Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Towards System-Initiative Conversational Information Seeking

Presently, most conversational information seeking systems function in a passive manner, i.e., user-initiative engagement. Through this work, we aim to discuss the importance of developing conversational information seeking systems capable of system-initiative interactions. We further discuss various aspects of such interactions in CIS systems and introduce a taxonomy of system-initiative interactions based on three orthogonal dimensions: initiation moment ( when to initiative a conversation ), initiation purpose ( why to initiate a conversation ), and initiation means ( how to initiate a conversation ). This taxonomy enables us to propose a generic pipeline for system-initiative conversations, consisting of three major steps associated with the three dimensions highlighted in the taxonomy. We further delineate the technical and evaluation challenges that the design and implementation of each component may encounter, and provide possible solutions. We finally point out potential broader impacts of system-initiative interactions in CIS systems.
Reduction of Key and Ciphertext Sizes of Lattice-Based Cryptography

In this paper, we propose a new method to reduce the parameters of lattice-based cryptography. By assuming the set of integers such as learning with error sample as a large integer, the proposed method reduces the key, ciphertext, and signature size of lattice-based cryptosystems and signature schemes. We compare the performance of the proposed method for round 3 finalists of NIST's post-quantum cryptography (PQC) standardization. The implementation shows that the ciphertext size is reduced by about 5%, and the compression is quite fast.
A Study of Wet Oxidized AlGa As for Integrated Optics

An investigation of wet oxidized AlxGa1 xAs layers in integrated optical applications is reported. Refractive index and thickness shrinkage of wet oxidized Al xGa1 xAs layers are measured using spectroscopic ellipsometry. A Cauchy fit to the refractive index is found in the wavelength range between 0.3 and 1.6 m. The refractive index at 1.55 m is found to be 1.66 0.01 with little dispersion around 1.55 m. Very low loss single-mode waveguides with metal electrodes showing very low polarization dependence of loss coefficient are fabricated using wet oxidized AlxGa1 xAs layers as upper cladding. Optical polarization splitters are also designed and fabricated from the same type of waveguides taking advantage of increased birefringence. Designs utilizing wet oxidized Al xGa1 xAs are compared with conventional designs using only compound semiconductor heterostructures.
A Spatial Analysis of Domestic Architecture in Khartoum: Transitional Praxis of Colonial to Post-Colonial Private Houses

The intricate changes on domestic social patterns around the time of independence (1956) in Khartoum represent the focus of this paper, which aims at providing space syntax-based viewpoint of the transition. The built representation of the political change, which had towed economic, cultural and social transformation, has not been well investigated in Khartoum. The domestic architecture is envisaged here to reflect the change from a liberal and secular British lifestyle to a conservative and religious one, characterized by the natives. The study hence, explores twenty representative samples from the two periods in order to reveal the hidden nature of these patterns, employing the Space Syntax method of analysis; particularly the convex mapping. This analysis seeks to both decipher space transition and identify patterns. In order to interpret the social meaning of these configurations and to factor out the historical context of the transition, several interviews were conducted. The analytical comparisons revealed that these socio-cultural changes had subtle effects on the transformations experienced in the use and organization of spaces. The change shows that the emerging dominance of privacy in relation with exterior has started to diminish, and some interior spaces were redefined. These privacy-centered patterns, in many post-colonial cases as well, have pushed the core of integration deeper in the access ‘graph’.
Potential favourable health effects of some dietary uncommon fatty acids

In addition to the major fatty acids widely studied, our diet contains many bioactive fatty acids less frequently investigated such as n-3 docosapentaenoic acid (n-3 DPA), natural trans fatty acids, conjugated fatty acids (CLAs), furan fatty acids (FuFAs), branched chain fatty acids (BCFAs) and fatty acid esters of hydroxyl fatty acids (FAHFAs). Many of them may have beneficial health effects, particularly in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, inflammation and metabolic disorders such as diabetes. This review aims to give a brief overview of the current knowledge on these lipids. Thus, information about biosynthesis, food and tissue content, daily intake, biological and potential health effects of these fatty acids is provided.
Assessing soil fertility status and pest infestation levels in selected banana growing regions of Tanzania

