Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Slope position and management practices as factors influencing selected properties of topsoil

Abstract An interaction between the slope position and type of soil management practices could be one of the most important factor affecting several soil properties including soil structure. Therefore, we evaluated selected soil properties including soil structure parameters in relation to slope gradient and soil management practices between Trakovice and Bučany villages (western Slovakia). The sampling sites were located in two adjacent, gently sloping fields with a NW-SE orientation. The sites also differ in soil management type: Field No. 1 was used as arable land with intensive cultivation (IC) of crops, while a greening system (GS) had been established on Field No. 2. Soil samples were taken from five geomorphological zones at each slope: summit, shoulder, back-slope, toe slope and flat terrain under the slope. Results showed that soil pH, content of soil organic matter (SOM) and carbonates depended on land use of the slopes. In GS, the water-stable macro-aggregates (WSAma) 0.5–3 mm (favourable size fraction) displayed statistical significant quadratic polynomial trend along the slope gradient. In IC the values of mean weight diameter of dry sieved aggregates (MWDd) decreased significantly along the slope gradient, while in GS the opposite trend was observed. In IC significant correlations between carbonates content (r=-0.775, P<0.01), humic acids (HA) content (r=0.654, P<0.05), colour quotients of humic substances (r=-0.706, P<0.05), colour quotients of HA (r=-0.723, P<0.05) and MWDd were determined. In GS higher content of carbonates was followed by a decrease in content WSAma, MWDd, mean weight diameter of wet sieved aggregates (MWDw) and stability index of aggregates. At the same time stabile and labile soil organic matter improved soil structure parameters in GS.
Optimal Power Flow Management and Control of Grid Connected Photovoltaic-Battery System

Abstract This paper presents optimal power flow management in real time for grid connected photovoltaic (PV)–battery system. The objective is the real time, dynamic and optimal scheduling of battery storage which reduces grid power consumption and achieves the peak load shaving. For this purpose, two strategies are developed; one is rule-based and other is optimization algorithm based. Two strategies are compared, pros and cons of those strategies are established. Though rule-based technique is simple & easy to implement, the optimization technique provides more optimal regulation of battery which provides the lesser electricity cost. Forecasted PV/load powers are used to get optimal value of battery power. In order to handle uncertainties due to forecasted data, fuzzy-based corrective strategy is developed to modify the reference battery power as per the present values of PV/load powers. The proposed analysis is carried out for over one exemplary day. The simulations are presented using typical load/PV data of India and Finland as a part of research collaboration. Experimental results are also carried out using proposed scheme.
Variability of Technical Actions During Small‐Sided Games in Young Soccer Players

Abstract The purpose of this study was three‐fold: (i) to test the between‐sessions variability of 3 vs. 3 and 6 vs. 6 formats in under‐11 players, (ii) to assess the within‐session variability of 3 vs. 3 and 6 vs. 6 formats, and (iii) to investigate the variations of technical actions between formats. Sixteen soccer players (10.1 ± 0.3 years old) participated in this study. Both formats of play were played twice within an interval of one week to test the between‐session variability and the variables of conquered balls (CBs), received balls (RBs), lost balls (LBs), attacking balls/passes (ABs) and shots (Ss) were analyzed using the Performance Assessment in Team Sports instrument in all matches. Moderate variations on the sum of sets during the 3 vs. 3 and 6 vs. 6 formats were observed in all variables. Considering the variations of technical actions made between sets in the 3 vs. 3 format, likely moderate increases were found in set 2 vs. 1 in terms of RB (37.5%, [‐2.7;94.2]), and likely small decreases were found in set 3 vs. 2 for the same variable (‐18.3%, [‐37.8;7.3]). In the 6 vs. 6 format, only possibly small increases were found for set 3 vs. 1 in S (22.5%, [‐7.0;61.3]). Generally (sum of sets), the variables standardized per minute revealed almost certain very large decreases in the 6 vs. 6 vs. the 3 vs. 3 format in the variables of CB (‐67.9%, [‐75.3;‐55.9]), LB (‐66.0%, [‐73.9;‐55.7]), RB (‐65.6%, [‐74.8;‐ 53.1]) and S (‐87.6%, [‐93.1;‐77.7]). The results of this study suggest that both formats of play are too noisy to be reproducible. The 3 vs. 3 format largely increased the number of individual technical actions.
Effect of the French Contrast Method on Explosive Strength and Kinematic Parameters of the Triple Jump Among Female College Athletes

