Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dual-purpose wheat technology: a tool for ensuring food security and livestock sustainability in cereal-based cropping pattern

ABSTRACT Wheat cultivation under a dual-purpose (DP) system holds great potential to provide additional fodder for livestock with marginal grain reduction. This study explores the potential of wheat as a DP crop for improving both, forage and grain cropping system by finding out optimal sowing dates and cultivars suitable for DP cropping. Field experiments with four cultivars (Saleem-2000, Bathoor-2007, Fakhre Sarhad-99 (FS-99) and Siran-2008), three sowing dates (October 15, October 30 and November 15) and two cutting treatments (cut and no-cut) determines the effects on yield and physiology of wheat. Wheat sown either in mid or end of October resulted in 11 and 8% increase in grain yield while 13 and 9% in biological yield over mid November sowing, respectively. This increase in yield was due to higher grain spike−1, chlorophyll content, transpiration rate and relative water content. The cultivars Siran-2008 and Saleem-2000 had higher biological and grain yields than other cultivars across cutting and sowing dates treatments. Biological and grain yields were reduced by 4% and 3%, respectively under the DP wheat compared with no-cut treatment, but grains N content was unaffected. Conclusively, DP wheat system (cut treatment) had higher profitability (11.2%) than wheat crop sown only for grain purposes.
Mitochondrial Haplotype Analysis of Pomoxis nigromaculatus Inhabiting Three Georgian Lakes

Pomoxis nigromaculatus, more commonly referred to as black crappie is indigenous to fresh water streams and lakes in the eastern United States and supports an important recreational fishery. We examined the genetic population structure of black crappie inhabiting three Georgian Lakes, Lake Sidney Lanier, Lake Seminole and Hartwell Lake. DNA sequencing of 229 fish samples, utilizing the DNA barcode marker cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) revealed 27 polymorphic sites which defined nine haplotypes. Only haplotype 2 was shared between all sample sites with six other haplotypes being unique for individual lakes, for an overall haplotype diversity of 0.734. Tajima’s D and Fu’s tests were implemented to assess departures from neutral expectations. Fst pairwise comparisons were statistically significant among all populations of black crappie evaluated in this study.
Estimation of li-ion battery state of charge using adaptive neural fuzzy inference system (ANFIS)

Thanks to their electrochemical structure, batteries are the elements that can store electrical energy and spend on a load when the electrical energy they store is needed. Today, with the widespread use of electrically powered mobile devices, rechargeable batteries have become widespread and battery technologies have developed. With the idea that the latest technology systems and electric vehicles will become widespread in the future, the studies on batteries are increasing day by day. In this study, charge state estimation of Li-ion battery cell used to provide power in many applications was realized by using adaptive neural fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). A Li-ion battery was discharged using variable electrical loads with a battery discharge circuit modeled on MATLAB Simulink and current, voltage, temperature and current power parameters of the battery were selected as input variables. Battery parameters and charge status data obtained from discharge tests using different electrical loads on MATLAB Simulink were used as training and test parameters of neural network. Using the MATLAB ANFIS toolbox, the system was trained with 80% of the battery parameters obtained in the battery discharge experiments and with 20% as testing data, the success performance was interpreted by applying the adaptive neural fuzzy inference system.
Distribution network reconfiguration based on artificial network reconfiguration for variable load profile

: Network reconfiguration is a process to change the open-switches in distribution system for a minimum power loss. In the past, metaheuristic techniques were applied widely for network reconfiguration with consideration of a fixed loading profile. When the loading changes, the current configuration may not be the optimal one. Thus, the technique needs to be executed to find a new optimal configuration based on the latest loading. The process is time-consuming since metaheuristic techniques commonly require high computational times and produces inconsistent results. Therefore, this paper proposes a network reconfiguration technique based on artificial neural network (ANN) for variable loading conditions. The proposed ANN model is tested on IEEE 33-bus, IEEE 69-bus, and IEEE-118 bus systems. The test results indicate the efficiency of the proposed technique in three aspects: processing time, simple structure, and high accuracy.
A 8-ns Settling Time Fully Integrated LDO with Dynamic Biasing and Bulk Modulation Techniques in 40nm CMOS

This paper presents a fast transient low-dropout regulator (LDO) with bulk modulation technique and dynamic transient boost circuit (TBC) for system-on-chip (SoC) applications. The conventional bulk modulation and dynamic biasing techniques failed to obtain low quiescent current and better stability at no-load conditions. The proposed bulk modulation technique implemented by using only one error amplifier with two different gain stages to achieve the small quiescent current and to obtain good regulation with better driving capability. The proposed TBC combines the dynamic biasing and output compensation techniques to enhance the transient response of LDO drastically. The proposed design is simulated in the 40nm LVT CMOS process shows that the LDO delivers 1V output voltage and consumes 15μA of quiescent current with the supply voltage of 1.1V. When the load current changes from 100nA to 10mA with a large slew rate of 200ps, undershoot and settling time are 450mV and 8ns respectively. Compared to LDO without TBC, the proposed LDO offers good stability, better driving capability, ∼10× less undershoot and ∼10× fast settling time.
Introduction to the Handbook on Cross-Cultural Marketing

