Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A New Steganography Method for Hiding Text into RGB Image

—Now-a-days, the network has significant roles in transferring data and knowledge quickly and accurately from sender to receiver. However, the data is still not secure enough to transfer quite confidentially. Data protection is considered as one of the principal challenges in information sharing over communication. So, steganography techniques were proposed which are the art of hiding information that prevents secret text message detection from intruders. Nevertheless, most steganography methods use low bits number of secret messages. Moreover, these methods applied a single logic gate for encrypting the secret message. Therefore, this paper proposes a new method for the encryption of secret messages based on the Huffman technique to reduce the secret message dimensions. In addition, the proposed method uses two different logic gates namely XOR and XNOR for increasing the message security. The RGB Lena image is used as the cover image of the secret message. There are six different experiments conducted with respect to various lengths of the secret messages in bits. The experimental results show that when using the highest number of bits (i.e., 66288), the proposed method achieved 0.0233 MSE, 64.4589 PSNR, 0.9999998 SSIM, and 8.2383 encryption time. The proposed method has the ability to encrypt the secret message with a high number of bits.
Targeted Sensitization of Glioblastoma Multiforme Using AAAPT Technology

Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is the most malignant type of all brain tumors. Current GBM treatment options include surgery, followed by radiation and chemotherapy. However, GBM can become resistant to therapy, resulting in tumor recurrence. GBM cells develop resistance to treatments by either downregulating cell death pathways (CD95) or upregulating cell survival pathways (NF-κB (p65)). Healthy tissues can be affected by the increased therapeutic dose. Therefore, it is important to develop a method that can only target GBM tumor cells, thereby reducing the non-specific uptake which will reduce the side effects. Here we demonstrate an application of novel priori activation of apoptosis pathways of tumor technology (AAAPT), which has been used to demonstrate the effect of targeted tumor sensitizers to make chemotherapy work at lower doses in breast, lung and prostate cancers. Treatment of GBM spheroids with AAAPT in 3D PEGDA microwells, showed an increase in cell death, an upregulation of cell death pathways, and a downregulation of cell survival pathways, in comparison to Temozolomide (TMZ), an oral alkylating agent, which is a commonly used chemotherapy in the treatment of GBM. The dose of AAAPT sensitizers may provide a promising method to increase treatment efficacy and reduce off-target toxicity, as an alternative to existing methods which cause significant off-target damage.
Modeling an endangered species in an urban landscape: fountain darter (Etheostoma fonticola) survival in the Upper San Marcos River, Hays County, Texas

Modeling an Endangered Species in an Urban Landscape: Fountain Darter (Etheostoma fonticola) Survival in the Upper San Marcos River, Hays County, Texas. (May 2009) Leann Irene Wilkins, B.S., University of Miami Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee, Dr. William Grant Dr. Miguel Mora To accommodate for human population growth along the Texas I-35 corridor, land is becoming increasingly urban and decreasingly pervious, modifying the infiltration and runoff rates in the Edwards Aquifer, especially to its spring fed Upper San Marcos River (USMR). Contaminants like heavy metals and organic chemicals can accumulate on impervious surfaces and with runoff, enter into the USMR at potentially harmful levels. The objective of this study was to determine how the population of an endangered Edwards Aquifer species, the fountain darter (Etheostoma fonticola), might respond to potential water quality changes associated with urbanization. I developed a stochastic, sex and stage-structured population dynamics simulation model that represents the relationships between urbanization, springflow variations, contamination levels, and natural history of the fountain darter. Future fountain darter population trends (2008–2040) were simulated under 10 treatments of nine scenarios. A simulation scenario (n=50) corresponded to one of three variations of springflow (random, high and low flow) and one of three variations in percentage of runoff entering the river (100, 50 or 30). The 10 treatments were variations on water quality: uncontaminated (1), contaminated by Cu (2), Zn (3), Cd (4), Cr (5), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) (7), bifenthrin (8), carbaryl (9) and dicamba (10) and an additive affect of Cu, Cr, Cd, and Zn (6). Simulating ideal conditions, the average darter population from 2008-2040 was 54155+2969 (mean+SE) individuals. Contaminant treatments that caused a significant
Engineered living materials for the conversion of a low-cost food-grade precursor to a high-value flavonoid