Abstract There are resistance training methods that result in strength, others that enhance hypertrophy and others that stimulate power. The training modality of contrast provides all of these benefits in one session. The concept of French Contrast training is based on a combination of complex and contrast methods. The idea is to use four exercises to induce physiological responses of the athlete and train along the force-speed curve. The primary purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of the French Contrast Method on explosive strength and kinematic parameters of the triple jump among female college athletes. Ten female college athletes from the Helwan University’s track and field team participated in this study. Participants were assessed before and after an 8-week training program for upper and lower body explosive strength. No significant differences were observed in anthropometric characteristics. Explosive strength variables (Sargent jump test, countermovement jump, and seated medicine ball throw) increased significantly and kinematic parameters of the triple jump improved. The results indicated that eight weeks of the French Contrast training can improve both explosive strength and kinematic parameters of the triple jump.
Pricing of perpetual American put option with sub-mixed fractional Brownian motion

Abstract The pricing problem of perpetual American put options is investigated when the underlying asset price follows a sub-mixed fractional Brownian motion process. First of all, the sub-mixed fractional Black-Scholes partial differential equation is established by using the delta hedging method and the principle of no arbitrage. Then, by solving the free boundary problem, we get the pricing formula of the perpetual American put option.
Experimental load test statistics for the selected IPS tools on low-performance IoT devices

Abstract The goal of this paper is to propose a testing procedure for selected intrusion prevention systems (IPS) in a realistic network traffic in terms of their suitability on a given hardware microcomputers for low-performance devices for internet of things (IoT). We perform an IPS research in terms of resource usage in order to establish a universal procedure of checking, whether a given microcomputer controlling IoT devices (often in overloaded state) can additionally burden the installation and start-up of IPS. The experiment is repeated on several boards under overload condition to determine the maximum data rate, above which transmission degrades. The presented testing method is an exemplary tool for IoT applications concerning the security of embedded devices with low performance.
Effect of Geometric Imperfections in the Shape of Buckling Form on the Reduction of Load Capacity of Cylindrical Shell

Abstract The approach to numerical analyses was changed by the introduction of Eurocodes. The EN 1993-1-6 standard allows taking into account imperfections on the shape of a buckling form from a linear elastic bifurcation analysis. The article analyses the first ten forms of imperfection from a linear elastic bifurcation analysis on the reduction of the capacity of a cylindrical shell. Calculations were made using finite element methods.
Model Predictive Super-Twisting Sliding Mode Control for an Autonomous Surface Vehicle

Abstract This paper presents a new robust Model Predictive Control (MPC) algorithm for trajectory tracking of an Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) in presence of the time-varying external disturbances including winds, waves and ocean currents as well as dynamical uncertainties. For fulfilling the robustness property, a sliding mode control-based procedure for designing of MPC and a super-twisting term are adopted. The MPC algorithm has been known as an effective approach for the implementation simplicity and its fast dynamic response. The proposed hybrid controller has been implemented in MATLAB / Simulink environment. The results for the combined Model Predictive Super-Twisting Sliding Mode Control (MP-STSMC) algorithm have shown that it significantly outperforms conventional MPC algorithm in terms of the transient response, robustness and steady state response and presents an effective chattering attenuation in comparison with the Super-Twisting Sliding Mode Control (STSMC) algorithm.
Antenna array synthesis using a newly evolved optimization approach: Strawberry algorithm

Abstract An attempt has been made for the first time to apply this proposed Strawberry optimization technique to antenna array synthesis problem. The case study cited here refer to linear and circular array configurations. The design constraints are limited to minimizing the side lobe level and restricting the first null beam width, which play significant roles in antenna array performances. The key parameters which greatly influence in achieving the said objectives are either placement of antenna elements or amplitudes of excitations of these elements or both. And the recently reported meta heuristic nature inspired optimization algorithms have addressed to these problems quite effectively and the exciting result obtained using the said approach has undoubtedly proved the strawberry algorithm as a potential contender in the optimization domain.
Statistical feature embedding for heart sound classification

Abstract Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) is considered as one of the principal causes of death in the world. Over recent years, this field of study has attracted researchers’ attention to investigate heart sounds’ patterns for disease diagnostics. In this study, an approach is proposed for normal/abnormal heart sound classification on the Physionet challenge 2016 dataset. For the first time, a fixed length feature vector; called i-vector; is extracted from each heart sound using Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC) features. Afterwards, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) transform and Variational Autoencoder (VAE) are applied on the i-vector to achieve dimension reduction. Eventually, the reduced size vector is fed to Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) for classification purpose. Experimental results demonstrate the proposed method could achieve a performance improvement of 16% based on Modified Accuracy (MAcc) compared with the baseline system on the Physionet2016 dataset.
The potential of a novel Adenovirus vector for vaccination.

