Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The β-Defensin Gallinacin-6 Is Expressed in the Chicken Digestive Tract and Has Antimicrobial Activity against Food-Borne Pathogens

ABSTRACT Food-borne pathogens are responsible for most cases of food poisoning in developed countries and are often associated with poultry products, including chicken. Little is known about the role of β-defensins in the chicken digestive tract and their efficacy. In this study, the expression of chicken β-defensin gallinacin-6 (Gal-6) and its antimicrobial activity against food-borne pathogens were investigated. Reverse transcription-PCR analysis showed high expression of Gal-6 mRNA in the esophagus and crop, moderate expression in the glandular stomach, and low expression throughout the intestinal tract. Putative transcription factor binding sites for nuclear factor kappa beta, activator protein 1, and nuclear factor interleukin-6 were found in the Gal-6 gene upstream region, which suggests a possible inducible nature of the Gal-6 gene. In colony-counting assays, strong bactericidal and fungicidal activity was observed, including bactericidal activity against food-borne pathogens Campylobacter jejuni, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, Clostridium perfringens, and Escherichia coli. Treatment with 16 μg/ml synthetic Gal-6 resulted in a 3 log unit reduction in Clostridium perfringens survival within 60 min, indicating fast killing kinetics. Transmission electron microscopy examination of synthetic-Gal-6-treated Clostridium perfringens cells showed dose-dependent changes in morphology after 30 min, including intracellular granulation, cytoplasm retraction, irregular septum formation in dividing cells, and cell lysis. The high expression in the proximal digestive tract and broad antimicrobial activity suggest that chicken β-defensin gallinacin-6 plays an important role in chicken innate host defense.
Air Visio: Air Quality Monitoring and Analysis Based Predictive System

Sri Lanka is facing a serious air pollution problem that severely impacts the daily life of every Sri Lankan. The main source of ambient air pollution in Sri Lanka is vehicular emissions. A methodology to monitor the air quality in real-time with an overall coverage of Sri Lanka, and automatically process these huge data to identify air quality levels in a specific area is now becoming a timely research topic. An air quality monitoring and analysis based predictive system is proposed to monitor the ambient air quality, provides the best route with minimum polluted air, maps the heatmaps to identify the current air quality of an area easily and predict the future air quality of each area. The prototype was implemented by hierarchically deploying two different gas sensors, an Arduino Uno board and a wifi module, to implement in open spaces between smart buildings, and transfers the sensor data back to the information processing center by using IoT technology for real-time display. The information processing center stores real-time information which is collected from the sensors to the database. By reading sensor data stored in the database, the front-end system draws real-time, accurate air quality levels included maps and predicts the less polluted routes and the air quality level over an area. Further, an energy harvesting system is also presented for the power consumption of the device. A route is suggested in an accuracy of 70% from this system. The final product provides a low cost, highly portable and easily maintainable system for the users.
GPU-based non-binary LDPC decoder with weighted bit-reliability based algorithm

In this paper, we present a graphics processing unit (GPU)-based implementation of a weighted bit-reliability based (wBRB) decoder for non-binary LDPC (NB-LDPC) codes. To achieve coalesced memory accesses, an efficient data structure for the wBRB algorithm is proposed. Based on the Single-Instruction Multiple-Threads (SIMT) programming model, a novel mapping strategy with high intra-frame parallelism is presented to improve the latency and throughput performance. Moreover, by using Single-Instruction Multiple-Data (SIMD) intrinsics, four 8-bit message elements are packed into a 32-bit unit and simultaneously processed. Experimental results show that the proposed wBRB decoder provides good tradeoff between error performance and throughput for the codes with relatively large column degrees or high rates.
VAULT - A Shared Distributed And Redundant Storage Solution

An ideal distributed storage solution must have the ability to provide redundant, reliable, shared and secure access to user data without compromising the ability to scale and descend while maintaining performance. VAULT is an attempt to avert the negatives of the cloud in a local environment using a decentralized methodology. VAULT makes use of individual idle storage space on a network of peer-to-peer nodes which is then provided to an end user to store files in the pooled space. VAULT implements redundancy by the use of Reed-Solomon codes and maps file fragment locations using a blockchain as a distributed ledger. Fragment distribution is optimized using a machine learning approach where node characteristics are used to determine the reliability of each node. The aggregation of above features makes VAULT an ideal solution for corporate environments where consumer hardware and infrastructure is already allocated.
PHONOTAXIS IN THE CICADAS CYSTOSOMA SAUNDERSII AND CYCLOCHILA AUSTRALASIAE

