Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sufficient conditions on finite-time input-to-state stability of nonlinear impulsive systems: a relaxed Lyapunov function method

ABSTRACT This article presents sufficient conditions on Finite-Time Input-to-State Stability (FTISS) of nonlinear impulsive systems, which gathers the analysis of Input-to-State stability (ISS) and finite-time convergence rate. By utilising the Finite-Time Stable Function Pair (FTSFP) and Generalised ( ) function, we established an unified FTISS criterion for nonlinear impulsive systems, in which the impulses maybe beneficial to stabilisation or detrimental to stabilisation. Moreover, a relaxed Lyapunov Function (LF) method is used to investigate FTISS. Compared with the traditional LF method, the main advantage is that the constructed LF is permitted to own indefinite-derivative. As a special case of FTISS, a corollary on Finite-Time Stability (FTS) is established, which is applicable to investigate the realisation of FTS for nonlinear system via impulsive control strategy. Finally, the proposed results are supported by two practical numerical examples.
Relationships Among Forearc Structure, Fault Slip, and Earthquake Magnitude: Numerical Simulations With Applications to the Central Chilean Margin

Two adjacent segments of the Chile margin exhibit significant differences in earthquake magnitude and rupture extents during the 1960 Valdivia and 2010 Maule earthquakes. We use the discrete element method (DEM) to simulate the upper plate as having an inner and outer wedge defined by different frictional domains along the décollement. We find that outer wedge width strongly influences coseismic slip distributions. We use the published peak slip magnitudes to pick best fit slip distributions and compare our models to geophysical constraints on outer wedge widths for the margins. We obtain reasonable fits to published slip distributions for the 2010 Maule rupture. Our best‐fit slip distribution for the 1960 Valdivia earthquake suggests that peak slip occurred close to the trench, differing from published models but being supported by new seismic interpretations along this margin. Finally, we also demonstrate that frictional conditions beneath the outer wedge can affect the coseismic slip distributions.
Adherence to DASH Dietary Pattern and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome: A Case-control Study

Objective: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) as one of the endocrine and metabolic abnormalities is prevalent in reproductive-aged women. This study aimed to investigate the relevance between adherence to the DASH diet and PCOS.Results: This is an age and BMI-matched case-control study including (n=108) new diagnosis PCOS women as a case group and women without PCOS as a control group (n=108). Also, the validated 168-item food frequency questionnaire was used to determine the usual dietary intake. The method of Fung et al. was used to calculate the DASH score. Moreover, logistic regression was assessed to evaluate the relationship between adherence to the DASH diet and the odds of PCOS. After adjustment for potential confounders, an increase in adherence to the DASH diet significantly reduced the odds of PCOS (OR for the highest vs. lowest quartile = 0.18; 95% CI 0.07, 0.47). There was a significant decreasing trend in the odds of PCOS across increasing quintiles of the DASH diet (p-trend <0.001). The results showed that adherence to the DASH diet could reduce the odds of PCOS by 82 percent. It’s worth noting that more prospective studies are required to confirm the findings of the current study.
In-Silico Studies of Antitumor Activity From Red Ginger (Alpinia purpurata Vieill) Bioactive Compounds

Many plants from the genus Alpinia are known to have several bioactive compounds that can act as an antitumor in cancer treatments. However, the potency of the bioactive compounds from red ginger as an antitumor agent has not been reported before. This research aims to study the inhibitory activity of several red ginger bioactive compounds against antitumor AKT1 protein through in-silico analysis. In this study, four identified bioactive compounds namely rutin, sitosteryl 3-O-6-palmytoil-β-d-glucoside, kumatakenin, kaempferol-3-o-glucuronide were used as a ligand for molecular interactions. The 3D structure of targetted protein AKT1 (PDB ID: 3O96) was obtained from the PDB database. [6]-shogaol, an antiproliferative and AKT1 inhibitor, was used as a control. In-silico docking analysis is performed in PyRx with the AutoDock Vina program. All bioactive compounds used in this experiment demonstrated good antitumor activity by binding to the inhibitor site of AKT1 protein. Rutin displayed the best potency as an inhibitor to AKT1 with the optimum binding energy of 11,3 kcal/mol as compared to control with -7,4 kcal/mol. These results suggest that bioactive compounds from red ginger may have the potency as an antitumor and can be developed to treat cancer.
Neo-rural small entrepreneurs’ motivations and challenges in Portugal’s low density regions