Zanthoxylum chalybeum (Rutaceae) is subject to heavy exploitation throughout its areas of occurrence in Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite being a common medicinal plant utilized by a large population, little has been documented regarding the constraints which hinder its promotion and conservation concerns within the country. This study was conducted to determine distribution and conservation challenges facing medicinal plant Zanthoxylum chalybeum on different land uses types surveyed at Simanjiro area. The most available roads were used as line transects to observe Z. chalybeum distribution in the study area. Plots were established for data collection whereby GPS coordinates (tree presence- absent), tree numbers and anthropogenic threats were the collected information. In addition, open-ended, semi-structured questionnaires and focused group discussions (FGD) were used to capture information on the uses, availability, conservation challenges and management of the plant in the study area. Results indicated that the distribution of Z. chalybeum in the area differ significantly across the land-use types surveyed in this study by having many trees in hunting blocks within game-controlled areas and open areas (49 and 40 respectively). Anthropogenic threats signs observed included debarking (51%), branch cut (20.6%) and root digging (15.8%). It was observed that the majority of the households use Z. chalybeum for gynecological diseases (such as blood loss after labor, menstrual pain, early pregnancy complications) (86.4%). The main conservation challenges included unsustainable change in land use (99.9%) and inadequate conservation education and awareness. This study recommends more conservation efforts such as active planting of the species, regulated utilization of the Z. chalybeum species and increased education and awareness to be implemented by authorities in game-controlled areas and open areas and also conservation education should be provided to members of the community.
SMALL SCALE HABITAT USE BY MALE AND FEMALE BROWN BEARS (URSUS ARCTOS) IN THE MATING AND THE HYPERPHAGY SEASONS SMÅSKALA HABITATBRUK HOS HANNBJØRNER OG BINNER (URSUS ARCTOS) I BRUNSTSESONGEN OG BÆRSESONGEN

Sexual differences in small scale habitat use between adult male and lone adult female brown bears (Ursus arctos) have hardly been studied before. Previous studies on habitat use have not investigated habitat use in relation to the bears’ primary behaviors (e.g. resting, foraging, traveling), and the main focus has been on habitat use in relation to foraging. Mainly VHF-technology has been used, with positions taken during daytime, thus previous studies may have been biased towards the study of habitat use during day time and important habitats and resources may have been neglected. I visited the GPS-locations of 12 male and 20 female brown bears in central Sweden equipped with either GPS Plus-3 or GPS Pro-4 radio-collars. My main goal was to (1) determine differences in habitat use related to resting, foraging and traveling behavior; (2) determine sexual differences in habitat use in relation to aforementioned behaviors; and (3) determine seasonal differences in habitat use for specific behaviors. In general, male and female brown bears tended to select forested habitats and tended to avoid open habitats without food opportunities. Both males and females selected denser vegetation for day resting compared to night resting, and selected the habitat categories which support most abundant food opportunities during foraging. In general, males selected denser habitats than females during foraging and traveling. I found strong sexual differences, in the overall habitat use and in habitats used for foraging and traveling. Sexual differences in resting sites only occurred between male day beds and female night beds during the hyperphagy season. In general, females showed a stronger distinction in use of the habitats for the different behaviors than males. Females selected significantly different habitats for all behaviors, with the exception of night beds in the hyperphagy season and for traveling, where they selected for relatively more open habitats. In contrast, males tended to choose the two habitats, young forest and middle-aged forest during foraging, traveling and day rest, but selected for a more open habitat during night rest. I found seasonal differences only in relation to females’ habitat selection for resting sites. I found more signs of foraging per km bear track for females than males, indicating a difference in foraging strategies. No single habitat category characterized all of the bears’ behaviors. My results suggest that analyzing data on habitat use across sex, and active and inactive behaviors, can lead to serious biases in the interpretation of results.
Novel reassortant of H9N2 avian influenza viruses isolated from chickens and quails in Egypt

