Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perturbed iterative methods for a general family of operators: convergence theory and applications

ABSTRACT We study perturbations of a hybrid steepest descent method for locating common fixed points of an arbitrary pool of nonexpansive mappings. The difficulty of handling a possibly uncountable family is settled down to dealing with a countable family of auxiliary mappings associated to , in the sense that the approximate fixed points of provide the common fixed points of . Algorithms with strong convergence for solving the associated variational inequality problems are presented. Applications to convex minimization problems and convex feasibility problems are provided, together with numerical examples for comparisons of our algorithms with the existing ones.
The population attributable fraction of cases due to gatherings and groups with relevance to COVID-19 mitigation strategies

Many countries have banned groups and gatherings as part of their response to the pandemic caused by the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Although there are outbreak reports involving mass gatherings, the contribution to overall transmission is unknown. We used data from a survey of social contact behaviour that specifically asked about contact with groups to estimate the population attributable fraction (PAF) due to groups as the relative change in the basic reproduction number when groups are prevented. Groups of 50+ individuals accounted for 0.5% of reported contact events, and we estimate that the PAF due to groups of 50+ people is 5.4% (95% confidence interval 1.4%, 11.5%). The PAF due to groups of 20+ people is 18.9% (12.7%, 25.7%) and the PAF due to groups of 10+ is 25.2% (19.4%, 31.4%). Under normal circumstances with pre-COVID-19 contact patterns, large groups of individuals have a relatively small epidemiological impact; small- and medium-sized groups between 10 and 50 people have a larger impact on an epidemic. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Modelling that shaped the early COVID-19 pandemic response in the UK’.
Causes of disagreement between estimated and realised genetic parameters.

Problems associated with prediction of response are dis­ cussed. It is concluded that the technical problems in evaluating the standardised selection differential as a result of the reduc­ tion in variance due to inbreeding and correlation of family mem­ bers and their effects on order statistics, as well as positive and negative assortative mating contributed to the disagreement between predicted and realised selection response.
Getting there: vesicles en route for plant cytokinesis

In dividing plant cells, membranous vesicles (60-80 nm in diameter) are transported to the site where a new cell wall that separates the daughter cells is formed. In this thesis the physical parameters size and stiffness that vesicles require to reach the forming cell plate were studied. Synthetic lipid vesicles and polystyrene beads were injected into dividing cells during cytokinesis. At this stage, the cell has a structure, the phragmoplast, which contains a specific configuration of microtubules and actin filaments. Vesicles of up to 150 nm in diameter were injected and all of them moved through the phragmoplast towards the forming cell plate. The cell plate is made from the fusing vesicles and becomes the cell wall between the two daughter cells. Since smaller beads of 20 and 40 nm in diameter did not move through the phragmoplast to the cell plate, the conclusion is that not size but stiffness is a limiting parameter. In order to reach the phragmoplast, vesicles have to move from the site of injection to the cell center. This instigated the question whether hydrodynamic flow occurs in the cytoplasm of plant cells. Theoretically, with a simple lattice model, as well as experimentally, with the FRAP (fluorescence recovery after photobleaching) method, free GFP molecules in the cytoplasm of tobacco BY-2 suspension cells were shown to exhibit hydrodynamic flow: a drag of molecules caused by active molecular motor-driven transport of organelles along (bundles of) actin filaments. Such a flow distributes free cytosolic molecules in the large plant cells faster than diffusion.
Madm controls synapse development and stability

