Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lactic Acid Bacteria from African Fermented Cereal-Based Products: Potential Biological Control Agents for Mycotoxins in Kenya

Cereals play an important role in global food security. Data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization projects increased consumption of cereals from 2.6 billion tonnes in 2017 to approximately 2.9 billion tonnes by 2027. However, cereals are prone to contamination by toxigenic fungi, which lead to mycotoxicosis. The current methods for mycotoxin control involve the use of chemical preservatives. However, there are concerns about the use of chemicals in food preservation due to their effects on the health, nutritional quality, and organoleptic properties of food. Therefore, alternative methods are needed that are affordable and simple to use. The fermentation technique is based on the use of microorganisms mainly to impart desirable sensory properties and shelf-life extension. The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are generally regarded as safe (GRAS) due to their long history of application in food fermentation systems and ability to produce antimicrobial compounds (hydroxyl fatty acids, organic acids, phenyllactic acid, hydrogen peroxide, bacteriocins, and carbon dioxide) with a broad range of antifungal activity. Hence, LAB can inhibit the growth of mycotoxin-producing fungi, thereby preventing the production of mycotoxins. Fermentation is also an efficient technique for improving nutrient bioavailability and other functional properties of cereal-based products. This review seeks to provide evidence of the potential of LAB from African fermented cereal-based products as potential biological agents against mycotoxin-producing fungi.
De separações na cidade a misturas nas praias

O caráter marítimo no Brasil é dado pela formação de muitas cidades coloniais à beira-mar e pela natureza pública da orla estabelecida por lei, embora praias possam expressar dinâmicas excludentes. Segregação, dinâmicas urbanas e usos em praias contribuindo para o bem-estar são temas frequentes na literatura sobre o estudo de cidades, mas pouco interligados entre si. Entendendo que a forma do espaço ajuda a unir ou separar pessoas, este artigo investiga a localização na malha urbana, padrões socioespaciais, redes e mobilidades no uso de praias na cidade de João Pessoa, Nordeste brasileiro. Dados demográficos, localizações na malha urbana e dados coletados com frequentadores das praias foram analisados. Resultados indicam que densidades se distribuem mais na cidade acompanhando centralidades urbanas enquanto existe uma clara separação da população mais privilegiada economicamente morando perto do mar. Em contrapartida, essas praias recebem visitantes com mistura de perfis sociais distintos, vindos de diferentes lugares, acentuando um poder de atratividade gerando espaços de potencial encontro entre diferentes na cidade, principalmente nas praias mais integradas na malha urbana. Apesar disso, distância e tempo de deslocamentos custam mais para a população menos privilegiada economicamente visitarem as praias, reforçando desigualdades de acesso ao lazer na praia.
Lambertian Luminous Intensity Radiation Pattern Analysis in OLOS Indoor Propagation for Better Connectivity

This paper illustrates the impact of wavelength on the Optical Line of sight (OLOS) link working in the Visible Light Communication (VLC) spectrum. The extension of work is based on previous outcomes given by researchers. It has been elaborated with different determinants based on the color factor of LED available in the Visible Light (VL) spectrum. In the modern world, Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are prevailing the market as a light source, which is dominantly used at homes and workplaces. The designed VLC system includes LED as a transmitter, which is used as a higher source of brightness and provides both illuminations and data communication. Solid-state lighting characteristic shows the electroluminance capability of high brightness LEDs. Within few years, the luminous efficacy of LED is exponentially increasing from the range of less than 0.1 lm/W to over 230 lm/W with a huge lifetime of around 100,000 h. MATLAB is used to simulate a VLC link between LEDs (operated at different wavelengths) and photodetector. We present here the performance analysis of Lambertian Luminous Intensity radiation pattern (LLIRP) generated by different colors of LED for a clear OLOS model with different Spectral Luminous Efficiency at photonic vision. A designed system model of VLC supports short links present in indoor room conditions with better connectivity.
Practitioners’ Perspective on the Prevalent Water Quality Management Practices for Legionella Control in Large Buildings in the United States