A number of years ago, a very senior marketing professor who had served on many editorial review boards was speaking at a marketing educators’ conference. He quipped, “Someday, I would like to write a paper entitled ‘Doing Marketing in ________. ’’’ Identifying different marketing practices in other countries to learn how those countries compared to a home country was a new and popular approach at the time. However, it may be too limited to capture the nuances of marketing in today’s interconnected global environment. The second half of the twentieth century gave rise to global thinking in a more complex interconnected world. From America’s post-war prosperity to the resurrection of the European economy through the Marshall Plan; from the emergence of multinational companies to the rise of Japan Inc. and other Asian Tigers; and from the growth of regional trading blocs from the North American Free Trade Agreement to the European Union, all indicators were that the world – along with consumer tastes – was converging (Levitt, 1983). As the industrial twentieth century gave birth to the information-driven twenty-first century, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the end of the Cold War opened access to the markets and intellectual capital of the Eastern Bloc. China, the world’s largest communist country, emerged as the world’s factory and, recently, its second largest economy. This was matched by the breathtaking economic growth of the world’s largest democracy, India. The twenty-first century was being hailed as the Pacific Century as global economic momentum seemed to have shifted from the West to Asia’s emerging powerhouses. Marketing researchers began to conduct cross-national, multinational, and cross-cultural (often used interchangeably) research to understand the opportunities and challenges of operating in this globally interdependent world. Cross-cultural studies began to compare consumers and employees from different countries along various dimensions such as Hall’s work on time and proxemics and Hofstede’s seminal five cultural dimensions. As units of analysis, countries provided convenient ways to segment markets and study differences between, say, United States (US) consumers compared with German consumers. There were many opportunities for “Doing Business in__________” papers comparing consumers in Country A with those in Country B. However, increased interaction among consumers worldwide
Partisan Dealignment and Personal Vote-Seeking in Parliamentary Behaviour

What shapes legislators’ incentives for personal vote-seeking in parliament? Recent work suggests that partisanship among voters deters personal vote-seeking, by limiting its effectiveness. This has potentially significant implications for policy-making, election results and patterns of accountability. However, empirical tests of this argument remain few in number and have several limitations. This article thus offers a new test of the relationship between partisanship and personal vote-seeking. Using legislators’ bill proposals as an indicator of their personal vote-seeking activity, I analyse legislative behaviour in the UK House of Commons between 1964 and 2017. I find that members of parliament make more legislative proposals when voters are less partisan. Moreover, partisanship appears to moderate the influence of other drivers of personal vote-seeking: electorally vulnerable legislators make more legislative proposals, but only at low levels of partisanship. These findings provide new evidence that voters’ relationships with political parties affect legislators’ electoral strategies and parliamentary behaviour.
The Underlying Causes of Respiratory Distress in Late-Preterm and Full-Term Infants Are Different From Those of Early-Preterm Infants

Background: A diagnosis of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) is common among newborns in China. Some late-preterm and full-term (LP/FT) infants with respiratory distress (RD) symptoms but not primary surfactant deficiency are also diagnosed with RDS and given exogenous surfactant replacement therapy (SRT). Objectives: An increasing number of neonatologists have proposed that RD etiologies should be specifically classified to guide clinical treatment. Methods: The therapeutic effects of SRT on infants of different gestational ages (GAs) were compared in a large retrospective multicenter cohort study performed at 26 Neonatal Intensive Care units in China. The cause of RD at different GAs was further analyzed by comparing the different risk factors closely related to RDS severity at different GAs. Results: Analysis of 1240 infants diagnosed with RDS showed that SRT was less effective in LP/FT infants than in early-preterm (EP) infants. GA < 30 weeks and no prenatal corticosteroid use were closely related to RDS severity in EP infants, whereas perinatal infection- and perinatal hypoxia-associated risk factors and a high cesarean rate were closely related to RDS severity in LP/FT infants. Conclusions: The causes of RD might differ between LP/FT and EP infants, and the diagnosis of RDS might be overused in LP/FT infants. RD in LP/FT infants is more likely related to perinatal infection, perinatal hypoxia, elective cesarean and hereditary factors, which are important causes of neonatal pulmonary edema. New strategies for the treatment of refractory RD in LP/FT infants should concentrate more on pulmonary edema and neonatal ARDS.
ISOLATION AND STRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION OF DREB1A GENE FROM FINGER MILLET

