Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A NOVEL LOW-PROFILE BROADBAND DIRECT-FEED MM-WAVE ANTENNA ARRAY FOR 5G SMARTPHONE APPLICATIONS

In this paper, a novel low-profile direct feed antenna element is proposed to work across the mm-wave frequency band for 5G smartphone applications. The antenna covers the frequency band from 25 to 32GHz achieving a wide fractional bandwidth of 24.5%. Contrary to most of the previously reported designs, the proposed antenna has a low-profile single-substrate structure and uses a conventional corporate feed. To improve the overall gain, a 16-element antenna array is formed based on the proposed antenna element. The total realized gain of the array is 15 dBi, and its size is 63×10×0.64mm3 which fits inside a smartphone chassis. To validate the idea, a prototype is fabricated and measured. A study is also conducted, through simulations, on the beam steering capabilities of the antenna array using digital phase shifters. Having a simple structure and good performance makes the proposed antenna array an excellent candidate for 5G smartphone applications.
A blockchain-based transaction system with payment statistics and supervision

Due to existing blockchain systems concentrate mainly on privacy protection but lack payment statistics and supervision, we propose a blockchain-based transaction system with payment statistics and supervision. In the system, a payer uses a homomorphic encryption scheme to protect payment amounts. After the transaction is recorded in the blockchain, not only the payee can decrypt the payment amounts and use for future payment, but also the payer can even decrypt it and use for payment statistics. Besides, two supervisors can independently decrypt all users' payment amounts to master the whole economic dynamism and detect illegal transactions. Comparing with existing schemes, our homomorphic scheme only increases a little length of ciphertext, but supports payment amounts decryption by the payer, an additional two receivers. Finally, analyses show that our system is extremely efficient.
Robust Tuning of PI-PD Controller for Antilock Braking System

This paper presents the design of robust four parameters (two degree of freedom) PI-PD controller based on Kharitonov theorem for antilock braking system. The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method is used to tune the parameters of the proposed controller based on Kharitonov theorem to achieve the robustness over a wide range of system parameters change. The proposed cost function combines the time response specifications represented by the model reference and the frequency response specifications represented by gain margin and phase margin and the control signal specifications. The model reference control is used because of the antilock braking system is originally nonlinear and has different operating points. The robust stability is guaranteed by applying the Kharitonov theorem. Three types of road conditions (dry asphalt, gravel and icy) are used to test the proposed controller.
Species diversity of subterranean ants in Rangsit Marsh, Khlong Luang District, Pathum Thani Province, Thailand

Abstract. Wanna C, Boonman N, Phakpaknam S, Pikulthong V, Jaitrong W, Soi-Ampornkul R. 2022. Species diversity of subterranean ants in Rangsit Marsh, Khlong Luang District, Pathum Thani Province, Thailand. Biodiversitas 23: 1283-1292. The present study aimed to compare species diversity and abundance of subterranean ants in three habitats: scrub forest, forest plantations, and glades at Rangsit Marsh, Khong Luang District, Pathum Thani Province, Thailand. The ant samples were collected twice a month during the rainy season (June-August 2019) and dry season (September-November 2019) using a pitfall trap in the soil. A total number of 6,305 individuals belonging to 4 subfamilies, 16 genera, and 16 species of ants were recorded. The subfamilies Myrmicinae comprising 6 species were the most prevalent, followed by 4 species of Formicinae, 3 species of Dolichoderinae, and 3 species of Ponerinae. The Shannon-Wiener species diversity index indicated the diversity was the highest in the glade (1.951), followed by the forest plantation (1.635), and lastly the scrub forest (0.419). Sorensen’s similarity coefficient to determine the similarity in community composition was highest between the forest plantation and the glade at 63.40%, and then between the scrub forest and the forest plantation at 44.30%, and between the scrub forest and the glade at 39.60%. This indicated that both ant species diversity and community composition were distinctly varied in these three sites. The rainy season revealed higher species richness than the dry season. The highest occurrence of ant species was for Iridomyrmex anceps (Roger, 1863), which was recorded as uncommon and was the most abundant species in the glade, while Anoplolepis gracilipes (Smith, 1857) and Carebara diversa (Jerdon, 1851) were the most abundant species in the scrub forest and forest plantation, respectively. Therefore, this study revealed that different habitat types and seasons resulted in differences in subterranean ant species diversity.
Identification of a nonlinear rational model based on bias compensated multi-innovation stochastic gradient algorithm