Managing building water systems is complicated by the need to maintain hot water temperatures high enough to control the growth of Legionella spp. while minimizing the risk of scalding. This study assessed water quality management practices in large buildings in the United States. Surveys conducted with building water quality managers found that more than 85% of buildings have hot water temperatures that are consistent with scald risk mitigation guidelines (i.e., <122 °F/50 °C). However, nearly two thirds and three quarters of buildings do not comply with the common temperature guidance for opportunistic pathogen control, i.e., water heater setpoint > 140 °F (60 °C) and recirculation loop > 122 °F (50 °C), respectively; median values for both setpoint and recirculation loop temperatures are 10 °F (6 °C) or more below temperatures recommended for opportunistic pathogen control. These observations suggest that many buildings are prone to Legionella spp. risk. The study also found that 27% of buildings do not comply with guidelines for time to equilibrium hot water temperature, over 33% fail to monitor temperature in the recirculation loop, more than 70% fail to replace or disinfect showerheads, more than 40% lack a written management plan, and only a minority conduct any monitoring of residual disinfectant levels or microbiological quality. Given the rise in Legionellosis infections in recent years, coupled with highlighted water quality concerns because of prolonged water stagnation in plumbing, such as in buildings closed due to COVID-19, current management practices, which appear to be focused on scald risk, may need to be broadened to include greater attention to control of opportunistic pathogens. To accomplish this, there is a need for formal training and resources for facility managers.
Single-Trial Classification of Error-Related Potentials in People with Motor Disabilities: A Study in Cerebral Palsy, Stroke, and Amputees

Brain-computer interface performance may be reduced over time, but adapting the classifier could reduce this problem. Error-related potentials (ErrPs) could label data for continuous adaptation. However, this has scarcely been investigated in populations with severe motor impairments. The aim of this study was to detect ErrPs from single-trial EEG in offline analysis in participants with cerebral palsy, an amputation, or stroke, and determine how much discriminative information different brain regions hold. Ten participants with cerebral palsy, eight with an amputation, and 25 with a stroke attempted to perform 300–400 wrist and ankle movements while a sham BCI provided feedback on their performance for eliciting ErrPs. Pre-processed EEG epochs were inputted in a multi-layer perceptron artificial neural network. Each brain region was used as input individually (Frontal, Central, Temporal Right, Temporal Left, Parietal, and Occipital), the combination of the Central region with each of the adjacent regions, and all regions combined. The Frontal and Central regions were most important, and adding additional regions only improved performance slightly. The average classification accuracies were 84 ± 4%, 87± 4%, and 85 ± 3% for cerebral palsy, amputation, and stroke participants. In conclusion, ErrPs can be detected in participants with motor impairments; this may have implications for developing adaptive BCIs or automatic error correction.
Recreational travel behavior and COVID-19: Insights from expected utility and the theory of planned behavior

Understanding what factors play a role in people’s decisions to travel during a pandemic is important to public health officials and to stakeholders in the travel and tourism industry in the United States (US) and worldwide. This study examines factors influencing people’s decisions to cancel/postpone recreational travel within the US amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Our conceptual framework extends the Expected Utility model, commonly used in economics to model decisions under risk and uncertainty, to incorporate subjective norms and perceived behavioral control from the Theory of Planned Behavior. Our results suggest that risk perceptions, subjective norms, and concerns over transmitting COVID-19 to others play a significant role in the decision to cancel and postpone recreational travel. Results also suggest that perceived behavioral control may be less relevant to travel decisions when traveling involves elevated health risks.
ATP-Activated P2X7R Promote the Attack of Acute Gouty Arthritis in Rats Through Activating NLRP3 Inflammasome and Inflammatory Cytokine Production

Objective To investigate the effect of P2X7R on MSU crystal-induced acute gouty arthritis in rats and its mechanism on inflammatory responses. Methods In vivo activation or inhibition of P2X7R was examined in the ATP group or the BBG group of rats, and the control group were injected with PBS. All three groups of rats were injected with MSU in the right joint cavity. The development of acute gouty arthritis was observed and evaluated at 6h, 12h, 24h, 48h and 72h. The clinical manifestations of acute arthritis, the expression level of P2X7R in spleen macrophages, the ability of macrophages to take up YO-PRO-1, and the level of Tregs, Th17 cells and inflammatory cytokines were assessed. Besides, mRNA expression levels of P2X7R, NLRP3 and IL-1β were also detected. Results After 12h and 24h administration, P2X7R agonist ATP significantly accelerated the development of acute gouty arthritis, while the P2X7R inhibitor BBG had the opposite effect on this process. Activation of P2X7R significantly aggravated the ankle joint arthritis of the rat and promoted the infiltration of neutrophils and macrophages in the synovial tissue. In addition, the expression of P2X7R in macrophages of ATP group, the uptake of YO-PRO-1 and the expression of NLRP3 mRNA were significantly higher than that in other two groups. At 12h or 24h, activation or inhibition P2X7R had a significant effect on the IL-1β, IL-6, IL-17, IL-10 and TGF-β1. The ratios of Treg/Th17 gradually decreased in the First three time points, it was the lowest at 24h. Conclusion Activation of P2X7R by ATP aggravated the development of acute gouty arthritis through P2X7R/NLRP3 pathway, promoted the secretion of related inflammatory cytokines, which affected radio of Tregs/Th17 cells. The whole pathogenesis process appeared a pattern from acute attack to remission in time-dependent trend.
Image fusion method using non-subsampled shearlet transform and fuzzy and simple fuzzy neural network algorithms

