration of mesalamine, concentration of chitosan solution and pH of the solution with optimum conditions of 2.3, 0.02 mg/ml, 0.1 mg/ml and 4.5, respectively. Results: The mean particle size of the synthesized nanoparticles was ranging from 53.9 to 322.8 nm using a dynamic light scattering (DLS) technique. Moreover, the morphology of the prepared nanoparticles was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Also, characterization of the chitosan-mesalamine nanoparticles was performed by FT-IR spectrophotometer for specifying the chemical structure of nanoparticles molecules and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) for studying thermal behavior. Drug release profile and the amount of the loaded drug were also monitored by UV-Vis spectroscopy. Conclusions: Drug released showed that the release profile of mesalamine loaded nanoparticles was in a slow manner and no initial rapid release (burst effect) was illustrated.
Exploring word embeddings and phonological similarity for the unsupervised correction of language learner errors

The presence of misspellings and other errors or non-standard word forms poses a considerable challenge for NLP systems. Although several supervised approaches have been proposed previously to normalize these, annotated training data is scarce for many languages. We investigate, therefore, an unsupervised method where correction candidates for Swedish language learners’ errors are retrieved from word embeddings. Furthermore, we compare the usefulness of combining cosine similarity with orthographic and phonological similarity based on a neural grapheme-to-phoneme conversion system we train for this purpose. Although combinations of similarity measures have been explored for finding error correction candidates, it remains unclear how these measures relate to each other and how much they contribute individually to identifying the correct alternative. We experiment with different combinations of these and find that integrating phonological information is especially useful when the majority of learner errors are related to misspellings, but less so when errors are of a variety of types including, e.g. grammatical errors.
A high‐resolution record of Greenland mass balance

We map recent Greenland Ice Sheet elevation change at high spatial (5 km) and temporal (monthly) resolution using CryoSat‐2 altimetry. After correcting for the impact of changing snowpack properties associated with unprecedented surface melting in 2012, we find good agreement (3 cm/yr bias) with airborne measurements. With the aid of regional climate and firn modeling, we compute high spatial and temporal resolution records of Greenland mass evolution, which correlate (R = 0.96) with monthly satellite gravimetry and reveal glacier dynamic imbalance. During 2011–2014, Greenland mass loss averaged 269 ± 51 Gt/yr. Atmospherically driven losses were widespread, with surface melt variability driving large fluctuations in the annual mass deficit. Terminus regions of five dynamically thinning glaciers, which constitute less than 1% of Greenland's area, contributed more than 12% of the net ice loss. This high‐resolution record demonstrates that mass deficits extending over small spatial and temporal scales have made a relatively large contribution to recent ice sheet imbalance.
A Compact Multiband BPF Using Step-impedance Resonators with Interdigital Capacitors

A compact multiband band-pass filter design for applications of GSM, Wi-MAX and WLAN systems is pre- sented. The design is based on the resonant characteristics of step-impedance and interdigital capacitor resonators with overlap cross coupling structure. The fabricated filter has been operated at the fundamental, first and second harmonic resonant frequencies of 1.8 GHz, 3.7 GHz, and 5.2 GHz, respectively. The experimental results of the fab- ricated filter agree very well with the simulation expecta- tions using IE3D package. The proposed filter has good performances, while the resonator size can be reduced from λ/2 �to λ/8, resulting in the most compact multiband band-pass filter compared with the others using transmis- sion line resonators .
Women Empowerment Performance of Income Generating Activities Supported by Rural Women Employment Creation Project (RWECP): A Case Study in Dumuria Thana, Bangladesh