The nonlinear rational model is a generalized nonlinear model and has been gradually applied in modelling many dynamic processes. The parameter identification of a class of nonlinear rational models is studied in this paper. This identification problem is very challenging because of the complexity of the rational model and the coupling between model inputs and outputs. To identify the nonlinear model, a bias compensated multi-innovation stochastic gradient algorithm is presented. The multi-innovation technique replacing the scalar innovation with an information vector is adopted to accelerate the traditional stochastic gradient algorithm. However, the estimate obtained by the accelerated algorithm is biased because of the correlation between the information vector and the noise. To overcome this difficulty, a bias compensation strategy is used. The bias is calculated and compensated to get an unbiased estimate. Theoretical analysis shows that the proposed algorithm can give biased estimates with linear complexity. The proposed algorithm is validated by a numerical experiment and the modelling of the propylene catalytic oxidation.
Predictive maintenance of infrastructure code using “fluid” datasets: An exploratory study on Ansible defect proneness

This work consolidates and compounds previous investigations in recognizing defects for infrastructure‐as‐code (IaC) scripts using general software development quality metrics with a focus on defect severity but adding to previous work an explorative look at creating datasets, which may boost the predictive power of provided models—we call this notion a fluid dataset. More specifically, we experiment with 50 different metrics harnessing a multiple dataset creation process whereby different versions of the same datasets are rigged with auto‐training facilities for model retraining and redeployment in a DataOps fashion. At this point, with a focus on the Ansible infrastructure code language—as a de facto standard for industrial‐strength infrastructure code—we build defect prediction models and manage to improve on the state of the art by finding an F1 score of 0.52 and a recall of 0.57 using a Naive–Bayes classifier. On the one hand, by improving state‐of‐the‐art defect prediction models using metrics generalizable for different IaC languages, we provide interesting leads for the future of infrastructure‐as‐code. On the other hand, we have barely scratched the surface on the novel approach of fluid‐datasets creation and automated retraining of Machine Learning (ML) defect prediction models, warranting for more research on the same direction in the future.
Biliary Tract Disorders in Patients with Acromegaly: Single-centre Experience

Objective: Genetic and environmental factors determine the risk of biliary tract disorders. Several studies have reported an increased frequency of gallbladder disorders in patients with acromegaly belonging to different ethnic groups, however, data for Turkish patients with acromegaly is currently lacking. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the frequency of diverse gallbladder disorders in Turkish patients with acromegaly. The secondary objective was to determine the risk factors that are related to gallstone formation. Materials and Methods: Hacettepe University electronic database was retrospectively analyzed. One hundred fifty-two out of 393 patients with acromegaly who had confirmed biliary tract disorders with imaging modalities (such as abdominal ultrasonography, abdominal computed tomography or abdominal magnetic resonance imaging) or surgery specimens, were included for final analyzes. There was not any difference between included and excluded cases in terms of study parameters.Results: Patients with acromegaly with a mean±SD age of 41±12 years were followed-up for median of 91 months. Gender distribution was equal (76 M, 76 F). Gallstones were detected in 50 (33%) cases. Seventeen (11%) cases had gallbladder sludge whereas 5 (3%) cases had gallbladder polyp. Cholecystectomy was performed in 24 (16%). Age, gender, baseline disease activity, diagnostic delay, disease duration, the presence of type 2 diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidemia were not associated with gallstone formation. Body mass index (β=1.19, 95% CI (1.09-1.30), p<0.001) and somatostatin receptor ligand use (β=3.8, 95% CI (1.2-12.6), p=0.026) were determined as independent risk factors for cholelithiasis.Conclusions: Biliary tract disorders are common in Turkish patients with acromegaly. Acromegaly patients with high body mass index and on somatostatin receptor ligand treatment had an increased risk for gallstone disease.
Oleanolic Acid Derivative AXX-18 Exerts Antiviral Activity by Inhibiting the Expression of HSV-1 Viral Genes UL8 and UL52