Adenoviruses (Ads) have many attractive characteristics for use as agents of genebased vaccines and therapies. The most frequently used Ad vectors in preclinical research are based on Ad5. However, in the clinical setting Ad5 vectors have severe limitations. About 90% of the population have neutralising antibodies against Ad5 and infection requires expression of the viral receptor CAR, which is not present on important cell types. Previous data from this laboratory suggested that the species D adenovirus, Ad19a, may overcome some of these limitations. Most relevant for vaccination is its high efficiency of infection of human dendritic cells (DCs), the most important antigen presenting cells. This highly effective DC targeting was retained in Ad19aGFP vectors. To investigate the potential of Ad19a vectors for vaccination further, two transgenes, the nucleocapsid gene from pneumovirus of mice (PVM-N), and a HIV polyprotein cassette (HIVA), were inserted into replication-deficient Ad5 and Ad19a vectors using recombineering. rAd19aPVM and rAd19aHIVA expressed a significantly higher amount of transgene compared with their Ad5 homologues. Encouraging results were obtained when the ability of rAd5PVM and rAd19aPVM to protect mice from lethal PVM challenge was examined using various prime/boost vaccinations. A dose of 106 pfu of rAd19aPVM, but not rAd5PVM, provided protection. rAd5PVM did, however, protect mice at the same dose when combined with rAd19aPVM in a heterologous prime boost schedule. Vaccination-induced IgG responses to PVM-N did not correlate with protection, implicating cell-mediated immune responses in protection. Utilising rAd19aGFP, evidence is also provided that Ad19a may use CD46 and to some extent CAR as a receptor on CHO cells, expanding our knowledge of the basic biology of this virus.
Impact of climate change on ivy (Hedera helix L.) expansion in forests of Central Poland

Abstract The article refers to a broader context of scientific debates on the effect of climate warming on shifts in species ranges and describes the recent changes in the distribution and life strategy of Hedera helix close to its eastern limit, in light of climate changes. European ivy is an ecotone species, occurring in fringe communities, in deciduous and mixed deciduous forests in fresh and moist habitats that are occupied by oak-hornbeam and riparian alder-ash forests in Central Poland. Since the mid-20th century, the ivy, a species rarely reproducing generatively, has become an expansive plant with a growing number of sites where flowering and fruiting individuals are encountered. We studied the distribution, habitat requirements and flowering of H. helix in Central Poland in the years 2015–2017 and compared to the situation in the mid-1970s. Climate changes in terms of average air temperatures and precipitation amounts for the past four decades were also assessed. Within the study area, 474 stands of naturally growing Hedera have recently been identified. Ivy was found to reproduce generatively on 121 of those locations. There has been an almost 10-fold increase in the number of fruiting ivy specimens since the mid-1970s of the 20th century. Changes in the species life strategy can be ascribed to the increase in both average air temperatures and solar radiation intensity observed for the past decades. Both enhanced fragmentation of woodland tracts and development of forest ecotones and forest canopy openings promote the expansion of H. helix, while its habitat preferences remain unchanged.
Lead ethyl dithiocarbamates: efficient single-source precursors to PbS nanocubes

Lead ethyl dithiocarbamates have been successfully used as single-source precursors for the deposition of PbS using spin coating followed by annealing at moderate temperatures. The thin films were characterized using a powder X-ray diffractometer and were found to be face-centred cubic with the (200) plane being the most preferred orientation. Scanning electron microscopy images showed the formation of well-defined cubes. Optical band gaps of PbS thin films were estimated using Tauc plots as 0.72, 0.73 and 0.77 eV at annealing temperatures of 250, 300 and 400°C. These band gaps were all blue shifted from the bulk value of 0.41 eV. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis was used to determine the composition of the thin films which showed an approximately 1 : 1 Pb to S ratio.
A GH13 glycoside phosphorylase with unknown substrate specificity from Corallococcus coralloides

Abstract Glycoside phosphorylases in subfamily GH13_18 of the carbohydrate-active enzyme database CAZy catalyse the reversible phosphorolysis of α-glycosidic bonds. They contribute to a more energy-efficient metabolism in vivo, and can be applied for the synthesis of valuable glucosides, sugars or sugar phosphates in vitro. Continuing our efforts to uncover new phosphorylase specificities, we identified an enzyme from the myxobacterium Corallococcus coralloides DSM 2259 that does not feature the signature sequence patterns of previously characterised phosphorylases. The enzyme was recombinantly expressed and subjected to substrate screening. Although it was confirmed that the Corallococcus phosphorylase does not have the same substrate specificity as other phoshorylases from subfamily GH13_18, its true natural substrate remains a mystery for now. Myxobacteria have been widely investigated as producers of numerous bioactive secondary metabolites for decades, but little research has been conducted on myxobacterial proteins. The present study exemplifies the untapped metabolic activities and functional diversity that these fascinating organisms may have left to show.
Landscape characterization using photographs from crowdsourced platforms: content analysis of social media photographs