Every neuronal function relies on the formation of precise neuronal circuits. Accurate control of synaptic connectivity is essential both during development and plasticity of the nervous system. It enables efficient information transmission within the nervous system to execute appropriate behavior in response to changing sensory stimuli. In contrast, inappropriate connections are eliminated. Studies in vertebrate disease models have shown that a loss of synaptic connections is central to most if not all neurodegenerative diseases (Goda et al., 2003; Jontes et al., 2006). Little is still known regarding the molecular control of synapse formation, maintenance and refinement. The Drosophila neuromuscular junction (NMJ) represents an excellent model system to study these mechanisms. To identify novel regulatory molecules controlling synapse development and maintenance, I designed two RNAi-based genetic screens targeting 269 candidate genes. Two groups of proteins were analyzed: cytoskeleton, cytoskeleton-associated and transport proteins as well as signaling molecules from different conserved pathways. I focused on the analysis of a very promising candidate gene, the Mlf1 adapter molecule (Madm). In this study, we implicate for the first time a central role for Madm in the nervous system. Madm is a pseudo kinase which was previously shown to be an adaptor for unknown growth-related signaling pathways in Drosophila (Gluderer S. et al. 2010). We demonstrate that Madm controls multiple aspects of synapse development and refinement at the Drosophila neuromuscular junction (NMJ). First, Drosophila madm mutants displayed prominent synaptic stability and degeneration defects. Second, Madm mutant animals showed severe morphological alterations as well as reduced growth of NMJs. Third, nerves in Madm mutant animals displayed huge swellings and varicosities - a hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases in mammals and humans e.g. in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. Fourth, Madm depletion resulted in the accumulation of the presynaptic marker Bruchpilot (BRP) in motoneuron axons. In addition, we could identify two genetic interaction partners of Madm - Myeloid leukemia factor (Mlf) and Bunched A (BunA). Mlf and BunA mutant animals showed similar tendencies of impaired synaptic stability and morphology. Using genetic interaction studies, we demonstrated that Mlf together with Madm normally promotes synaptic stability at the NMJ whereas BunA antagonizes synaptic instability caused by the loss of Madm. In conclusion, our findings support a model of Madm - together with BunA and Mlf - acting as a novel platform controlling different aspects of the normal development, growth and maintenance of synapses.
Large Eddy Simulation on Horizontal Convective Rolls that Caused an Aircraft Accident during its Landing at Narita Airport

An accident occurred when an aircraft landed at Narita International Airport, Japan, on 20 June 2012. The aircraft encountered rapid changes of winds together with strong turbulence, although the weather was fair. In the present study, a two‐domain nested regional weather prediction models are used. The results in the outer domain show that southwesterly winds associated with a synoptic extratropical cyclone were locally accelerated to the southwest of the airport resulting in strong vertical shear. The simulation in the inner domain reproduces horizontal convective rolls, which are similar to those observed by a Doppler lidar at the airport. The wind velocity component parallel to the runway had a spatial variation of about 10 m s −1 . The present approach using a large eddy simulation is useful for clarifying environments and features of horizontal convective rolls and forecasting low‐level wind shear associated with them, which can be a significant risk for aircraft.
In Vitro Antioxidants, Antimicrobials and Biochemical Response of Methanol Leaf Extract of Eucalyptus camaldulensis following Sub-Acute Administration to Rats

Methanol leaf extract of Eucalyptus camaldulensis was investigated for phytochemical compositions, antioxidants, antimicrobial and safety profile. The antibacterial study was carried out using agar well diffusion method, while antioxidant activities were evaluated by 2, 2′diphenyl-1picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays. A total of fifteen rats were divided into three groups (5 rats each) and were given 0, 250 and 500 mg/kg bwt of the extract orally for 28 days. Results revealed that tannins (24.72±0.36 g) is the most abundant phytochemicals followed by phenols (6.01±0.89 mg/g) while alkaloid (0.19±0.67 mg/g) was the least. Extract demonstrated antioxidant activities with IC50 of the 244.98±5.24 μg/mL and 462.755 ± 6.98 μg/mL in DPPH and FRAP assays respectively. The extract inhibited the bacteria growth with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and minimal bactericidal concentrations (MBC) values ranged between 7.5-60 μg mL –1 and 60-12 μg mL –1 respectively . The concentrations of albumins, bilirubins sodium, potassium, creatinine, serum transaminases and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities were not significantly (p>0.05) altered by the extract. Urea concentration was significantly (p<0.05) higher while proteins were lower in rats treated with 500 mg/kg bw of the extract. Methanol extract of E. camaldulensis could be considered as a cheap source of effective and safe herbal remedy with potential candidate for the development of a new drug.
Review on invasive rate, impacts and control measures of Prosopis juliflora in eastern Ethiopia