Two-thirds of the world’s population is infected with HSV-1, which is closely associated with many diseases, such as Gingival stomatitis and viral encephalitis. However, the drugs that are currently clinically effective in treating HSV-1 are Acyclovir (ACV), Ganciclovir, and Valacyclovir. Due to the widespread use of ACV, the number of drug-resistant strains of ACV is increasing, so searching for new anti-HSV-1 drugs is urgent. The oleanolic-acid derivative AXX-18 showed a CC50 value of 44.69 μM for toxicity to HaCaT cells and an EC50 value of 1.47 μM for anti-HSV-1/F. In addition, AXX-18 showed significant inhibition of ACV-resistant strains 153, 106, and Blue, and the anti-HSV-1 activity of AXX-18 was higher than that of oleanolic acid. The mechanism of action of AXX-18 was found to be similar to that of oleanolic acid, except that AXX-18 could act on both the UL8 and UL52 proteins of the uncoupling helicase-primase enzyme, whereas oleanolic acid could only act on the UL8 protein. We have elucidated the antiviral mechanism of AXX-18 in detail and, finally, found that AXX-18 significantly inhibited the formation of skin herpes. In conclusion, we have explored the anti-HSV-1 activity of AXX-18 in vitro and in vivo as well as identification of its potential target proteins, which will provide a theoretical basis for the development of subsequent anti-HSV-1 drugs.
Cascaded MPN: Cascaded Moment Proposal Network for Video Corpus Moment Retrieval

Video corpus moment retrieval aims to localize temporal moments corresponding to textual query in a large video corpus. Previous moment retrieval systems are largely grouped into two categories: (1) anchor-based method which presets a set of video segment proposals (via sliding window) and predicts proposal that best matches with the query, and (2) anchor-free method which directly predicts frame-level start-end time of the moment related to the query (via regression). Both methods have their own inherent weaknesses: (1) anchor-based method is vulnerable to heuristic rules of generating video proposals, which causes restrictive moment prediction in variant length; and (2) anchor-free method, as is based on frame-level interplay, suffers from insufficient understanding of contextual semantics from long and sequential video. To overcome the aforementioned challenges, our proposed Cascaded Moment Proposal Network incorporates the following two main properties: (1) Hierarchical Semantic Reasoning which provides video understanding from anchor-free level to anchor-based level via building hierarchical video graph, and (2) Cascaded Moment Proposal Generation which precisely performs moment retrieval via devising cascaded multi-modal feature interaction among anchor-free and anchor-based video semantics. Extensive experiments show state-of-the-art performance on three moment retrieval benchmarks (TVR, ActivityNet, DiDeMo), while qualitative analysis shows improved interpretability. The code will be made publicly available.
Improving Student Engagement in Online Courses through Interactive and User-Centered Course Design: Practical Strategies.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many teachers in higher education to move their courses online. Recent research on online teaching indicates that students and teachers experience challenges with the online mode. Students express less positive feelings towards synchronous online learning, concerns about lower academic performance, and dissatisfaction with the way lecturers adapt their teaching to the online environment. These findings warrant a re-examination of current practices. This article presents a set of research-based online teaching strategies meant to promote student engagement and motivation. The strategies are illustrated with practical examples of the authors' own experiences with online teaching in higher education. While this article primarily targets teachers who are planning their first online courses, it will also be useful to those who wish to enhance the quality of existing online courses.
Plethoric Classes and Academic Performances in Cartography Among Senior Secondary Learners in Cameroon