Abstract Landscape characterisation using social media photographs from popular platforms has been proposed as a landscape and ecosystem services approach. However, popular crowdsourced websites provide uncharacterized data and are only representative of the general public. Photographs from crowdsourced sports platforms, whose users are more homogeneous, could help to characterise landscape more uniformly. In this study we use automated content analysis from photographs on Wikiloc, a crowd-sourced sports platform, to characterize landscape in the Ebro Delta Natural Park, a protected area in Spain. Our approach applies big data procedures and spatial analysis to provide in-depth information regarding what draws visitors’ attention to a landscape and to ascertain their intrasite flow. Our results show that sports users are keen on natural landscapes and pay less attention to rural and degraded landscapes, and that areas closer to paths are more photographed than more distant areas.
CRT Implantation in a Patient with Congenital Heart Malformation

Abstract Treatment of patients with functional single-ventricle physiology is achieved using surgical corrections known as the “Fontan Procedure”. Two separate blood circulations are created from the single-ventricle function. These are non-cyanogenic patients, but at high risk of developing HF. CRT implantation is an option to improve the functional class and EF.
Multiple Breakpoint Test on Crude Oil Price

Abstract The impact of structural changes as well as breaks on oil price fluctuations is studied in this article. There are a few channels, such as domestic prices and inflation, that cause the effect of oil price to pass through the economy. The higher crude oil price is immediately followed by the increase in oil products such as gasoline and heating oil. The direct effects continue as people choose alternative energy sources, leading to the increase in price. Besides, the indirect effect on inflation as a result of the behavioral responses of the firms and workers which is known as the “second round” effects in which higher wages is being demanded. This article uses exploratory data analysis to discover the patterns of the variables’ series and then examines the relationship between oil price and consumer price index. Multiple breakpoint test is thereafter used to identify the structural changes in time-varying variables.
Mesanenin nadir görülen kanserleri: Olgu serisi ve literatürün gözden geçirilmesi

Klinigimizde mesane tumoru tanisiyla opere edilen olgular retrospektif olarak degerlendirildi. Bu olgulardan nadir patolojiye sahip olanlar belirlendi. Literatur incelenerek mesanenin nadir gorulen tumorleri arastirildi. Klinigimizdeki tani ve tedavi algoritmalari literatur ile karsilastirildi. Mesanenin nadir gorulen tumorleri cogu urolog ve patolog tarafindan taninamamaktadir. Bu nedenle ilk tani esnasinda ve tedavi sirasinda zorluklara neden olabilmektedir.
The late Holocene decline of Trapa natans L. in Northern Poland in the light of new palaeobotanical and geochemical data

Abstract Trapa natans (water chestnut) is an aquatic, thermophilic plant whose decline has been observed in many localities in central Europe during the last decades. In this paper, we present a description of two new T. natans subfossil sites located outside its present northern distribution in Poland. High-resolution analysis of plant macrofossils supported by geochemical analysis were undertaken to reconstruct the palaeoecological habitat and examine the cause of the late Holocene decline of T. natans that took place ca. 4000 calibrated years before AD 1950 (cal. yr BP) in a paleolake, presently the Bagno Kusowo bog. Its disappearance was a consequence of terrestrialisation and the development of peatland. In paleolake sediments covered by the peat layer in the Mechacz Wielki bog, T. natans macrofossils were found from before ca. 3300 cal. yr BP. The decline of T. natans could have resulted from the changes and development of other plant communities where the dominant role was played by Stratiotes aloides and Nymphaea sp. In our study sites, T. natans occurred together with Potamogeton crispus, Potamogeton obtusifolius, Nymphaea alba, and Nuphar sp. in eutrophic water dominated by Ca2+, Fe3+, and Al3+ ions. Our palaeobotanical and geochemical results align with the contemporary conditions of T. natans habitat.
Interaction design and methodology of robot-assisted therapy for children with severe ASD and ADHD

Abstract This paper presents a patient-centered interaction design of Robot-Assisted Therapy or Robot-Assisted Play (RAP) applications for children with a diverse form of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) combined with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Through our iterative evaluation process based on observations of fourteen children over several sessions and interviews with their parents, we continuously refined the behaviors of a humanoid robot NAO that are now ready to be used for research on Robot-Assisted Therapy. This paper also reports the design of RAP methodology that might be helpful in assimilating iterative input from stakeholders such as children, parents and therapists to customize technology for other populations with special needs.
On the selection of control-law coefficients for multi-loop PWM switching regulators

The relationship between the control-law coefficients and the closed-loop transfer functions for second-order, multiloop, pulsewidth-modulated (PWM) switching regulators is examined. Detailed results are presented for input impedance, output current susceptibility, input voltage susceptibility, and output impedance of the basic buck, boost and buck-boost regulators. The relationship is used as a basis for selecting the feedback and feedforward coefficients for maximum performance of the regulators. <<ETX>>