ABSTRACT 1. Phonotaxis was investigated in two cicada species: Cystosoma saundersii and Cyclochila australasiae. Females were placed on a stick within a flight cage and presented with artificially generated calling songs. These model calling songs had a range of carrier frequencies, but their temporal parameters were similar to those of the natural calling song. They were broadcast at intensities 30 to 40 dB above the physiological threshold for each frequency. 2. Phonotaxis of female Cystosoma saundersii was restricted to a 45 minute period just after sunset, and was highly directional. Between 60 and 70% of flights made during trials in which a model calling song was broadcast were directed towards the loudspeaker at both frequencies tested. 3. Phonotaxis of female Cyclochila australasiae occurred throughout the evening, and showed no directional preference toward the loudspeaker. The mean number of flights per trial period was significantly greater in trials during which a model calling song was broadc.
Research On Real Time Tracking and Positioning System of Products of Industrial Internet of Things

Industry 4.0 has a key technology point, that is, intelligent factories use “raw materials” with information to complete production tracking. High performance real-time positioning system is an important part of realizing real-time tracking and positioning of materials in the industrial Internet of things. Passive UHF RFID technology has become the first choice of industry 4.0 material real-time positioning system. This paper analyzes RFID positioning technology, then gives the real-time RFID information driven production line process architecture of workshop manufacturing resources and the classification and management scheme of multi-source real-time manufacturing information. And this paper realizes the RFID tracking and positioning of workshop manufacturing resources.
Distributed Optimal Dispatching of Interconnected Electricity-Gas-Heating System

In the researching background of integrated energy system, a single electricity-gas-heating system (EGHS) can be regarded as an active producer. In order to solve the joint optimization of integrated energy systems under the condition of incomplete information, this paper proposes a distributed optimal scheduling framework of EGHS. First, establish a coupling model of the interconnected EGHS, and perform strict second-order cone convexity of the complex natural gas flow model. Next, use the bus splitting method to realize the decoupling between different regions of the interconnected system, and employ the alternating direction multiplier method (ADMM) to solve the model. Then, construct two-region energy system (78-node grid +40-node gas grid +40-node heat grid) and three-region energy system (117-node grid +60 node gas grid +60-node heat grid) as simulation examples to verify the effectiveness of the distributed optimization framework. In the end, the algorithm solution process, the effectiveness of scheduling results, and the comparison of optimization results under different interconnection methods are analyzed in detail.
Optimizing the Cogging Torque Reduction of Integral Slot Number in Permanent Magnet Machine

Optimize the cogging torque reduction in permanent magnet machine was investigated in this paper, with the proposed machine of 48 stator slots and 6 poles. The slot opening proposed model width has been fixed to 2 mm. The two steps of slotting have been employed and assessed to reduce the cogging torque of the proposed model. In this study, the finite element method tool was implemented to investigate the magnetic flux distribution and the cogging torque reduction of the proposed model. The Response Surface Method (RSM) as one optimization technique has been implemented. By applying the finite element method, simulation results showed that the cogging torque of the PMMs proposed model could decrease effectively. In this study, the cogging torque reduction for the proposed model as much as 98.8 % compared with the initial model.
Effects of copper on growth, accumulation, antioxidant activity and malondialdehyde content in young seedlings of the mangrove species Kandelia candel (L.)

Abstract The effects of different concentrations of copper (Cu) on the growth, Cu accumulation, antioxidant enzyme activity and malondialdehyde (MDA) content of seedlings of the mangrove species Kandelia candel L. were investigated. Seedlings were treated with several concentrations of CuCl2 (0, 1, 5, 10, 20, 30 or 40 mg L−1) for 3 months. The results indicated that a high dose of Cu significantly decreased the growth of K. candel in terms of seedling height, leaf number and total biomass. At the highest Cu concentration (40 mg L−1), there was a 39.53% decrease in final seedling height, a 53.25% decrease in leaf number and a 35.96% decrease in total biomass. Cu ions were accumulated mainly in the roots (96%), and only small amounts were translocated to the hypocotyl, leaves and stem. The MDA content increased with increasing external Cu concentration both in roots and leaves. A significantly higher superoxide dismutase, peroxidase and catalase antioxidative enzyme activity occurred in roots and leaves of plants exposed to 20 mg L−1 CuCl2 compared to other treatments, suggesting that K. candel seedlings can tolerate up to 20 mg L−1 Cu treatment.
Woody Plant Effects on Soil Seed Banks in a Central Texas Savanna