Ragi (Eleusine coracana) is an important drought-tolerant grain crop in semi-arid tropics with a rich genetic diversity. Identification of novel regulatory genes involved in abiotic stress tolerance and allele mining would lead to better and quicker solution for improving stress tolerance in crop plants. Gene sequences from the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana offer a unique opportunity to clone cognate genes and genes from heterologous sources resulting in discovery of new genes, allele-mining, and large-scale SNP genotyping. The use of PCR technique has generated unprecedented advances in gene discovery and gene expression analysis. Optimal primer sequence and appropriate primer concentration are essential for efficiency of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). In the current study a systematic approach has been made to predict a theoretical primer for AtDREB1A gene for heterologous gene cloning from ragi and structural characterization. Sixteen different but related nucleotide sequences based on AtDREB1A gene were retrieved from different databases. A highly conserved region of 287 bases was detected on multiple alignments through claustalw2 programme and a set of primer (forward and reverse) was predicted using Primer3plus software on the basis of the conserved region considering ideal conditions for primer length, GC content, Tm, formation of primer-dimer, hairpin-loop etc. The predicted forward and backward primers have shown significant sequence similarity with DREB1A gene and were used for amplification of a transcription factor DREB1A gene from heterologous source like ragi leading to discovery of new genes and allele mining. Ragi DREB1 (EcDREB1A) genomic clone was found to be 536 bp long with an internal intron of 284bp between 1 to 144bp and 396 to 536bp. EcDREB1A encodes a putative protein of 84 amino acids rich in serine (13.10%) with a predicted molecular mass of 9.29 kDa. Multiple sequence alignment of EcDREB1A with other DREB genes revealed presence of 9 highly conserved amino acids (R, P, G, F, D, R, G, C and N). Phylogenetically EcDREB is closely related to At DREB1A and DREBs of other monocots. Allele mining of EcDREB1A gene across selected 5 Ragi cultivars revealed no variations on nucleotide. Data generated here validates the universal presence of DREB sequence in the plant kingdom. Heterologous gene cloning and allele mining in ragi may lead to identification of useful alleles responsible for abiotic stress tolerance.
Gauss-power mixing distributions comprehensively describe stochastic variations in RNA-seq data

Motivation Gene expression levels exhibit stochastic variations among genetically identical organisms under the same environmental conditions. In many recent transcriptome analyses based on RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), variations in gene expression levels among replicates were assumed to follow a negative binomial distribution although the physiological basis of this assumption remain unclear. Results In this study, RNA-seq data were obtained from Arabidopsis thaliana under eight conditions (21–27 replicates), and the characteristics of gene-dependent distribution profiles of gene expression levels were analyzed. For A. thaliana and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the distribution profiles could be described by a Gauss-power mixing distribution derived from a simple model of a stochastic transcriptional network containing a feedback loop. The distribution profiles of gene expression levels were roughly classified as Gaussian, power law-like containing a long tail, and mixed. The fitting function predicted that gene expression levels with long-tailed distributions would be strongly influenced by feedback regulation. Thus, the features of gene expression levels are correlated with their functions, with the levels of essential genes tending to follow a Gaussian distribution and those of genes encoding nucleic acid-binding proteins and transcription factors exhibiting long-tailed distributions. Availability Fastq files of RNA-seq experiments were deposited into the DNA Data Bank of Japan Sequence Read Archive as accession no. DRA005887. Quantified expression data are available in supplementary information. Contact awa@hiroshima-u.ac. jp Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Antioxidant potential of extracts from peels and stems of yellow‐fleshed and white cassava varieties

Summary This study focused on the exploration of the potentials of extracting antioxidants from peels and stems of yellow-ﬂeshed and white cassava varieties. The eﬀect of particle size (0.2 and 0.5 mm) and variety on the phenolic content and antioxidant activity was assessed. The peels of the yellow-ﬂeshed cassava variety with a particle size of 0.2 mm showed the highest phenolic content with 681.5 GAE mg 100 g − 1 and antioxidant activity of 19% and 425 μ M TE g − 1 dry matter using DPPH and FRAP assays respectively. The stems of the white cassava with a particle size of 0.2 mm exhibited high phenolic content (442.4 GAE mg 100 g − 1 ) and antioxidant activity of 12.8% and 234 μ M TE g − 1 , better than the stem of the yellow-ﬂeshed cassava. These results indicate that phenolic and antioxidant extractions were inﬂuenced by variety, the plant parts and particle size for the antioxidant assays.
Sea Breeze Front and Outdoor Thermal Comfort during Summer in Northeastern Brazil