Microbial biofactories allow the upscaled production of high-value compounds in biotechnological processes. This is particularly advantageous for compounds like flavonoids that promote better health through their antioxidant, anti-bacterial, anti-cancer and other beneficial effects but are produced in small quantities in their natural plant-based hosts. Bacteria like E. coli have been genetically modified with enzyme cascades to produce flavonoids like naringenin and pinocembrin from coumaric or cinnamic acid. Despite advancements in yield optimization, the production of these compounds still involves high costs associated with their biosynthesis, purification, storage and transport. An alternative production strategy could involve the direct delivery of the microbial biofactories to the body. In such a strategy, ensuring biocontainment of the engineered microbes in the body and controlling production rates are major challenges. In this study, these two aspects are addressed by developing engineered living materials (ELMs) consisting of probiotic microbial biofactories encapsulated in biocompatible hydrogels. Engineered probiotic E. coli Nissle 1917 able to efficiently convert cinnamic acid into pinocembrin were encapsulated in poly(vinyl alcohol)-based hydrogels. The biofactories are contained in the hydrogels for a month and remain metabolically active during this time. Control over production levels is achieved by the containment inside the material, which regulates bacteria growth, and by the amount of cinnamic acid in the medium.
Unsupervised Satellite Video Deep Intrinsic Decomposition Using Physical Prior Constraints

Satellite video intrinsic decomposition has emerged as a promising area of research with significant application potential. However, existing methods still have certain limitations that hinder their effectiveness in extracting high-quality intrinsic information from complex scenes, ensuring temporal stability of the reflectance component, and achieving computational efficiency. In this article, an unsupervised satellite video intrinsic decomposition network (USVIDNet) is proposed, which overcomes the limitations encountered by existing methods. The USVIDNet incorporates three loss functions based on physical priors: reconstruction loss, chromaticity consistency loss, and spatiotemporal reflectance similarity loss, which provide constraints to guide the intrinsic decomposition process, eliminating the dependence on ground-truth intrinsic images required for supervised learning. The network is based on a U-Net architecture variant, consisting of an encoder and two decoders. The encoder captures essential features of the input satellite video, while the decoders focus on predicting two components: reflectance and shading. To enhance the processing efficiency of intrinsic decomposition, a novel initialization-decomposition mode is proposed by leveraging the invariant background characteristics of staring satellites. Experiments are conducted on six Jilin-1 satellite videos to assess the performance of the proposed method in terms of intrinsic component extraction and improved ability of satellite video applications. The experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method.
Waste-Wood-Isolated Cellulose-Based Activated Carbon Paper Electrodes with Graphene Nanoplatelets for Flexible Supercapacitors

Waste wood, which has a large amount of cellulose fibers, should be transformed into useful materials for addressing environmental and resource problems. Thus, this study analyzed the application of waste wood as supercapacitor electrode material. First, cellulose fibers were extracted from waste wood and mixed with different contents of graphene nanoplatelets (GnPs) in water. Using a facile filtration method, cellulose papers with GnPs were prepared and converted into carbon papers through carbonization and then to porous activated carbon papers containing GnPs (ACP−GnP) through chemical activation processes. For the morphology of ACP−GnP, activated carbon fibers with abundant pores were formed. The increase in the amount of GnPs attached to the fiber surfaces decreased the number of pores. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface areas and specific capacitance of the ACP−GnP electrodes decreased with an increase in the GnP content. However, the galvanostatic charge–discharge curves of ACPs with higher GnP contents gradually changed into triangular and linear shapes, which are associated with the capacitive performance. For example, ACP with 15 wt% GnP had a low mass transfer resistance and high charge delivery of ions, resulting in the specific capacitance value of 267 Fg−1 owing to micropore and mesopore formation during the activation of carbon paper.
Load Balancing for Integrated Access and Backhaul in mmWave Small Cells

In this paper, we propose a load-balancing algorithm for small-cell integrated access and backhaul (IAB) networks operating in the millimeter wave (mmWave) band. With the help of mmWave communications, ultra-dense small cell deployment is a key technology for future networks, but it leads to high fiber installation costs. IAB has emerged as a cost-effective and flexible solution because it uses the multi-hop wireless backhaul to the core network via macro base stations (BSs). Multi-hop transmission and spectrum sharing between access and backhaul links cause an unbalanced load across BSs under IAB. To tackle the unbalanced load problem, we propose a graph-based load balancing algorithm for IAB by estimating and adapting to network load status. The weight of the graph is represented as the cost of the link between two BSs and is defined to reflect the cell load and link capacity. The proposed algorithm estimates the upcoming load and adjusts the network transmission schedule to balance the load inside the network. Through simulations, performance is evaluated in various environments. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm not only distributes the load across small cells more evenly but also increases network throughput by 22.3% and 32.1% with 16.3% and 28.7% higher in UEs satisfaction when compared to MaxMinThroughput and Backpressure algorithms.
Isolation, Identification and Risk Factors of Staphylococcus aureus Bacteria in Dairy Goat Milk with Subclinical Mastitis in Siliragung District, Banyuwangi Regency