Since its introduction into Ethiopia during 1970s, Prosopis juliflora, became an environmental issue in areas where it was first introduced to combat desertification. This review paper was aimed at reviewing some adverse effects of the plant on socioeconomic, environmental and biodiversity with its control practices in the eastern Ethiopia. Contrary to its purpose of introduction, this plant has been found to be highly invasive and, it imposed adverse effects on the native plant species. The plant is declared as an invader which has put impacts on socioeconomic, environment, and biodiversity of the eastern region of Ethiopia especially afar region and Dire Dawa; which became alarm for pastoralists, development agents, scientists, and policy makers. Though cultural practices such as burning and cutting were mainly practiced, the invasion could not be stopped.
The random forest algorithm for statistical learning

Random forests (Breiman, 2001, Machine Learning 45: 5–32) is a statistical- or machine-learning algorithm for prediction. In this article, we introduce a corresponding new command, rforest. We overview the random forest algorithm and illustrate its use with two examples: The first example is a classification problem that predicts whether a credit card holder will default on his or her debt. The second example is a regression problem that predicts the logscaled number of shares of online news articles. We conclude with a discussion that summarizes key points demonstrated in the examples.
Diurnal asymmetry in future temperature changes over the main Belt and Road regions

ABSTRACT Introduction: Daily maximum (Tmax) and minimum (Tmin) temperatures and Diurnal temperature range (DTR) profoundly affect the ecological environment and socioeconomic systems. In this study, we project future changes in Tmax, Tmin and DTR for RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 using fine-resolution downscaled data from the 18global coupled models over the main regions of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Outcomes: The Multi-Model Ensemble (MME) mean projections show that future warming is stronger in Tmax than in Tmin, leading to the increased DTR over central and southern Europe, many areas surrounding the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, and southeastern China. By contrast, the DTR is projected to decline over the regions north of 55°N and other some areas due to the more rapid increase in Tmin than in Tmax. As a whole, the diurnal asymmetry of projected future temperature changes is found to mainly occur from November to March. Conclusions: Our findings contribute to the knowledgebase on climate change over the main BRI regions. Regarding uneven spatiotemporal changes in Tmax, Tmin and DTR, appropriate climate change adaptation strategies, and options should be adopted to reduce or avoid disadvantaged consequences to the natural system and human society over specific regions.
Stargan for Emotional Speech Conversion: Validated by Data Augmentation of End-To-End Emotion Recognition

In this paper, we propose an adversarial network implementation for speech emotion conversion as a data augmentation method, validated by a multi-class speech affect recognition task. In our setting, we do not assume the availability of parallel data, and we additionally make it a priority to exploit as much as possible the available training data by adopting a cycle-consistent, class-conditional generative adversarial network with an auxiliary domain classifier. Our generated samples are valuable for data augmentation, achieving a corresponding 2% and 6% absolute increase in Micro- and MacroF1 compared to the baseline in a 3-class classification paradigm using a deep, end-to-end network. We finally perform a human perception evaluation of the samples, through which we conclude that our samples are indicative of their target emotion, albeit showing a tendency for confusion in cases where the emotional attribute of valence and arousal are inconsistent.
Intellectual capital and organizational performance: the case of basic education institutions in Mexico

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how intellectual capital influences organizational performance of private basic education establishments in southern Sonora, Mexico. This research was carried out under a quantitative methodology with a correlational scope. The construction of a solid theoretical framework allowed a questionnaire to be applied to 81 managers of basic education centers in private sector. To quantify the relationship between the variables, we used the multiple linear regression technique, where 60.5% of the variability in organizational performance is explained by the intellectual capital. Results confirm that in the private educational context intangible assets have a positive and relevant impact on organizational performance.
Intracellular degradation of insulin in pancreatic islets.