The methodology of combining two or more relevant images into a single highly informative image is referred to as image fusion. A new fusion methodology is introduced for combining images obtained from multiple cameras using non-subsampled shearlet transform (NSST), fuzzy logic and a simple fuzzy neural network (SFNN). The shearlet transform combines the power of multi-scale methods with a unique ability to capture the geometry of multi-dimensional information and is efficient in representing images containing edges. The unique characteristic of shearlets is the utilization of shearing to control directional selectivity, as opposed to rotation utilized by curvelets. The shearlets are not tight edges and therefore it is necessary to perform the synthesis process by iterative methods. A new method, NSST, is introduced for multi-resolution decomposition of input images is introduced. The pixel-based fusion is performed by using fuzzy logic of NSST low-pass coefficients to generate superior quality. The region-based technique is performed by using the SFNN of NSST high-frequency directional coefficients. The SFNN exquisite the set of exemplar input feature vectors and centers a Gaussian function on each remaining one and saves its output label.
Recasting trust and distrust in the boardroom

Purpose This study aims to analyse trust and distrust as specific board processes between the board chair and chief executive officer (CEO) aimed at reducing corporate governance (CG) risk partially mitigated by regnant CG mechanisms. This study incorporates the nascent literature that posits trust and distrust as two separate constructs that co-exist simultaneously to recasts them in the CG domain. Design/methodology/approach This paper analysed data from 20 in-depth interviews conducted with board representatives at four financial services firms in The Netherlands, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Findings This paper found that the foundational bases of the chair–CEO relationship determine how trust and distrust are apportioned between them, which impacts board dynamics. This paper also confirmed that the constructs of trust and distrust are separate thus do not sit at opposite ends of a single continuum. Finally, this paper found that high levels of task-based distrust (as opposed to mistrust) are necessary during periods of organisational distress and more effective if there are also high levels of relational trust between the parties. Originality/value This paper empirically examines the relationship between trust and distrust in CEO–chair dyadic relationships in multiple companies across multiple countries. This paper also introduces the concept of tempered trust, which is defined as interpersonal trust tempered by task-based distrust, recasting the traditional characterisation of trust and distrust in the CG domain, thereby making a useful contribution to the literature on board dynamics.
Cooperative Work in Virtual Environment with Force Feed-back

When we work in virtual space, we need input device for measuring spatial motion of a human hand. In this research, we use force display for input device which generates reaction force from virtual object. We developed an operation system of virtual space. The system supports easy construction of virtual environment. Using this system, we developed a program that enables two users to work simultaneously in the same virtual environment. Through experiments of deformation of virtual objects, effectiveness of cooperative work in virtual space is tested.
An efficient intrusion detection framework based on embedding feature selection and ensemble learning technique

Network security has emerged as a crucial universal issue that affects enterprises, governments, and individuals. The strategies utilized by the attackers are continuing to evolve, and therefore the rate of attacks targeting the network system has expanded dramatically. An Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is one of the significant defense solutions against sophisticated cyberattacks. However, the challenge of improving the accuracy, detection rate, and minimal false alarms of the IDS continues. This paper proposes a robust and effective intrusion detection framework based on the ensemble learning technique using eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) and an embedded feature selection method. Further, the best uniform feature subset is extracted using the up-to-date real-world intrusion dataset Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity Intrusion Detection (CICIDS2017) for all attacks. The proposed IDS framework has successfully exceeded several evaluations on a big test dataset over both multi and binary classification. The achieved results are promising on various measurements with an accuracy overall, precision, detection rate, specificity, F-score, false-negative rate, false-positive rate, error rate, and The Area Under the Curve (AUC) scores of 99.86%, 99.69%, 99.75%, 99.69%, 99.72%, 0.17%, 0.2%, 0.14%, and 99.72 respectively for abnormal class. Moreover, the achieved results of multi-classification are also remarkable and impressively great on all performance metrics.
V5 and GFP Tagging of Viral Gene pp38 of Marek’s Disease Vaccine Strain CVI988 Using CRISPR/Cas9 Editing