Teaching and learning cartography greatly influence the standard and quality of geographic knowledge since the use of cartography tools impacts the teaching-learning process at all levels. This paper seeks to investigate the influence of plethoric classes on learners’ academic performances in cartography in Cameroon. There is an observed negative effect of plethoric classes on learners’ academic performances in cartography in Forms 4 and 5 in Cameroon. Empirical data from four secondary high schools in Yaounde VI Subdivision based on qualitative and quantitative methods was used for the analysis. Data collection methods were field surveys, key informant interviews and direct observations. Analyses were carried out using Microsoft Excel 2016 and SPSS 16 software. Findings revealed that Forms 4 and 5 classrooms are overcrowded with student-teacher ratio >60:1; impeding the proper teaching-learning of cartography and that teachers use the teacher-centred rather than the student-centred approach which undermines the acquisition of cartographic skills. This leads to poor results during trimestral and regional examinations. ANOVA test revealed that there was a significant difference (p<0.05) between learners’ performances in schools with plethoric classes and schools with normal classroom student-teacher ratio. The study suggests that the splitting of plethoric classrooms into smaller tutorial groups with different time tables, stressing on group work and more practical cartographic exercises remain the appropriate approaches to teach cartography in plethoric classes.
Evaluation of transgenic cassava expressing mismatch and non-mismatch hpRNA constructs derived from African cassava mosaic virus and South African cassava mosaic virus open reading frames

vii List of Figures . xii List of Tables . xxiv List of Appendices Tables . xxvi List of Abbreviations . xxvii Chapter: 1 Literature review 1.1 Cassava crop . 1 1.2 Cassava mosaic disease (CMD) . 1 1.3 Geminiviruses . 2 1.4 RNA silencing . 6 1.5 Geminiviruses as RNA silencing inducers and targets . 12 1.6 Viral RNA silencing suppressors . 15 1.7 Application of RNA silencing to combat plant disease . 19 1.8 hpRNA construct design requirements . 22 1.9 Defective interfering molecule-mediated resistance . 24 1.10 Protein-mediated resistance . 25 1.11 Genetic engineering . 26 1.12 Cassava genetic engineering . 29 Rationale and Motivation for the study . 32 General Objective . 33 General Aims . 34
A retrospective review of rabies post-exposure prophylaxis queries, South Africa, 2016–2019

Background The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICDs) of South Africa (SA) provides technical support to healthcare workers (HCWs) with regard to infectious diseases through the NICD clinician hotline. Queries to the hotline are often about rabies prophylaxis. An analysis of these queries may help to identify knowledge gaps amongst HCWs regarding prevention of rabies in humans in SA. Methods A retrospective descriptive review was conducted to analyse rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) queries received by the NICD from 01 January 2016 to 31 December 2019. Results A total of 4655 queries were received by the NICD clinician hotline for the study period, of which 2461 pertained to rabies PEP (52.87%). The largest number of calls were placed by HCWs (n = 2313/2437; 94.9%). Queries originated mainly from Gauteng (n = 912/2443; 37.3%) and KwaZulu-Natal (n = 875/2443; 35.8%) provinces. A total of 50 different types of animals were related to exposures involving humans. Dogs (67.7%) and cats (11.8%) were the animals most frequently reported and exposure category III was most common (88.6%). Approximately equal numbers of callers were advised active management of administering rabies PEP and conservative management of withholding PEP. This did not seem to be affected by the exposure category related to the call. Conclusion This analysis shows the ongoing demand by HCWs for technical support regarding patient management following potential exposure to rabies. Gaps in HCWs rabies knowledge provide unique learning points on guiding training to achieve the goal of eliminating dog-mediated human rabies deaths by 2030.
Kết quả điều trị các triệu chứng kích thích thần kinh thực vật ở người bệnh rối loạn lo âu lan toả bằng liệu pháp thư giãn - luyện tập