This study is an attempt to examine the performance of income generating activities supported by Rural Employment Creation Project (RWECP) in empowering poor women. RWECP is one of the largest projects of Government addressed rural poor women for their income generation as well as poverty alleviation. Out of 12 thanas under this project this study covers only Dumuria thana of Khulna district. Study reveals that irrespective of type, all economic activities supported by RWECP have induced positive impact in women empowerment, though the extent of changes is not significantly high. The activities have enabled women to have a better access to basic needs and make important contribution to household decision making, especially the decision regarding their personal needs and availing treatment and recreational facilities. It is also found that, husbands of most of these women possess full control over income and sole right of decision making. As a concluding remark of this study it can be said that marital status (women living with husband or without husband) and ethnic affiliation act as influential factors of women empowerment.
Modern understanding of cardiovascular prevention: Ayurvedic root with a modern shoot. -

Modern medicine is beginning to realise that prevention is key to human health, a concept that is the basis of Ayurveda. Ahara (diet), aushadhi (drugs), and vihara (lifestyle) are the three important pillars in Ayurveda. Prevention in modern medicine has a broad remit; encompassing clean healthy environment, personal hygiene, immunisation, lifestyle changes, to even drugs. This article aims to summarise the current understanding and practice of prevention of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in modern medicine. However, the concepts of CVD in Ayurveda may differ,3 and the reader is advised to take such differences into consideration.
Determinants of Spending: an Evaluation of Three Major Sporting Events

South Africa plays host to a number of major sporting events that takes place annually such as the Two Oceans Marathon, the Argus Cycle Tour and the Midmar open water mile. This research aims to identify the socio-economic differences of participants in the events and to determine the key drivers of their spending. Three surveys were conducted at the events during 2008 and 2010. The data analyses include a factor and a regression analyses. The analyses identified the different motives why participation takes place, the socio-demographic differences between participants and the impact thereof on spending. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Perceptron Learning and Classification in a Modeled Cortical Pyramidal Cell

The perceptron learning algorithm and its multiple-layer extension, the backpropagation algorithm, are the foundations of the present-day machine learning revolution. However, these algorithms utilize a highly simplified mathematical abstraction of a neuron; it is not clear to what extent real biophysical neurons with morphologically-extended nonlinear dendritic trees and conductance-based synapses could realize perceptron-like learning. Here we implemented the perceptron learning algorithm in a realistic biophysical model of a layer 5 cortical pyramidal cell. We tested this biophysical perceptron (BP) on a memorization task, where it needs to correctly binarily classify 100, 1000, or 2000 patterns, and a generalization task, where it should discriminate between two “noisy” patterns. We show that, for most cases, the BP performs these tasks with an accuracy comparable to that of the original perceptron. We concluded that cortical pyramidal neurons can act as powerful classification devices.
Using Traditional Keyboards in VR: SteamVR Developer Kit and Pilot Game User Study

Following the commercial release of VR systems like HTC Vive and Oculus Rift to mainstream consumers, academic publications have explored the challenges of text entry in virtual reality. This paper describes a commercial developer kit that enables text entry using a traditional physical keyboard for HTC Vive. The paper gives a high-level system overview and presents the results of a pilot study exploring initial use of the devkit for typing in VR, focused on how users learn to adapt to this new VR text entry experience. The pilot study explored the use of a VR mini-game with the goal of helping users get familiar with VR typing.
A Low-Profile and Wideband Lens Antenna Based on High-Refractive-Index Metasurface

This paper presents a low-profile and wideband metamaterial-lens (metalens) antenna based on high-refractive-index metasurface. A novel three-layer nonresonant metamaterial unit cell is introduced and analyzed by the full-wave simulation tool. The proposed unit cell is a stacking configuration of four H-shaped lines realized by multiple microwave laminates. It can achieve a large refractive index variation range of 4.76 (from 1.5 to 6.26). In addition, two impedance matching layers based on the proposed unit cell are developed to provide better transmission for incident waves passing through the metalens antenna. The attractiveness of this new metalens antenna is its low-profile thickness of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.26~\lambda _{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, where <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\lambda _{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is the wavelength at 10 GHz. To validate the performance of the metalens antenna, a wideband stub-loaded horn antenna with stable radiation patterns in E- and H-planes is adopted as the feeding antenna source. The measured results demonstrate a wide impedance bandwidth of 66% (7.2–14.3 GHz) and a high aperture efficiency of up to 65%. Moreover, its sidelobe and cross-polarization levels are less than −17 and −25 dB across the entire bandwidth, respectively.
Plagiarisms, Authorships, and the Academic Death Penalty