Marek’s disease virus (MDV) is a member of alphaherpesviruses associated with Marek’s disease, a highly contagious neoplastic disease in chickens. The availability of the complete sequence of the viral genome allowed for the identification of major genes associated with pathogenicity using different techniques, such as bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) mutagenesis and the recent powerful clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9)-based editing system. Thus far, most studies on MDV genome editing using the CRISPR/Cas9 system have focused on gene deletion. However, analysis of the expression and interactions of the viral proteins during virus replication in infected cells and tumor cells is also important for studying its role in MDV pathogenesis. The unavailability of antibodies against most of the MDV proteins has hindered the progress in such studies. This prompted us to develop pipelines to tag MDV genes as an alternative method for this purpose. Here we describe the application of CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing approaches to tag the phosphoprotein 38 (pp38) gene of the MDV vaccine strain CVI988 with both V5 and green fluorescent protein (GFP). This rapid and efficient viral-gene-tagging technique can overcome the shortage of specific antibodies and speed up the MDV gene function studies significantly, leading to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of MDV pathogenesis.
Rex Shunt for Extra-Hepatic Portal Venous Obstruction in Children

Rex shunt, which was first put in use in 1992, has been considered as an ideal surgical method for the treatment of extra-hepatic portal venous obstruction (EHPVO) due to its reconstruction of the hepatopetal portal blood flow. However, despite its long tradition, there are only a few reports about the application and advances in Rex shunt for the treatment of EHPVO in children. In this paper, we summarized the literature related to Rex shunt and discussed the new advances of Rex shunt in the following aspects: surgical method of Rex shunt, the indications of Rex shunt, the strengths of Rex shunt, the effectiveness of Rex shunt, factors affecting the efficacy of Rex shunt, methods that improve the prognosis of Rex shunt, and treatment strategy for recurrence after Rex shunt.
Contributions of mean temperature and temperature variation to population stability and community diversity

Abstract Future climate changes are predicted to not only increase global temperatures but also alter temporal variation in temperature. As thermal tolerances form an important component of a species’ niche, changes to the temperature regime have the capacity to negatively impact species, and therefore, the diversity of the communities they inhabit. In this study, we used protist microcosms to assess how mean temperature, as well as temporal variation in temperature, affected diversity. Communities consisted of seven species in a multitrophic food web. Each ecosystem was inoculated with the same abundances of each species at the start of the experiment, and species densities, Hill's numbers (based on Shannon diversity), the number of extinctions, and the probability the microcosm contained predators were all calculated at the end of the experiment. To assess how mean temperature and temperature fluctuations affect stability, we also measured population densities through time. We found that increased temporal variation in temperature increased final densities, increased Hill's numbers (at low mean temperatures), decreased rates of extinctions, and increased the probability that predators survived till the end of the experiment. Mean temperatures did not significantly affect either the number of extinctions or the probability of predators, but did reduce the positive effect of increased temporal variation in temperature on overall diversity. Our results indicate that climatic changes have the potential to impact the composition of ecological communities by altering multiple components of temperature regimes. However, given that some climate forecasts are predicting increased mean temperatures and reduced variability, our finding that increased mean temperature and reduced temporal variation are both generally associated with negative consequences is somewhat concerning.
Post-Deployment Difficulties and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Symptoms among Married Ghanaian Army Personnel. The Moderating Role of Post-Deployment Social Support

Abstract Transiting from deployment to live at home can have a profound influence on the psychological health of soldiers with regard to the occurrence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, the level of social support received from family and friends upon returning can help moderate the strength of this relationship. Little is known about these concepts within the Ghanaian context; therefore, the present study assessed the relationship between post-deployment difficulties and the occurrence of PTSD symptoms among married Ghanaian army soldiers at home as well as the moderating role of social support. 92 army personnel in the Ghana Armed Forces were purposively sampled to participate in the study. A quantitative research design was employed and survey questionnaires were used to collect data. Primary analysis of data was done using hierarchical multiple regression. Findings from the study indicate that military post-deployment difficulties in Ghana have a positive correlation with personnel’s PTSD symptoms. In addition, social support received from family and friends upon returning from deployment did not moderate the relationship between post-deployment difficulties and military personnel’s experience of PTSD symptoms. The need to adopt and/or develop transition programs in Ghana should be considered in managing their experience of PTSD symptoms during post-deployment.