The purpose of this study is to analyze the results of treatment of autonomic arousal symptoms in patients with generalize anxiety disorder (GAD) by relaxation - training therapy. This is an intervention, longitudinal study composed of 99 patients with GAD; the effects of relaxation - training therapy was monitored from baseline and after one month, compared pre-post treatment without a control group. Results: GAD was more common in women (62.6%), the mean age was 44.3 ± 12.5. Symptoms of palpitations, tachycardia were the most common (88.3%), followed by sweating and tremor with the same rate of 58.6%. At the end of week 2, symptoms of palpitations and tachycardia did not decrease significantly. But by the end of week 4, these symptoms decreased by more than half, from 89% to 43% (p < 0.001). Symptoms of sweating, tremor and dry mouth also reduced by more than half at the end of week 4 (p < 0.001). In male patients, autonomic arousal symptoms were reduced by more than half at the end of week 4 (p < 0.05). The same results were found in female patients, autonomic symptoms were reduced by more than half at the end of week 4 as well (p < 0.05).
AUTOMATED AND COMMERCIALIZED REALITY CONSTRUCTIONS: GOVERNANCE BY ALGORITHMS ON THE INTERNET

This paper focuses on the governing effects of Internet algorithms in information societies. It analyzes the often-neglected significance, role and challenges of (software) technology in the co-evolutionary institutionalization of governance. According to the IR16 conference theme Digital Imaginaries, this paper scrutinizes the topic: relationship between technology and the imaginary. More precisely, it explores the reality construction by algorithmic selection on the Internet that includes and at the same time goes far beyond the formation of collective imaginaries of networked technologies. The paper highlights the interplay with and the differences to reality constructions by traditional mass media, and investigates the societal and democratic consequences of this growing Internet phenomenon.
Improved transfer chute design using DEM software to predict material flow behaviour

Over the last decade the author has designed 20 or more chutes and been involved in the modification of 100's of others. However this work was all based on rules of thumb, with limited input from flow characteristics of the material being transferred. Although there are specific benefits to this rule of thumb based design, the end result is often a less then optimal chute design and the associated increase in operational costs. The latest trend in chute design is to accurately model the granular flow through the chute using Discrete Element Method (DEM) software. The use of this software has been well documented in many research papers, particularly in the last 15 years. If used correctly DEM can serve as a valuable tool in predicting the behaviour of the granular material, highlighting the areas of impact and wear within the chute as well as the position, velocity and direction of the chute discharge, the latter of which is import in reducing belt wear of the conveyor. The main objective of this project will be to investigate the use of Applied DEM’s Bulk Flow Analyst software supplied by CABS Pty Ltd to analyse the flow in an existing transfer chute at Kwinana Bulk Terminal. This analysis will then be used to compare against an improved chute design in an attempt to improve the operation costs of the facility, specifically by the reduction down time, spillage and maintenance.
The application of production-related information technology architecture to improve on visual management systems within the manufacturing industry

The Application of Production-Related Information Technology Architecture to Improve on Visual Management Systems within the Manufacturing Industry By Lukas Petrus Steenkamp This research investigates the relationship between technology advancements and the effects thereof in manufacturing industry in relation to the complexity of the production lines, resource efficiency and time management. Specifically, the study focuses on the use of Production-Related Information Technology Architecture (PRITA) to improve data sourcing, processing and communication within the manufacturing environment in order to improve the use of Visual Management System (VMS) capabilities. Current technologic advancements, and therefore the manufacturing paradigm by extension, have advanced enough to make VMS a possibility. Case studies were developed and implemented with the aim of identifying the elements of VMS that facilitate data sourcing and processing in order to yield production-related information after which the information was displayed digitally. These case studies were implemented within the academic manufacturing environment that replicates typical small medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa. The results revealed that the VMS was considered an important value-adding element to the manufacturing industry with 77% of the expert interview participants agreeing. VMS provided the functionalities of trend analytics that could provide information regarding the operational condition of production and making conservative predictions of the production cycle analysis. VMS can provide the solution to understanding and relating the information to improve on the traditional flow of information. This new method will involve an increased amount of data collection on lower operation levels from which the information can flow up through managerial levels to produce action items and information flowing down the model again. The study concluded with an effect and benefit summery of the PRITA and VMS model, a cost and labour analysis and a discussion of research limitations. Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za