Abstract We studied germinable seed banks in soil associated with grasslands, relatively young (<40 years) Juniperus ashei (Ashe juniper), and long-established Quercus virginiana var. fusiformis (plateau live oak) patches of woody plants in a central-Texas savanna to ascertain the degree to which Ashe juniper alters the seed bank of sites previously inhabited by grassland vegetation, and to assess how seed banks differ beneath two common types of patches associated with woody plants in this savanna ecosystem. Across all habitats and over an annual growth cycle, 3,364 seedlings representing 116 species emerged from these seed banks. Annual forbs were the dominant life form in all habitats (62% of seedlings). The fraction of perennial forb and graminoid seedlings was comparable (19 versus 18%, respectively), and seedlings of woody plants were rare. Density, diversity, and species composition of seed banks varied significantly among the three habitats. Seed banks in grassland and live oak were most dissimilar, and seed banks of Ashe juniper were intermediate in species composition. Early-to-mid-successional species present in grasslands were absent from seed banks of Ashe juniper. Late-successional species of grasses were either absent or few in the seed bank in all habitats. Results indicate that occupation of grasslands by Ashe juniper alters seed banks after a relatively short time, and these changes are distinct from patches of woody plants that have a long-term history of occupation of sites. Approaches to restoration of grasslands that involve removal of Ashe juniper alone cannot rely on the soil seed bank for rapid reestablishment of climax grassland communities.
Nitrogen Management Affects Carbon Sequestration in North American Cropland Soils

Agricultural soils in North America can be a sink for rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations through the formation of soil organic matter (SOM) or humus. Humification is limited by the availability of nutrients such as nitrogen (N). Recommended management practices (RMPs) that optimize N availability foster humus formation. This review examines the management practices that contribute to maximizing N availability for optimizing sequestration of atmospheric CO2 into soil humus. Farming practices that enhance nutrient use, reduce or eliminate tillage, and increase crop intensity, together, affect N availability and, therefore, C sequestration. N additions, from especially, livestock manure and leguminous cover crops are necessary for increasing grain and biomass yields and returning crop residues to the soil thereby increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration. Conservation tillage practices enhance also the availability of N and increase SOC concentration. Increase in cropping intensity and/or crop rotations produce higher quantity and quality of residues, increase availability of N, and therefore foster increase in C sequestration. The benefit of C sequestration from N additions may be negated by CO2 and N2O emissions associated with production and application of N fertilizers. More studies need to be conducted to ascertain the benefits of adding N via manuring versus N fertilizer additions. Furthermore, site specific adaptive research is needed to identify RMPs that optimize soil N use efficiency while improving crop yield and C sequestration thereby curbing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Due to the wide range of climate in North America, there is a large range of C sequestration potential in agricultural soils through N management. Humid croplands may have the potential to sequester 8–298 Tg C yr−1 while dry croplands may sequester 1–35 Tg C yr−1. These estimates, however, are highly uncertain and wide-ranging. Clearly, more research is needed to quantify, more precisely, the C sequestration potential across different N management scenarios especially in Mexico and Canada.
Design of Industrial Internet of Things Gateway with Multi-source data Processing

The industrial internet of things is to integrate all kinds of acquisition or control sensors or controllers with sensing and monitoring capabilities, ubiquitous technology, mobile communication, intelligent analysis and other technologies into all aspects of the industrial production process, so as to greatly improve manufacturing efficiency, improve product quality, reduce product cost and resource consumption, and finally realize the new level of promotion from traditional industry to intelligence. However, it is difficult to realize the integration and sharing of data because of the complex control equipment and various communication protocols in the process control layer of industrial enterprises. This paper analyzes the multi-source heterogeneous data collection model, proposes a data collection system design scheme based on the gateway of the industrial internet of things, solves the key problem of multi-source heterogeneous data acquisition in the industrial field. And then this paper realizes the real-time collection of multi-source heterogeneous data in the industrial field, and provides high-value data for the whole production process for the application of industrial big data.
Dual Gap Wideband In-Phase Power Divider Based on Ridge Gap Waveguide Technology

Power dividers are critical components for mm-wave applications. They are used in antenna feeding structures to provide the suitable excitation in the antenna array systems and deployed in microwave smart beam switching subsystems. In this article a dual gap wideband in-phase power divider is presented. The bandwidth starts at 19 and ends at 40 GHz. We are targeting with this design both the k and ka bands. The proposed design achieved a very deep matching level below −18 dB.
Health monitoring of long-haul fiber communication system using chaotic OTDR

A novel chaotic optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR)-based approach was proposed for monitoring long-haul fiber communication systems with multiple fiber segments. The self-phase modulation and group velocity dispersion effects of the optical cable was considered in demonstrating the proof-of-concept experiment and simulation. In experiments, the correlation peaks are clearly obtained from the correlation trace between the reference and reflected (or scattered) light signals propagating in three optical-fiber segments. The technique affords a high spatial resolution of 2 m, and further long-haul fiber simulations indicate that the sensing distance can be more than 3300 km. Thus, the new proposed technique can be effectively applied for health monitoring of long-haul fiber communication systems.
A Customer Churn Prediction Model Based on XGBoost and MLP