Abstract Background and Aim: Poultry infections with H9N2 avian influenza viruses (AIVs) are endemic in Egypt. This study determined the genetic changes in the sequences of H9N2 AIVs isolated from chicken and quails in Egypt, including determining genetic reassortment and detecting the main genetic changes in hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) genes. Materials and Methods: Swab samples were collected from chicken and quails, examined through reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and AIVs from positive samples were isolated in embryonated chicken eggs. Complete genome sequencing and phylogenetic analyses were conducted for two H9N2 AIV isolates, and sequences of HA and NA gene segments were analyzed in another two isolates. Results: A novel reassortant virus was identified from a commercial chicken flock (A/chicken/Egypt/374V/2016) and quails from a live bird market (A/quail/Egypt/1253V/2016). The reassortant viruses acquired four genome segments from the classic Egyptian H9N2 viruses (HA, NA, NP, and M) and four segments from Eurasian AIVs (PB2, PB1, PA, and NS). Many genetic changes have been demonstrated in HA and NA genes. The isolated novel reassortant H9N2 virus from quails showed amino acid mutations in the antigenic sites on the globular head of the mature HA monomer matched with the parent Egyptian H9N2 virus. Conclusion: This work described the genetic characterization of a novel reassortment of the H9N2 virus in Egypt. The emergence of new reassorted AIV viruses and genome variability raises the concern of an influenza pandemic with zoonotic potentials.
Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Its Association With Diabetes Mellitus

There is a bidirectional relationship between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The liver has a vital role in the pathophysiology of both diseases as it leads to the development of insulin resistance (IR), which in turn results in NAFLD and T2DM. It has been shown that T2DM increases the risk of NAFLD progression. Furthermore, the presence of NAFLD raises the probability of T2DM complications, which explains the increased rates of NAFLD screening in patients with T2DM. In addition, there are common management options for the two diseases. Lifestyle changes can play a role in the initial management of both diseases. Medications that are used to treat T2DM are also used in the management of NAFLD, such as metformin, thiazolidinediones (TZD), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogues, and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) inhibitors. Bariatric surgery is often used as a last resort and has shown promising results. Lifestyle interventions with diet and exercise are important postoperatively to maintain the weight loss. There are many novel treatments that are being investigated for the treatment of NAFLD, targeting multiple pathophysiologic pathways. This review aims to shed some light on the intricate relationship between NAFLD and T2DM and how IR links both diseases. We also try to raise awareness among clinicians about this relationship and how the presence of one disease should raise a high index of suspicion for the existence of the other.
Investigations On An Influence Of The Material Properties On Vibrations Of Active Rocker-Boogie Suspension

Unmanned vehicles are often used in everyday life, mostly by rescue teams or scientist during exploration of new terrains. In those constructions suspension has constant dimensions what leads to many disadvantages and more over limits application area. The solution of these problems can be a creation of a six – wheeled mobile platform which can dynamically change wheel base in relation to the area of action or terrain inclination angle. The active change in location of center of gravity gives a possibility to access sloppy obstacles not available with classical suspensions. The main scope of this study is to investigate an influence of material properties on vibration frequency at different length of suspension members. The obtained results will allow finding the optimum material for production of a prototype unit.
Camera Sensory System for Door and Stair Detection for Visually Impaired

This paper introduces a novel travel for blind users that can assist them to detects location of doors in corridors and also give information about location of stairs. The developed system uses camera to capture images in front of the user. Feature extraction algorithm is used to extract key features that distinguish doors and stairs from other structures observed in indoor environments. This information is then conveyed to the user using simple auditory feedback. The mobility aid was validated on 50 visually impaired users. The subjects walked in a controlled test environment. The accuracy of the device to help the user detect doors and stairs was determined. The results obtained were satisfactory and the device has the potential for use in standalone mode for indoor navigations.
Continuous Emotion Recognition on the Edge