Purpose This study sought to fill a gap in the literature by examining the dynamics of neo-rural small entrepreneurs’ business activities as little research has been done on these individuals. The research was conducted in three of Portugal’s low density territories (i.e. Miranda do Douro, Penamacor and Aljezur), focusing on understanding these outsider entrepreneurs’ main motivations and challenges after they decide to leave the city to settle in rural areas and become small business owners. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected in semi-structured interviews with 26 neo-rural entrepreneurs. The multiple-case study method was applied to assess the differences and similarities between the interviewees and their respective contexts. NVivo 11.0 software was used to conduct content analysis. Findings The results reveal that rural environments appear to attract these new entrepreneurs for various reasons, such as taking advantage of business opportunities, searching for a better quality of life and responding to family needs. The multiple motives contributing to the need for change and entrepreneurship fit well within social cognitive theory. However, these individuals subsequently experience difficulties related mainly to a lack of infrastructure, little preexisting knowledge, a need for financial capital and the absence of the right workforce. Originality/value The findings on the experiences, difficulties and challenges of neo-rural entrepreneurs constitute new contributions because few existing studies have concentrated on migration and/or immigration entrepreneurship in rural contexts. The results can serve as a starting point for other similar studies.
Costos Educativos del Covid 19 con y sin Optimización de Presencialidad: una estimación del caso de República Dominicana

Se formula y se aplica un modelo que permite cuantificar las pérdidas del cierre escolar inducido por la pandemia del Covid 19 en dos escenarios, partiendo del mismo nivel de ganancia de aprendizaje esperado en un año escolar normal. En el primero, el porcentaje de no presencialidad es sustituido en cien por ciento por la educación a distancia, y en el segundo se utiliza el modelo que minimiza el costo educativo pandémico total, representado por los costos del contagio de la presencialidad y los costos de las pérdidas de aprendizajes de los distintos medios no presenciales. La metodología aplicada en el primer escenario se asume un cierre equivalente al 80 % del tiempo del año escolar, y un efecto adicional de ausencia escolar por pérdidas de ingresos de los hogares de los alumnos. En el segundo escenario se calcula la combinación óptima de presencialidad y no presencialidad, y luego se repiten los cálculos de las pérdidas de aprendizaje. Cuando se considera el promedio del valor de las pérdidas de aprendizajes de las cinco opciones no presenciales, calculado en el escenario sin combinación óptima, y se repite dicho cálculo para el caso de dicha combinación, se concluye que usando esta última, las autoridades educativas hubiesen evitado unas pérdidas de aprendizaje equivalente al 3.89 % del PIB.
Estimating the Preservation Value of Wuyishan National Park from the Perspective of Bounded Rational Decision Making

Simplifying and popularizing the preservation values (valuation methods) of national parks—based on the premise of accuracy—shows stakeholders the importance of national parks, and is the basis for exploring sustainable use and development mechanisms. However, there are hypotheses biases, strategic biases, and starting point biases in regards to the existing evaluation methods. Therefore, based on the results of the contingent valuation method of research, under bounded rationality, this study uses the two-stage dichotomous choice contingent valuation and selects three methods to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) for preservation at Wuyishan National Park. The results support that the two-stage contingent valuation method could effectively evade uncertainty with a “willingness to pay” decision making under bounded rationality, and factually reflect the real WTP. The results show that: (1) the average willingness to pay (truncated) of each household in Wuyishan National Park is CNY 609 (USD 93.90), which is similar to the actual average tourism expenditure of each household. (2) The cultural worldviews and perceived restorative environment have significant impacts on willingness to pay. (3) Comparing the preservation value of Wuyishan National Park with the actual financial input plays a positive role in manifesting the importance of Wuyishan National Park and attracting more financial input. The preservation value of Wuyishan National Park in the key market is about six times that of the basic market and one-third of that in the national market, which provides a theoretical basis for selecting the key tourism development market of Wuyishan National Park. (4) Those respondents believe that more funds should be put into protecting the national parks for their sustainable existence and bequeathing to future generations, which shows that the construction of the national park system is significant in improving natural values. This study attempted to provide theoretical support for improving non-market value and sustainable development of national parks.
Toward False Event Detection and Quarry Blast versus Earthquake Discrimination in an Operational Setting Using Semiautomated Machine Learning