n composition studies, most published discussions of student plagiarism proceed from the assumption that plagiarism occurs as a result of one of two possible motivations: an absence of ethics or an ignorance of citation conventions. Some students don't appreciate academic textual values and therefore deliberately submit work that is not their own; others don't understand academic citation conventions and therefore plagiarize inadvertently. Both of these are negative interpretations, postulating an absence-of either ethics or knowledge-in the plagiarist. A few recent studies, though, identify positive motivations for patchwriting, a textual strategy that has traditionally been classified as plagiarism. Patchwriting involves "copying from a source text and then deleting some words, altering grammatical structures, or plugging in one-for-one synonym-substitutes" (Howard 233). Describing the textual strategies of Tanya, a student who in traditional pedagogy might be labeled "remedial," Glynda Hull and Mike Rose celebrate her patchwriting as a valuable stage toward becoming an authoritative academic writer: "we depend upon membership in a community for our language, our voices, our very arguments. We forget that we, like Tanya, continually appropriate each other's language to establish group membership, to grow, and to define ourselves in new ways, and that such appropriation is a fundamental part of language use, even as the appearance of our texts belies it" (152). These and other studies describe patchwriting as a pedagogical opportunity, not a juridical problem. They recommend that teachers treat it as an important transitional strategy in the student's progress toward membership in a discourse community. To treat it negatively, as a "problem" to be "cured" or punished, would
The Effect of Fire Retardants on the Flammability, Mechanical Properties, and Wettability of Co-Extruded PP-Based Wood-Plastic Composites

In this work, fire retardants (FRs) such as aluminum trihydroxide (ATH), zinc borate (ZB), melamine, graphite, and titanium oxide (TiO2) were loaded into the shell layer of a co-extruded polypropylene (PP)-based wood-plastic composite (WPC). The incorporated retardants reduced the peak of the heat release rate by 8 to 22%, depending on the type of FR. Other studied parameters, such as ignition time and mass loss rate, were improved after the FR loading. The total heat release decreased slightly (except for the graphite-WPC). The effective heat of combustion was independent of the presence of the FR or, in the case of graphite, slightly increased. Carbon monoxide production increased (ZB, graphite) or was not changed significantly (ATH, melamine, and TiO2). It was also observed that the tensile strength improved after the FR loading; however, the tensile modulus decreased, except for the graphite-WPC. The impact strength improved or was independent of the FR loading, as in the case of the sample with ATH. The wettability of the composites decreased with filler loading, except for ZB, which showed the highest water absorption value among the studied composites.
Decentralized Robust Model Predictive Control for Multi-Input Linear Systems

In this paper, a decentralized model predictive control approach is proposed for discrete linear systems with a high number of inputs and states. The system is decomposed into several interacting subsystems. The interaction among subsystems is modeled as external disturbances. Then, using the concept of robust positively invariant ellipsoids, a robust model predictive control law is obtained for each subsystem solving several linear matrix inequalities. Maintaining the recursive feasibility while considering the attenuation of mutual coupling at each time step and the stability of the overall system are investigated. Moreover, an illustrative simulation example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.
Antibacterial Effect of Non-industrial Yogurt on Salmonella and Shigella