Traditional Edge AI implementation methods requires high cost computing machines / device. Aside from these high cost devices, most implementation often requires complex AI models. In this study, a real-time implementation for Edge AI devices is implemented to address the implementation cost and complexity constraints. The Arduino Nano 33 BLE sense is used as an Edge AI Device for this implementation. An open source machine learning platform is used to develop an embedded machine learning implementation which addresses the high implementation and computational complexity of edge AI implementation.
Surface Breakup of A Liquid Jet Injected Into A Gaseous Crossflow

Surface Breakup of A Liquid Jet Injected Into A Gaseous Crossflow Mohsen Behzad Jazi Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Civil Engineering University of Toronto 2014 The normal injection of a liquid jet into a gaseous crossflow has many engineering applications. In this thesis, detailed numerical simulations based on the level set method are employed to understand the physical mechanism underlying the jet “surface breakup”. The numerical observations reveal the existence of hydrodynamic instabilities on the jet periphery. The temporal growth of such azimuthal instabilities leads to the formation of interface corrugations, which are eventually sheared off of the jet surface as sheet-like structures. The sheets finally undergo disintegration into ligaments and drops during the surface breakup process. Temporal linear stability analyses are employed to understand the nature of these instabilities. To facilitate the analysis, analytical solutions for the flow fields of the jet and the crossflow are derived. We identify the “shear instability” as the primary destabilization mechanism in the flow. This inherently inviscid mechanism opposes the previously suggested mechanism of surface breakup (known as “boundary layer stripping”), which is based on a viscous interpretation. The influence of the jet-to-crossflow density ratio on the flow stability are also studied. The findings show that a higher density jet leads to higher wavenumber instabilities on the jet surface and thereby subsequent smaller drops and ligaments. The stability characteristics of the most amplified modes (i.e., the wavenumber and corresponding growth rate) obtained from stability analyses and numerical simulations are in good agreement. The stability results of the jet also show that the density may have a non-monotonic
Supermolecular structure formation of PMP membranes: Theoretical argumentation in terms of the experimental evidences

Experimental and model research lines related to the formation of the polymeric membranes cast from solutions, and associated with their morphologies, are presented. In order to determine the formation’s main characteristics, the mechanism governing the polymer crystallisation and/or lamellae aggregation is proposed. It is based on a theoretical Smoluchowski-type argumentation. Poly(4-methyl-1-pentene) has been used as a material for the study. Morphology of the lamellae-containing membrane materials is discussed. Two main topics are addressed: a three-phase model (‘real’ and ‘ordered’ amorphous phases, and a crystal phase), and factors affecting the supermolecular structure of the membranes. Special attention is paid to lamellae perfection in the solution of different polymer concentrations and its relation to the thin-film type morphology. The stages of the crystallisation are proposed mainly in terms of the role played by the solvent molecules. The optimal circumstance for the formation of the polymeric membranes with the highest degree of crystallinity is indicated. This optimal circumstance points to consider thoroughly the polymeric membrane formation as a thermodynamic–kinetic process of diffusive nature. As a consequence, the process manifests ultimately in a stationary state of the nucleation-growth and ripening-involving viscoelastic phase transformation. Moreover, it is complemented by explicit involvement of two most relevant interaction contributions, i.e. polymer–solvent and polymer–polymer, typically prevailing in a concentrated binary mixture, with the solvent–solvent interaction in a background. As a result of the experimental data analysis, performed in the frames of the proposed theoretical model, a fitting function is derived explicitly and applied to the crystallinity–concentration relationship. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Nontoxic, Eco‐friendly Fully Water‐Induced Ternary Zr–Gd–O Dielectric for High‐Performance Transistors and Unipolar Inverters