Under physiological conditions substantial amounts of hormone may be degraded within endocrine cells by a crinophagic process comprising fusions of secretory granules with lysosomes. Glucocorticoids may stabilise and progesterone destabilise lysosomal membranes. The effects of corticosterone and progesterone on intracellular degradation of insulin and crinophagy were determined in pancreatic β-cells, and possible pathways mediating these effects were evaluated. Pancreatic islets were isolated from mice, intracellular degradation of insulin was measured by a pulse-chase method, and crinophagy was studied by electron microscopy. The islets were exposed to 3.3, 5.5 or 28 mM glucose with or without corticosterone, progesterone or the receptor ligands A-224817.0 and WAY-161358. Mifepristone was used to block steroid receptors and indomethacin to inhibit prostaglandin synthesis. Corticosterone caused a concentration-dependent decrease of insulin degradation at the lower glucose concentrations. Progesterone effected a concentration-dependent stimulation of insulin degradation. These results were paralleled with changes of the crinophagic activity in the β-cells. Corticosterone decreased and progesterone increased islet production of prostaglandin E2. Mifepristone abolished the steroid actions on insulin degradation and prostaglandin production. The effects of corticosterone were mimicked by the selective glucocorticoid receptor modulator A-224817.0, but in contrast to progesterone, the selective progesterone receptor agonist WAY-161358 had no effect on insulin degradation or prostaglandin production. Inhibition of cyclooxygenase blocked insulin degradation. The findings indicate that both corticosterone and progesterone could affect intracellular insulin degradation and crinophagy solely via the glucocorticoid receptor, and that prostaglandins may have a regulatory role in intracellular turnover of secretory material in pancreatic islet β-cells.
Corruption: Challenges of Anti-Corruption in the US

Brescoll, V. L. , & Okimoto, T. G. (2010). The price of power: power seeking and backlash against female politicians. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(7), 923–936. Jurkiewicz, C. L. (2020). Global corruption and ethics management: Translating theory into action. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Kempf, R. J. & Cabrera, J. C. (2018). The de facto independence of federal offices of inspector general. The American Review of Public Administration, 49(1), 65–78. Stanley, J. (2018). How fascism works: The politics of US and them. New York: Random House.
A Bayesian approach to disease clustering using restricted Chinese restaurant processes

: Identifying disease clusters (areas with an unusually high inci- dence of a particular disease) is a common problem in epidemiology and public health. We describe a Bayesian nonparametric mixture model for disease clustering that constrains clusters to be made of adjacent areal units. This is achieved by modifying the exchangeable partition probability function associated with the Ewen’s sampling distribution. We call the resulting prior the Restricted Chinese Restaurant Process, as the associated full conditional distributions resemble those associated with the standard Chinese Restaurant Process. The model is illustrated using synthetic data sets and in an application to oral cancer mortality in Germany.
Aligned attention for common multimodal embeddings

Abstract. Deep learning has been attributed to incredible advances in computer vision, natural language processing, and general pattern understanding. Recent discoveries have enabled efficient vector representations of both visual and written stimuli. Robustly transferring between the two modalities remains a challenge that could yield benefits for search, retrieval, and storage applications. We introduce a simple, yet highly effective approach for building a connection space where natural language sentences are tightly coupled with visual data. In this connection space, similar concepts lie close, whereas dissimilar concepts lie far apart, irrespective of their modality. We introduce an attention mechanism to align multimodal embeddings that are learned through a multimodal metric loss function. We evaluate the learned common vector space on multiple image–text datasets—Pascal Sentences, NUS-WIDE-10k, XMediaNet, Flowers, and Caltech-UCSD Birds. We extend our method to five different modalities of image, sentence, audio, video, and 3D models to demonstrate cross-modal retrieval on the XMedia dataset. We obtain state-of-the-art retrieval and zero-shot retrieval across all datasets.
Human Adaptations: Free divers