Background and Aim: Yogurt is one of the most consumed foods with different probiotic effects. The aim of this study was to evaluate antimicrobial effects of non-industrial yogurts on two common enteropathogens – Salmonella and Shigella. Methods: In this experimental study, we evaluated the antimicrobial effects of 30 various non-industrial yogurt samples on 11 Shigella sonnei, 7 Shigella flexneri, 2 Shigella boydii, and 15 Salmonella enteritidis isolates. All bacterial isolates were locally isolated from patients suffering from diarrhea. Using the well diffusion method, we evaluated the antimicrobial effect of whey protein from yogurt before and after 24 hours incubation at 42°C. The data was analyzed using independent t test and chi-square in SPSS (version 11.5). P value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results: None of the yogurts had antimicrobial effect on Shigella and Salmonella isolates before 24 hours incubation at 42°C. After incubation, however, 9 (30%) and 12 (40%) samples out of the 30 yogurt samples showed antimicrobial effects on 25%-50% and less than 25% of isolates, respectively. Six yogurt samples (20%) did not have any antimicrobial effects. Only 1 yogurt sample exhibited antimicrobial effect on more than 50% of the tested isolates. Conclusion: Our results suggested that some samples of non-industrial yogurts have an antibacterial effect on Shigella and Salmonella. However, neither of them had an influence on more than 51.5% of isolates. Therefore, reliance on yogurt as a standalone treatment is not recommended.
Machine-Learning Models for Sales Time Series Forecasting

In this paper, we study the usage of machine-learning models for sales predictive analytics. The main goal of this paper is to consider main approaches and case studies of using machine learning for sales forecasting. The effect of machine-learning generalization has been considered. This effect can be used to make sales predictions when there is a small amount of historical data for specific sales time series in the case when a new product or store is launched. A stacking approach for building regression ensemble of single models has been studied. The results show that using stacking techniques, we can improve the performance of predictive models for sales time series forecasting.
Performance Enhancement of Distributed System through Load Balancing and Task Scheduling

Task scheduling & load balancing in distributed network are the most challenging research area in computer science. In distributed systems, scheduling mechanism has more issues as there is no centralized authority to allocate the workload among multiple processors. Further, handling both load balancing and scheduling at hand is a daunting task. In this paper, we propose a fuzzy based load balancing and task scheduling technique to optimize the performance of distributed system. Initially, clusters are formed and node with larger buffer availability and high CPU speed is elected as cluster head. Tasks are prioritized into flexible and non-flexible using task prioritizing strategy. Non-Flexible tasks are prioritized over flexible tasks. For non-flexible tasks, essential information of nodes such as CPU speed, work load and distance from cluster head are made pass through the fuzzy system. Node state is obtained as output. Based on states of node, non-flexible tasks are allocated. Our technique dynamically handles scheduling and load balancing at hand. We use simulation results to prove efficiency of our technique.
Research Insights About Risk Governance

In recent years, expectations for increased risk governance have been placed explicitly on boards of directors. In response, boards are being held responsible for not only understanding and approving management’s risk management processes, but they are also being held responsible for assessing the risks identified by those processes as part of overseeing management’s pursuit of value. These increasing responsibilities have led a number of organizations to adopt enterprise risk management (ERM) as a holistic approach to risk management that extends beyond traditional silo-based risk management techniques. As boards, often through their audit committee, consider management’s implementation of ERM as part of the board’s risk oversight, a number of questions emerge that can be informed by academic research related to ERM. This article summarizes findings from ERM research to provide insights related to the board’s risk governance responsibilities. We also identify a number of research questions that warrant further analysis by governance scholars. It is our hope that this article will spawn varying types of research about ERM and corporate governance.
Real-Time Simulation of Three-Phase Transmission Lines Modeled in the Dynamic Harmonic Domain

This paper presents a real-time simulation of transmission lines including harmonics in dynamic state. The Dynamic Harmonic Domain (DHD) transmission line model used in this work is based in a frequency dependent line model in the phase domain. The advantages of using the DHD methodology are: its capability to accurately follow the harmonic content of a transient without the aid of a post-processing tool and its ability to serve as a visually active indicator of steady-state and transient condition in a signal. The DHD transmission line model is implemented in a real time simulator in order to reduce the simulation time. The real-time simulation of an illustrative example, involving fast transients in transmission lines has been achieved with a maximum computation time of 0.5s on a step-size of 10 μs. The case study results were validated against those obtained through a time domain off-line simulation. keywords—Electromagnetic transients, Harmonic analysis, Real-Time simulation, Transmission line.