Small-magnitude earthquakes shed light on the spatial and magnitude distribution of natural seismicity, as well as its rate and occurrence, especially in stable continental regions where natural seismicity remains difficult to explain under slow strain-rate conditions. However, capturing them in catalogs is strongly hindered by signal-to-noise ratio issues, resulting in high rates of false and man-made events also being detected. Accurate and robust discrimination of these events is critical for optimally detecting small earthquakes. This requires uncovering recurrent salient features that can rapidly distinguish first false events from real events, then earthquakes from man-made events (mainly quarry blasts), despite high signal variability and noise content. In this study, we combined the complementary strengths of human and interpretable rule-based machine-learning algorithms for solving this classification problem. We used human expert knowledge to co-create two reliable machine-learning classifiers through human-assisted selection of classification features and review of events with uncertain classifier predictions. The two classifiers are integrated into the SeisComP3 operational monitoring system. The first one discards false events from the set of events obtained with a low short-term average/long-term average threshold; the second one labels the remaining events as either earthquakes or quarry blasts. When run in an operational setting, the first classifier correctly detected more than 99% of false events and just over 93% of earthquakes; the second classifier correctly labeled 95% of quarry blasts and 96% of earthquakes. After a manual review of the second classifier low-confidence outputs, the final catalog contained fewer than 2% of misclassified events. These results confirm that machine learning strengthens the quality of earthquake catalogs and that the performance of machine-learning classifiers can be improved through human expertise. Our study promotes a broader implication of hybrid intelligence monitoring within seismological observatories.
Advances in the study of cancer metastasis and calcium signaling as potential therapeutic targets

Metastasis is still the primary cause of cancer-related mortality. However, the underlying mechanisms of cancer metastasis are not yet fully understood. Currently, the epithelial-mesenchymal transition, metabolic remodeling, cancer cell intercommunication and the tumor microenvironment including diverse stromal cells, are reported to affect the metastatic process of cancer cells. Calcium ions (Ca2+) are ubiquitous second messengers that manipulate cancer metastasis by affecting signaling pathways. Diverse transporter/pump/channel-mediated Ca2+ currents form Ca2+ oscillations that can be decoded by Ca2+-binding proteins, which are promising prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets of cancer metastasis. This paper presents a review of the advances in research on the mechanisms underlying cancer metastasis and the roles of Ca2+-related signals in these events.
Strategies for enhancing self-regulation in e-learning: a review of selected journal publications from 2010 to 2020

ABSTRACT Researchers have pointed out the important role of self-regulation in learning. The self-regulated learning (SRL) process consists of three stages (i.e. forethought, performance, and self-reflection), each of which could involve different strategies for achieving the aim of SRL. To enable researchers and teachers to have a whole picture of how each strategy could be applied, this study analyzed the 2010–2020 publications in seven SSCI journals of e-learning. In addition, the correlation between each SRL strategy and students’ learning performances was analyzed. It was found that, in 58% of the studies, the potential strategies for individual SRL stages were generally ignored. In addition, 40% of the studies did not clearly state how SRL could be applied to practical applications. By referring to those SRL studies reporting the use of the strategies in each stage in specific application domains, it was found that goal setting and planning, which highly related to students’ learning achievement, has been frequently discussed. Nevertheless, some strategies that highly correlated to students’ cognitive performances and affect perceptions, such as environmental structuring, seeking information and rehearsing and memorizing, are often ignored. According to the findings, some suggestions are provided as a reference for researchers to conduct related research.
Diffusion event-triggered sequential asynchronous state estimation algorithm for stochastic multiplicative noise systems

This article focuses on the problem of the diffusion event-triggered sequential asynchronous state estimation for the stochastic multiplicative noise systems. In this paper, we propose a diffusion sequential asynchronous state estimation algorithm for each node to obtain the final estimate. In order to ease the communication burden of the system, we propose a two-stage event-triggered mechanism to avoid the unnecessary information transmissions, and the corresponding state estimation algorithm is derived. The sufficient conditions to guarantee the boundedness of the estimation error of the proposed algorithm are established. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified through its application to a target tracking system.
Unravelling the challenges of the data-based approach to teaching improvement

ABSTRACT The goal of this article is to clarify and unravel the complexity and challenges of improving teaching quality, based on measuring teaching quality and feeding back the results to teachers. We analyze different conceptualizations of teaching quality, and synthesize a framework for conceptualizing teaching quality in educational practice. We explain the pros and cons of four types of instruments for measuring teaching quality. Next, we scrutinize the requirements of effectively feeding back teaching quality data and the requirements for effective actions to improve teaching quality. We conclude with implications for improving the consequential validity of teaching quality measurements.
Toxicity and Bio-Efficacy of Indole-3-Acetic Acid, A Plant Growth Regulator, Against the Greater Wax Moth, Galleria mellonella Linnaeus (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

