Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Voluntary Adolescent-Onset Alcohol Drinking Fails to Influence Alcohol Consumption or Anxiety-Like Behaviour in Adulthood in Female Alcohol-Preferring Rats

Abstract Aims Alcohol exposure during adolescence is associated with both increased risk for alcohol use disorders and anxiety in adulthood. Our present experiments examined this association using alcohol-preferring AA (Alko Alcohol) rats selected for high voluntary alcohol drinking. Methods Two groups of female AA rats acquired alcohol drinking at different ages. We gave the adolescent-onset group free choice to 10% alcohol and water for seven weeks, starting on post-natal day 42 (PND 42), whereas the adult-onset group started drinking alcohol on PND 112. After the 7-week drinking, we withdrew the adolescent group from alcohol for two weeks, followed by another voluntary 7-week drinking period, started at the same age as the adult-onset group. We assessed anxiety-like behaviour repeatedly during alcohol drinking with open field and elevated plus maze tests. At the end of alcohol drinking, we also tested the rats using the light/dark box, stress-induced body temperature test and social dominance test. Results During the first 7-week alcohol drinking, adolescent rats exhibited significantly slower acquisition of alcohol drinking and lower alcohol preference than the adult-onset group. However, when tested at the same age as the adult-onset rats, they displayed identical alcohol intake and preference. We found no alcohol-induced effects on anxiety- or stress-related behaviour in the experimental groups at any time points. Conclusions These data show that the genetically determined phenotype of high alcohol drinking of the female alcohol-preferring AA rats is not associated with a predisposition to develop anxiety-like behaviour following voluntary alcohol exposure, even when initiated during adolescence.
Conditional Wasserstein Generative Adversarial Networks for Rebalancing Iris Image Datasets

SUMMARY The recent development of deep learning-based generative models has sharply intensiﬁed the interest in data synthesis and its applications. Data synthesis takes on an added importance especially for some pattern recognition tasks in which some classes of data are rare and di ﬃ cult to collect. In an iris dataset, for instance, the minority class samples include images of eyes with glasses, oversized or undersized pupils, misaligned iris locations, and iris occluded or contaminated by eyelids, eyelashes, or lighting reﬂections. Such class-imbalanced datasets often result in biased classiﬁcation performance. Generative adversarial networks (GANs) are one of the most promising frameworks that learn to generate synthetic data through a two-player minimax game between a generator and a discriminator. In this paper, we utilized the state-of-the-art conditional Wasserstein generative adversarial network with gradient penalty (CWGAN-GP) for generating the minority class of iris images which saves huge amount of cost of human labors for rare data collection. With our model, the researcher can generate as many iris images of rare cases as they want and it helps to develop any deep learning algorithm whenever large size of dataset is needed.
Effect of Varying Rates of NPK 15:15:15 Fertiliser on the Physicochemical Properties of the Soil, Growth and Yield of Cucumber, (Cucumis sativus L.)

The research was conducted at the Teaching and Research Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources Management, Enugu State University of Science and Technology within latitude, 06° 17 1 58° 6” N and longitude 07°, 32 1 , 58° 8”E on a total land area of 225m 2 (15 m x 15 m). The research was aimed at finding the effect of different rates of NPK 15:15:15 fertiliser on the physicochemical properties of the soil, growth and yield of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.). was designed in a Randomized complete Block Design (RCBD), with five replications and four treatments which are 0 kg/ha (T1) 50 kg/ha (T2), 100 kg/ha (T3) and 150 kg/ha (T4). The study showed that a significant (P = .05) effect in the yield was obtained at the rate of 150 kg/ha at 8 weeks after planting. The following yield and other agronomic parameters were obtained using 150 kg/ha. Fruit yield 18.75 t/ha and vine length 181.37 cm. Therefore cucumber farmers are advised to apply 150 kg/ha of NPK 15:15:15 fertiliser for their optimum yield. Original Research Article Ngwu and Edeh; IJPSS, 25(1): 1-7, 2018; Article no.IJPSS. 44292 2
Barium Sulphate: Problems, Solutions and Applications