Freediving has been around for thousands of years and was only way to dive until the inventionof oxygen tanks in the 19th century. Around the world, people dove for goods such as pearls, andtoday people freedive for sport. Divers stretch the limit of their body and mind’s capabilitiesthrough psychological adaptations from thermal, respiratory, and cardiovascular responses.Findings conclude that thermal adaptations are a similar process to cold adaptive response. Withthe implementation of wetsuits, this adaptation has disappeared. Other adaptations includerespiratory tolerance of the build up of carbon dioxide, different flows of gas exchange, andincreased lung volume capacity. Cardiovascular changes in freedivers are attributed to the divingresponse, or the innate animalistic ability to survive when in water. These innate responsesinclude: a decreased heartbeat, increased blood pressure, and decreased blood flow to the limbs.This response is more pronounced after only two weeks of breath-hold training. Freediving,although adaptive, is dangerous and causes issues ranging from dizziness to death. There aremany environmental adaptations, but little research and conclusive evidence of geneticadaptations involved.
Comparison of coherent optical transmission systems performance by DP-QAM levels

In this paper, we investigated the Coherent Optical Transmission System (COTS) performance for multiple types of DP-QAM levels considering various CW laser input power. We compared the performance of COTS for 100 Gb/s with DP-32QAM, DP-64QAM and DP-128QAM respectively. We also inspected the relationship among Optical Signal to Noise Ratio (OSNR), Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) and Bit Error Rate (BER) which are found in accordance for both simulation curves and constellation diagrams. Results are obtained by experiments with DP-32QAM, DP-64QAM and DP-128QAM modulations techniques at symbol rate of 10 Gsymbol/s, 8.33 Gsymbol/s and 7.142 Gsymbol/s respectively. This work is completely based on simulation in Optisystem simulation setup.
A Study of Stress Factor towards Oil Palm Workers’ Productivity at Felda Techno-plant Gugusan Waha, Kota Tinggi

The study was conducted to recognize the relationship of stress with oil palm workers’ productivity, which are consist the factor of wages, workload, management style and social influence pressure. Major aim of this study is to determine the relationship between the factors of stress and productivity of oil palm workers, to evaluate the dominant factor of stress that influences the productivity of oil palm workers and to make appropriate recommendations to manage stress problem based on the finding of the study. The study was focused on oil palm harvester that working in Felda Techno-plant In Johor district and 80 respondents were identified to be asked by using a questionnaire and interview section. Data was analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). Nevertheless, result show one of the three factors of stress are not correlate which is workloads, where it does not have any relationship with oil palm workers’ productivity. The result for most dominant factor is wages of oil palm workers and followed by social influence pressure and management style. Total correlated factors that influence oil palm workers’ productivity was 0.195. It can explain that, independent variable affecting 19.5 % of oil palm workers’ productivity.
Loss of Excitation Detection in Synchronous Generators Based on Dynamic State Estimation

In this article, we present a new approach to the detection of Loss-Of-Excitation (LOE), a typical failure of synchronous generators. Unlike most of the algorithms proposed in the literature, which only use the information available at the point of connection, we also take advantage of prior knowledge of the generator model. To track the field voltage and the other state variables, we have chosen the Constrained Unscented Kalman Filter (CUKF) as the core estimation technique, with phasor measurements as the input for this filtering algorithm. Detection of LOE is then performed by using the Faulty Modes Detection and Diagnosis (FMDD) algorithm, which combines the normal operation and a LOE-based model to decide in real-time whether an LOE has occurred or not. Results of simulations using a small two-area power system and the IEEE 39-bus system show that LOE detection times can be significantly reduced as compared to conventional and state-of-the-art approaches. Moreover, we observe that the new fault detection signal used to trip the generator can avoid short-term voltage stability problems.