The greater wax moth Galleria mellonella L. is a dangerous pest for the apiculture industry in the world. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the insecticidal activity of the auxin plant growth regulator, Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), against G. mellonella and its effect on the growth, development, metamorphosis and morphogenesis of this insect pest. The 3rd instar larvae were force-fed on an artificial diet supplemented with six concentrations, viz., 100, 10.0, 1.0, 0.1, 0.01 & 0.001ppm of IAA. The most important results could be summarized as follows. IAA exhibited the strongest acute toxicity on larvae at the higher two concentrations. At other concentrations, various degrees of toxicity on larvae were found in a dose-dependent course. No pupae or adults were produced at the higher two concentrations. IAA failed to display chronic toxicity on the developed pupae. All emerged adults died at 1.00ppm of IAA but no adult mortality was observed at the three lower concentrations. LC50 value was calculated in 0.24 ppm. IAA enhanced the treated larvae to grow with increasing weight gain. Also, it promoted the treated larvae, since the growth rate increased with the increasing concentration. IAA exhibited a retarding effect on the pupation, only at the higher two concentrations. The larval and pupal durations were significantly prolonged, in a dose-dependent manner. On the other hand, IAA failed to disturb the hormonal regulation of the development program, since no intermediate creatures were produced. Also, it failed to disrupt the pupal morphogenesis, since no pupal deformities had been observed.
Properties of Alkali Activated Fly Ash Mortars Effect of NaOH Concentration in Activator Solution and Curing Time

Non-clinker alkali-activated aluminosilicate materials provide an interesting alternative to traditional cement materials. The study described was conducted in order to determine how increasing NaOH concentration in the activator solution affects the physical properties and strength parameters of geopolymer mortar. In the paper the development of strength over time was presented.
Identity recognition on waterways: a novel ship information tracking method based on multimodal data

Abstract Video monitoring is an important means of ship traffic supervision. In practice, regulators often need to use an electronic chart platform to determine basic information concerning ships passing through a video feed. To enrich the information in the surveillance video and to effectively use multimodal maritime data, this paper proposes a novel ship multi-object tracking technology based on improved single shot multibox detector (SSD) and DeepSORT algorithms. In addition, a night contrast enhancement algorithm is used to enhance the ship identification performance in night scenes and a multimodal data fusion algorithm is used to incorporate the ship automatic identification system (AIS) information into the video display. The experimental results indicate that the ship information tracking accuracies in the day and night scenes are 78⋅2% and 70⋅4%, respectively. Our method can effectively help regulators to quickly obtain ship information from a video feed and improve the supervision of a waterway.
Control of Blood Pressure in District Dehradun, India: is Rule of Halves Still Valid?

Background: Hypertension is one of the most important causes for cardiovascular disease (CVD) which poses a major public health challenge. Rule of Halves in hypertension has long been used as a standard referral point for level of awareness, treatment& control of blood pressure in general population considering it to be 50 percent at each level. Aim and Objectives: To validate “Rule of Halves”, for updated teaching to medical and nursing students and formulation of appropriate strategies for prevention and control of Hypertension at community level. Methodology: A cross section survey was conducted covering all households in the randomly selected 30 villages of district Dehradun, Uttarakhand by house-to-house visit. A pre-validated, structured questionnaire was used for capturing data.Hypertension was defined as Systolic Blood pressure -140mmHg or greater &/or Diastolic Blood pressure of 90mm Hg or greater or both or treatment with antihypertensives.Result: Out of 1946 screened, 39 percent (749) were found hypertensive. Out of them, less than half (43.5%) were aware,more than 2/3rd(87.1%) were under treatment and approximately one third were well controlled (36.2%) with given treatment.Age more than 40 years, female gender and self-employment were found significant factors after adjusting the confounding factors for hypertension in binary logistic regression analysis.Conclusion: Hypertension was more among younger age group and females had better control of Hypertension. Awareness regarding hypertensive status is still less than fifty percent, but those who are aware, majority of them are on treatment, but control on given treatment is far from optimal.
Anti‐nutritional compounds in pulses: Implications and alleviation methods

Pulses are a rich source of protein and minerals particularly for the vegetarian and vegan population. However, several anti‐nutritional compounds, such as trypsin inhibitor, phenolic compounds, phytates, cyanogenic compounds, lectins and saponins are also found in the legumes. Most of the anti‐nutritional compounds of the pulses are present in the seed coat. Most of these compounds are sensitive to heat and can be substantially reduced by milling, cooking, germination, fermentation and heat processing. This review paper summarizes anti‐nutritional compounds present in different pulses including their fractions, significance and beneficial and adverse effect on human health. The aim of this paper is to enlighten the readers about the anti‐nutritional compounds present in the pulses and possible processing methods to enhance utilization of pulses.
Sparring dynamics and individual laterality in male South African giraffes

Sparring by male giraffes has been commonly reported since its first description in 1958 and is believed to play a role in establishing male dominance hierarchies. However, despite being often documented, quantitative investigations of sparring behaviour are currently lacking. Here, we investigate the factors affecting the frequency, duration and intensity of sparring bouts in a population of giraffes Giraffa camelopardalis giraffa living on a private fenced reserve in Limpopo, South Africa. We show