The main aim of this work is to synthesise barium sulphate (BaS04) that are tiny in size (nanoparticles). BaS04 scaling is a known problem in the context of offshore oil recovery. Different methods of scale control have been suggested in the literature, none has solved the BaS04 scaling problem dramatically. In this work several methods were assessed, but only one of them seemed to work well. The methods studied were: 1) Formation of colloidal BaS04 in an aqueous alcohol medium using BaCh and Na2S04 as precursors. The precursors were mixed rapidly forming rhombohedral BaS04 and by tubular reactor forming dendrite-like particles. 2) Inhibition of Ba2+ using phosphino (carboxylic acids)prior to the sol- addition induced the formation of broom-stick-like BaS04 particles. 3)Formation of BaS04 microemulsions using different surfactants. Cationic surfactants (sodium bis-2-thylhexylsulfosuccinate) (AOT) induced the formation of BaS04 platelets and nanofilaments. While non-ionic surfactants (polyoxyethylene-4-dodecyl ether)(C12E04) and SEs different HLB values (2,6,15 and 16), induced the formation of BaS04 platelets with the former and BaS04 nanobaguettes with HLB 2 and platelet-like particles,defined nanorods and interconnected nanoparticles with HLB 6, 15 and 16 respectively. TX-lOO (polyethylene glycol p(1,1,3,3-tetramethylbutyl)- phenylether) formed small BaS04 nanoparticles. Anionic didodecyldimethylammonium bromide (DDAB) formed cylindrical BaS04 nanoparticles. 4) (SOl) in H20 was added to Ba2+ adsorbed on Stober silica producing spherical BaS04 nanoparticles in StOber silica spheres. 5) Ba2 + in H20 was added to (SOl)/AIO(OH). This is a new method to the best of our knowledge. It formed small BaS04 nanoparticles at 2 and 4 J.lmol (BaCh and Na2S04) and big bow-tie structured BaS04 particles at 6 J.lmol concentration per 5cm3 of AIO(OH). Since BaSOJAIO(OH) produced with SOlIAIO(OH)(aq) + Ba2+(aq) showed higher yields its scaling inhibition efficiency was studied in detail at three different concentrations of Ba2+ (64, 90 and 121 ppm) at 298 K and 320 K. This novel approach to scale control using chaperoning AIO(OH) is promising. A comparison study using 2-D imaging took place in BaS04 in AIOOH and BaS04 in H20 showed that the former remained longer as a sol. This suggests that BaS04 based in AIOOH can be used in medical diagnosis. BaS04 in AIOOH was used as a catalyst (prior to freeze drying) in an exhaust engine to test its efficiency in detoxifying the exhaust engine from CO, HC and NO" under stoichiometric conditions. Catalytic activates were also investigated after activation with Pt and Au.
Redox Potential and Antidiabetic Properties of Lecaniodiscus cupanioides in Vitro

Introduction Since ancient times, people have used plants to cure diseases. Today the use of plants to treat diseases is widespread in every culture. This has received considerable attention over the years. In developing countries, over 80% of population uses traditional medicines in solving primary medical problems. Lecaniodiscus cupanioides is one of these plants used as traditional medicine as well as food [1]. Lecaniodiscus cupanioides belongs to the family of Sapindacaeae. It is an elegant tree with a low-branching, spreading crown; it can grow up to 12 m or sometimes more, tall. It is mainly valued for its use in traditional medicine; the tree also provides timber and food. It is usually harvested from the wild, its sometimes planted as a shade tree in villages and also grown as an ornamental [2]. It has been used traditionally in many countries such as Nigeria, Sierraleone, Sudan, South and North Angola, Southern Zaire and Uganda especially for conditions such as inflammations, enlarged liver and bacterial infections [2].
Correlation of erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase activity with high levels of HbA1c

Hyperglycemia induces increased generation of reactive oxygen species and decreased action of antioxidant enzymes which leads to oxidative stress. Antioxidant enzymes prevent the action of reactive oxygen species and protect the cells from oxidative damage. Glutathione peroxidase is one of the antioxidant enzyme. The aim of the study was to evaluate the association between antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase activity in erythrocytes with elevated HbA1c levels. Material and Method: Total of 92 whole blood samples were taken based on their HbA1c levels and were divided control (n=52) and hyperglycaemic group (n=40). Glutathione peroxidase activity in erythrocyte was measured. Statistical difference between groups was analyzed using independent t test. Pearson’s correlation analysis was performed to determine the relationships between variables. Results: There was no significant difference in glutathione peroxidase activity between the groups. There was statistically significant (p <0.001) increase observed for HbA1c and blood glucose in their mean±SD values from control to hyperglycaemic group. There was no significant correlation observed between glutathione peroxidase and HbA1c as well as blood glucose. The results indicate that elevated levels of HbA1c does not alter the activity of erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase activity.
Indoor Crowd Estimation Scheme Using the Number of Wi-Fi Probe Requests under MAC Address Randomization