In this context, a simple, nontoxic, and eco‐friendly fully water‐induced (WI) route to fabricate ternary ZrGdOx thin films at various annealing temperatures is reported. Annealing temperature dependent microstructure, morphology, optical, electrical properties, and chemical bonding states of the WI ZrGdOx thin films are investigated by x‐ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, optical spectroscopy, x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and electrical measurements. A low leakage current density of 10−8 A cm−2 at 1 mV cm−1 and a large areal capacitance of 531 nF cm−2 at 20 Hz are observed for 400 °C‐annealed ZrGdOx thin films. To verify the possible applications of ZrGdOx thin films as the gate dielectric in thin‐film transistors (TFTs), WI In2O3/ZrGdOx TFTs are integrated. 250 °C‐derived full oxide In2O3/ZrGdOx TFTs have demonstrated high electrical performance and low operating voltage, including high µFE of 18.82 cm2 V−1 S−1, threshold voltage shift of 0.46 V under positive bias stress for 3600 s, and a large Ion/Ioff of 6.01 × 107, respectively. Finally, a low voltage resistor‐loaded unipolar inverter is built using In2O3/ZrGdOx TFT, exhibiting a linear relationship between supplied voltage and gain voltage and a maximum gain of 7.4 at 2.5 V. These optimized parameters have achieved a low operating voltage of 2 V, which represents a great step toward the achievement of low‐cost, low‐power consumption, and large‐area all‐oxide flexible electronics.
Effects of Root Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria Inoculations on the Growth and Nutrient Content of Grapevine

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of seven nitrogen (N2)-fixing and/or phosphorus (P)-solubilizing and siderophore-producing microorganism based bio-fertilizers in single and triple strain combinations isolated from the acidic rhizospheric soil of native tea, grapevine, and wild red raspberries. As a result of this study, bacterial efficiency was found to be variable and depended on the bacterial strains and evaluated growth parameters. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) has improved macro- and micro-nutrient concentrations in grapevine leaves, and stimulated plant growth. Triple inoculation and single inoculation based bio fertilizers were found to stimulate overall plant growth, including shoot and leaf weight, main shoot length, leaf ground index, chlorophyll, nitrogen, zinc and iron content of grapevine cv ‘Italy’. Bio-fertilizers increased the nutrients such as nitrogen, zinc and iron concentrations and consequently increased the chlorophyll content of the leaves.
Evaluation the Gold Nano Particles' Different Sizes Effect on Dental Plaque Iso- lated Streptococcus Spices

Fatemeh Lavaee , DMD; Zahra Ranjbar , DMD; Farzan Modaresi , PhD; Fatemeh Keshavarz ; 1 Oral and Dental Disease Research Center, School of Dentistry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. 2 Dept. Oral and Maxillofacial Disease, School of Dentistry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. 3 Dept. of Bacteriology and Virology, Jahrom Medical School, Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran. 4 Undergraduate Students, Student Research Committee, School of Dentistry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
NiFe2O4 nanomagnets prepared through a microwave autocombustion route as an efficient recoverable adsorbent for 2-nitrophenol removal

ABSTRACT Nickel ferrite nanoparticles prepared by a microwave-assisted autocombustion method with different fuels and microwave powers were used as bare adsorbents for 2-nitrophenol removal from aqueous solutions. Characterization of the as-prepared samples revealed a fundamental variety with respect to their size and surface area. Meanwhile, the crystal phase, functional groups, surface polarity, and magnetic properties remained almost the same. After electing the most efficient adsorbent based on batch experiments, pH influence was established and optimized. Afterward, equilibrium studies were conducted. The kinetic models and adsorption isotherms further facilitated a better understanding of the adsorption mechanism that comprised mainly the multilayered condensation of 2-nitrophenol molecules through the hydrogen bonding.