Mastitis is an inflammation of the mammary glands that can cause a sharp reduction in milk production and income for farmers. Subclinical mastitis is mastitis without clinical symptoms but can result in a decrease in the quantity and quality of milk production. One of the main pathogens that cause mastitis namely Staphyloccocus aureus. S. aureus become the biggest problem of mastitis because the cure rate is classified as very low. The risk factors for the occurrence of mastitis, both clinical and subclinical mastitis, can cause a decrease in milk production caused by several factors, including genetic, feed and environmental factors. This study aims to determine the presence of subclinical mastitis in milk of dairy goats with sufferers in Siliragung District, Banyuwangi Regency. Sample testing was carried out at the SIKIA Instrument Laboratory, Airlangga University. Isolation was carried out using MSA (Mannitol Salt Agar) media for further identification consisting of Gram staining and biochemical tests. Some of the biochemical tests used are the catalase test, the coagulase test and the VP test. The results of isolation, observation of characteristics and identification of bacteria in the research that has been carried out show that 64.51% (40/62) of the samples examined were positively identified S. aureus. Results showed that the risk factors for causing subclinical mastitis included cleaning the cage, the number of lactating goats, washing hands before milking, manure and waste management, weaning age and lactation age.
Examining the Mindsets of Primary School Teachers and University Students from Literacy Volunteer Community

The importance of implementing a growth mindset in the education sector has called for all actors to develop growth mindset. This study investigated the mindsets of primary school teachers and university students from the Literacy Volunteer Community in Sumbawa Regency (West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia) prior to the teaching of growth mindset. A descriptive quantitative approach was used, with an online survey to assess participants' familiarity with the concepts of growth and fixed mindsets, their mindset level, and their views regarding growth mindset and fixed mindset attributes. The findings showed that more than half of the volunteers (55%) were not well-familiarized with the mindsets' concepts and (52%) had a mixed mindset with a fixed mindset orientation. The mixed mindset results reveal a complex view of the volunteers on the mindsets' attributes. The implications of these findings suggest that there is a need for more training on growth mindset for actors across the education sector to promote better learning and academic achievement among students.
Identificação de período e direção de ondas monocromáticas através do processamento de imagens ópticas

A new methodology to estimate the period and direction of monochromatic surface gravity waves is presented based on the processing of a sequence of images. The analysis focuses on the spatial-temporal variability of brightness on the image plane. One camera only is employed to record the water surface. The main motive is to come up with a simplified and practical configuration which allows its operational implementation either on the laboratory or on oil platforms or on top of buildings. The promising results correspond to experiments in a monochromatic wave tank. The image processing technique has proven to be a valuable tool for wave measurements.
An Approach for Mining Imbalanced Datasets Combining Specialized Oversampling and Undersampling Methods

The paper proposes an approach for mining imbalanced datasets combining specialized oversampling and undersampling methods. The oversampling part produces a set of non-dominated synthetic examples using two, possibly conflicting, criteria including classification potential and the distance from the borderline between minority and majority distances. The undersampling part is used to remove from the majority class examples that are likely to cause mistakes and disturbances in the process of mining. To validate the approach an extensive computational experiment has been carried. Performance of the proposed approach has been compared with that of several leading algorithms proposed for balancing minority and majority datasets. To assure fairness of comparisons a singular learner based on Gene Expression Programming (GEP) has been used in all cases. Experiment results confirmed that the proposed approach outperforms other methods investigated in the experiment.
Implications and Ways to Enhance Nutrient Use Efficiency Under Changing Climate

Introduction of fertilizer and fertilizer responsive crop varieties paved way for green revolution and it was responsible for doubling the crop production to meet the food grain needs of ever growing global population. Over the four decades reduced use of organic manure and injudicious use of inorganic fertilizer led to declining trend of organic carbon and pose serious global warming threats to the environment as well as mankind. Among the mineral fertilizer, nitrogen fertilizer occupies a major share in the global scenario in terms of production and application, it is the important crop responsive fertilizer at the same time overdose and improper application may cause N2O emission and NO3 contamination in groundwater. Phosphorus and potassium fertilizers are applied in large quantity next to nitrogen. Continuous use of primary nutrients and negligence of secondary (Ca, Mg and S) and micronutrients (Fe, Zn, B, Cu, Mn and Mo) application exposed severe multi-nutrient defi ciency in the soil. Changing climate highly infl uence the crop phenology, physiology, root morphology and uptake mechanism. Th erefore it is inevitable to understand the climate change mediated changes in soil nutrient availability and plant nutrient uptake in diff erent ecosystem. In the past two decades decreasing trend of nutrients utilization effi ciency and defi ciency of micronutrients rendered the land barren under changing climate. But direct impact of climate change on nutrient availability and uptake mechanism has not been understood. In this context, developing or modifying the management strategies to enhance the use effi ciency of applied nutrients is of paramount importance. Climate smart management techniques such as appropriate timing of nutrient application, using effi cient irrigation practices, converting to nitrogen-fi xing plants as cover crops and crop rotation. Employing advanced fertilization techniques such as controlled-release fertilizers and nitrifi cation inhibitors enhances crop productivity in sustainable manner. All these management techniques need to be tested through diff erent quantitative measures of nutrient use effi ciency of crops under diff erent soil conditions. Development of smart fertilizer delivery system for all the crops in diff erent cropping system needs to be explored. Tailoring of higher nutrient use effi ciency cultivars of diff erent crops should to be accelerated using advanced breeding techniques to mitigate adverse infl uence of climate change on crop productivity improvement.
Design and Experimental Results of a W-Band Gyro-TWA With the Widest Bandwidth