Characterizing the behaviour of the sea breeze phenomenon is the foremost factor in the reduction in the heat stress and the achievement of the pleasant environment in coastal cities globally. However, this seminal study shows that the Sea Breeze Front (SBF) development can be related to an increase in outdoor thermal discomfort in a northeastern Brazilian city during summer. We explored the relationship between SBF and thermal comfort conditions using in situ meteorological observations, the SBF identification method, local climate zones (LCZs) classification, and the Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) thermal comfort index. SBF days and Non-SBF days were characterized in terms of weather conditions, combining meteorological data and technical bulletins. SBF days included hot and sunny days associated with the centre of the Upper Tropospheric Cyclonic Vortices (UTCV). In contrast, Non-SBF days were observed in UTCV’s periphery because of cloudy sky and rainfall. The results showed that the mean temperature and PET in the SBF days were 2.0 °C and 3.8 °C higher, respectively, compared to Non-SBF days in all LCZ sites. The highest PET, of 40.0 °C, was found on SBF days. Our findings suggest that SBF development could be an aggravating factor for increasing heat stress of the people living in the northeastern coast of the Brazilian city, after SBF passage.
Effective Social Marketing to Improve Parental Intentions Giving More Fruits and Vegetables to Children

There is a need to monitor the growing prevalence of childhood weight issues and obesity worldwide. Parents can establish a set of family rules regarding child behaviors, but parents’ favorable attitudes toward healthy nutrition are also necessary. Despite the importance of this issue, there has been very little research on the most efficient means of communication to improve parental intentions to give fruits and vegetables to their children. Social marketing plays a key role in formulating effective communication campaigns targeting parents. We focus on two elements of the communication process, the message endorser and the message framing, and run an experiment with a sample of parents. Results demonstrate that parental intention to provide fruits and vegetables to children will be higher when the related message is backed by an expert endorser (vs. a celebrity endorser), the message is positively framed (vs. negatively framed) and when the message is emotionally framed (vs. rationally framed). Moreover, there is an interaction effect between the influence of the expertise/celebrity characteristic of the endorser and the message framing on parental intention to provide fruits and vegetables, and the effect is higher when the rational message framing is endorsed by an expert.
Editorial: Navigating in a Measurable Epistemic Landscape

uring the last decades, measurability has become a governing element in educational institutions through changes in the epistemic landscape. Consequently, the kind of knowledge preferred within this epistemic landscape places results, performance and effectiveness at the forefront of educational objectives in educational institutions. In turn, the changing epistemic landscape spurs changes in how humans navigate within these educational contexts (Grek, 2009).
Relationship between Ownership Structures and Earnings Management Behavior in Vietnamese Commercial Banks

Earnings management behavior is the use of accounting procedures, through accounting policies, to intentionally purposeful control in the provision of information to users. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between ownership structure factors and earnings management behavior of 30 Vietnamese commercial banks. The paper uses the ordinary least square method to examine this relationship and employs time series data of 15 years from 2005 to 2019. The study also uses agency theory an asymmetric information theory. The authors examined six independent variables related to the ownership structure and these variables are typical of Vietnamese commercial banks. The results of the study show that the foreign ownership ratio is an opposite effect, while the ownership concentration variable has a positive effect on earnings management behavior of Vietnamese commercial banks. Based on that, the article proposes a number of policy suggestions for the State bank of Vietnam and Board of directors of commercial banks as well as investors to identify and to limit the earnings management behaviors of Vietnamese commercial banks. This contributes to ensuring information transparency as well as improving the quality of accounting information of Vietnamese commercial banks in the coming years.
water/watery/watering: Concepts for Theorising in Environmental Education

The assemblage of water/watery/watering is a lively cartography of how water may be accounted for when theorising with and through environmental education research. Challenging the universalising claims of Western technoscience and the colonial logic of extraction, the article develops an alternative theoretical mapping of environmental education through engagements with Ingold’s (2007, 2012, 2015) concepts of lines, knots, and knotting. For this article and for the Special Issue in which it is housed, the concepts of such knottings are defined as an assemblage of haecceities, lived events that are looped, tethered and entangled as material and conceptual agencies that inhere within situated encounters. Thus, this article grapples with the need to account for water differently in contemporary posthuman ecologies. To overcome anthropocentric and mastery-oriented approaches, various other ways to account for water in science or environmental education will continue to come to the surface, bubbling and rushing like a waterfall as they have done in this work. Some of these will include thinking with water, which will be central to a theoretical mapping of water that seeks embrace sticky knots. The article explores a (re)turn to artful practices and encounters as spaces in which posthumanist concepts for environmental education might be cultivated.