Customer churn prediction is one of the central data mining tasks for researchers. In recent years, the customer churn prediction based on neural networks has achieved great success. However, traditional DNNs cannot achieve great predictive performance when facing numerical features. Hence, we proposed a hybrid prediction model based on XGBoost and multi-layer perceptron (MLP). Contrary to DNNs, the prediction model based on tree structure is adept in manipulating numerical features. This model has two stages. In the first stage, the XGBoost is applied to export the leaf number of customers based on numerical features. Then the MLP is used to deal with the one-hot vector transformed from the leaf number and the original discrete features in the second stage. The experimental results showed that our proposed model has a better predictive performance.
Visual Attraction as a Principle in Design of Mosquito Traps

A principle of visual attraction has been used in the design of mosquito traps for ecological studies. Tests in the field have shown that the design is efficient in capturing large numbers of mosquitoes in locations where ordinary light traps were unsatisfactory. Positive 24-hour attraction is achieved under naturally varying light conditions by using a black and white pattern that is superior in contrast to competing patterns in the environment. The sampling unit, in terms of air space, depends on the distance between contours in the pattern. Comparison with a suction trap under identical conditions show no significant differences in the ratio of empirically divided day to night catches. In very dark environments, a relatively uniform contrast in the pattern may be maintained between night and day with white light confined to the cylinder by collimators. Illumination in the yellow-red end of the spectrum reduces attraction to the pattern.
An Implantable Wideband Microstrip Patch Antenna Based on High-Loss Property of Human Tissue

In this paper, an approach was designed to develop an implantable wideband microstrip patch antenna (MPA) by the high-loss property of human tissue. In order to reduce the detuning effect, an extensive investigation was conducted, demonstrating the effects of high-loss human tissue on the total quality factor (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Q_{T}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>), effective relative permittivity, and effective loss tangent of the deeply implanted MPA. To the best of our knowledge, the exact three parameters for the deeply implanted MPA are firstly studied. From the evolutionary point of view, a deeply implanted MPA can be treated as a resonator with the extremely low and stable <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Q_{T}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. As such, its wide impedance bandwidth can be easily achieved through two inherent radiative modes of the embedded MPA under the high-loss environment. Finally, the proposed MPA will be fabricated and tested, and the final outcomes are consistent with the corresponding simulated results.
Research on Discernment of Rectangular Controls in Human-Machine Interactive Interface

For the problem of automatic discernment of controls in human-machine interaction interface, the detection and classification methods of controls based on image processing and machine learning are studied. Firstly, image processing algorithm is used to obtain a series of proposal rectangle boxes for human-machine interaction interface. Then, by using the label image in the control, the control category can be identified by machine learning algorithm. In this paper, a data set containing 19 types of control label image is produced, and CNN methods are used to classify them. The experimental results show that the proposal rectangle boxes in the human-machine interactive interface can be captured effectively by combining the image morphology processing algorithm. The rectangular controls can be filtered out by using the label image in the control. The discernment accuracy of CNN model based on VGG16 on verification set can reach more than 97%.
Experimental Study of High Performance 4H-SiC Floating Junction JBS Diodes

This paper reports the demonstration of a high performance 4H-SiC floating junction junction barrier Schottky (FJ_JBS) rectifier with a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$30~\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$6\times 10^{15}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> cm<sup>−3</sup>-doped epitaxial layer. Extensive simulations have been performed to design, optimize and analyze the structure of the FJ_JBS rectifier. The fabricated FJ_JBS shows that breakdown voltage (<italic>BV</italic>) and differential <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$R_{on,sp}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> are 3.4 kV, yielding the highest <italic>BV</italic> value reported for 4H-SiC FJ diodes, and 5.67 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{m}\Omega \cdot $ </tex-math></inline-formula>cm<sup>2</sup>, respectively. Compared with the conventional JBS, the <italic>BV</italic> value of FJ_JBS increases by 33.3% and the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$R_{on,sp}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> only slightly rises by 6.2%. The corresponding Baliga figure-of-merit (BFOM) (4 <italic>BV</italic><sup>2</sup>/<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$R_{on-sp}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) of this FJ_JBS diode is 8.16 GW/cm<sup>2</sup>.
Localization of the Optic Disc Using Red and Green Channels of the Retinal Images

Optic disc is the bright yellowish region in a retinal image which always appears approximately circular. Automated analysis of retinal images is necessary for the detection of retinal diseases such as diabetes retinopathy, glaucoma and hypertension. In the automated analysis, localization of optic disc plays an important role because optic disc could be wrongly identified as signs of diseases. In our research work we have introduced a further developed method to localize optic disc more accurately. We have not limited our research to one channel of the retinal image but we have compared the results obtained by taking red and green channels of the retinal images separately for the optic disc localization. Finally our research introduced a novel method for the optic disc localization by using both red and green channels without limiting the research to one channel only. The proposed technique has a overall accuracy of 92.52% which is considerably high compared with analysis done using red and green channels of retinal image separately.