This letter presents the design and experimental results of a 152-kW W-band gyrotron travelling-wave amplifier (gyro-TWA) that boasts an enhanced 3-dB instantaneous bandwidth ranging from 8.8 GHz to 12.5 GHz, and 1-dB bandwidth from 7.0 GHz to 11.5 GHz. This was achieved by powering the gyro-TWA with a 60 kV, 11 A electron beam. The amplifier demonstrates an output power exceeding 120 kW and an interaction efficiency above 19.1% within 89.8-101.3 GHz. This performance improvement was made possible by using a curved-profile circuit that matches with the gyrotron solenoid across a wide frequency band. The theoretical predictions, particle-in-cell simulations and experimental results are compared and found to be in good agreement.
Exploring Antimicrobial Resistance Profiles of E. coli Isolates in Dairy Cattle: A Baseline Study across Dairy Farms with Varied Husbandry Practices in Puerto Rico

Antimicrobial treatment in livestock can contribute to the emergence and spread of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) microorganisms. Despite substantial surveillance of AMR bacteria in the continental United States, the prevalence of these AMR organisms in U.S. territories, such as Puerto Rico, remains understudied. The goals of this research included obtaining baseline data on the antimicrobial profile of E. coli isolates from Puerto Rico dairy farms with different husbandry practices. Seventy-nine fecal samples were collected from two types of conventional dairy farms: those that fed calves with tank milk and those that fed calves with waste milk. These samples were collected from the animals’ rectums, culture, and subsequently confirmed through biochemical tests. Out of these samples, 32 isolates were analyzed phenotypically and genotypically to elucidate their AMR profiles. The results underscore a discrepancy in the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance genes between calves and adult cattle. Notably, waste milk-fed calves exhibited a significantly higher prevalence of antibiotic-resistant E. coli when compared to their tank milk-fed counterparts. These disparities emphasize the need for more comprehensive investigations to determine causative factors. These results underscore the urgency of comprehensive strategies to raise awareness about how management practices influence antimicrobial resistance, shifting the focus from treatment to prevention.
Performance of the Different Farima Models Adjusted to the Hydrological Contributions to the Dams

In this work are identified, estimate and compare three FARIMA models for the time series formed by the water inflows to the dams in Uruguay. In the first model we estimated first the long memory parameter and then applying fractional differentiation an ARMA model is fitted by maximum likelihood. In the second model we first make a choice of the p and q parameters, and then the FARIMA parameters are estimated by the Whittle method. In the third model the original data were transformed by using the Gaussian distribution, and then estimated a FARIMA model by Whittle method. Finally, by simulations is shown that the third model turned out to be the best fit, considering the autocorrelation function, weekly averages, estimated density of the data set and the intensity curves, which will be defined in the work.
Symmetric and Asymmetric Effects of Exchange Rate Changes on Stock Prices in Fragile Five Economies: Analysis of the Global Crisis and Pandemic Period

This study examined the symmetric and asymmetric effects of exchange rate changes on stock prices in the economies of India, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa, and Turkey, collectively known as the "Fragile Five" due to their similar economic dynamics in light of the global financial crisis and pandemic period. The study uses monthly data from July 2000 to July 2022, and panel autoregressive distributive lag and panel nonlinear autoregressive distributive lag models to investigate the effects of exchange rate changes on stock prices in the Fragile Five economies. Prior to the global financial crisis, exchange rate changes have both long- and short-term asymmetric effects on stock prices in the Fragile Five economies. However, after the global financial crisis, exchange rate changes have both short- and long-term asymmetric and symmetric effects. Similarly, exchange rate changes also have asymmetric effects on stock prices during the COVID-19 period.