SUMMARY As smartphones have become widespread in the past decade, Wi-Fi signal-based crowd estimation schemes are receiving increased attention. These estimation schemes count the number of unique MAC addresses in Wi-Fi signals, hereafter called probe requests (PRs), instead of counting the number of people. However, these estimation schemes have low accuracy of crowd estimation under MAC address randomization that replaces a unique MAC address with various dummy MAC addresses. To solve this problem, in this paper, we propose an indoor crowd estimation scheme using the number of PRs under MAC address randomization. The main idea of the proposed scheme is to leverage the fact that the number of PRs per a unit of time changes in proportion to the number of smartphones. Since a smartphone tends to send a constant number of PRs per a unit of time, the proposed scheme can estimate the accurate number of smartphones. Various experiment results show that the proposed scheme reduces estimation error by at most 75% compared to the conventional Wi-Fi signal-based crowd estimation scheme in an indoor environment.
Assessment of Single- vs. Two-Stage Process for the Anaerobic Digestion of Liquid Cow Manure and Cheese Whey

The growing interest in processes that involve biomass conversion to renewable energy, such as anaerobic digestion, has stimulated research in this field in order to assess the optimum conditions for biogas production from abundant feedstocks, like agro-industrial wastes. Anaerobic digestion is an attractive process for the decomposition of organic wastes via a complex microbial consortium and subsequent conversion of metabolic intermediates to hydrogen and methane. The present study focused on the exploitation of liquid cow manure (LCM) and cheese whey (CW) as noneasily and easily biodegradable sources, respectively, using continuous stirred-tank reactors for biogas production, and a comparison was presented between single- and two-stage anaerobic digestion systems. No significant differences were found concerning LCM treatment, in a two-stage system compared to a single one, concluding that LCM can be treated by implementing a single-stage process, as a recalcitrant substrate, with the greatest methane production rate of 0.67 L CH4/(LR·d) at an HRT of 16 d. On the other hand, using the easily biodegradable CW as a monosubstrate, the two-stage process was considered a better treatment system compared to a single one. During the single-stage process, operational problems were observed due to the limited buffering capacity of CW. However, the two-stage anaerobic digestion of CW produced a stable methane production rate of 0.68 L CH4/(LR·d) or 13.7 L CH4/Lfeed, while the total COD was removed by 76%.
ORGANOPHOSPHORUS PESTICIDE RESIDUES IN SOIL AND VEGETABLE, THROUGH DIFFERENT GROWING SYSTEMS

The intensive vegetable system means that more toxic organic and inorganic compounds are entering the environment. The aim of this study was to obtain the necessary answers on the content of organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs) regarding to quantify these residues on soils cultivated with vegetables in conventional, organic and conversion systems, and also determine which pesticide residues are going in edible vegetable parts. A number of 23 OPPs were analyzed from soil (50 samples) and vegetables plants (25 samples) from five farms, during the year 2010. Based on analyses of the OPPs, four pesticide residues were detected both in soil and vegetable fruits samples, in the conventional farms, as: Omethoate, Phorate, Metribuzin and Phosmet. In the samples collected from organic farming, OPPs studied were not detected in any soil and vegetables. The content of OPPs residues in farms under conversion crops is decreasing both in soil and vegetables. OPPs have been detected in most samples collected from conventional farms, but residues content does not exceed the maximum admitted limits for the four OPPs, in accordance with EC Regulations (2005) and (2013). Our research proves the fact that the three growing systems had significant influence on the level of polluting with OPPs. Organic farming ensured soil and vegetable products free of OPPs contaminants than conventional system where maintain some OPPs contaminants.
Economic Valuation as a Communication Device for Environmental Philanthropy: Evidence from the Lab and Field

Through a randomized, controlled laboratory experiment and a natural field experiment with a nonprofit organization partner, we test the efficacy of economic valuation information as a communication strategy for encouraging environmental philanthropy. Although the use of monetary values in fundraising appeals might encourage some to give, for others it may crowd out intrinsic motivation to donate. We find that recent monetary support of environmental causes and organization membership status interact with the economic valuation treatment. Significant heterogeneous effects are found in both experiments, but evidence of motivation crowding is found only in the field.
Analisis Dampak Pandemi COVID 19 Terhadap Pemasaran Online di Kecil dan Usaha Menengah (UMKM)

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis dampak pandemi COVID 19 terhadap pemasaran online bagi Usaha Mikro, Kecil, dan Menengah (UMKM). Metode penelitian yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah deskriptif analisis dan termasuk dalam jenis penelitian kepustakaan. Luaran dari penelitian ini adalah jurnal nasional dan internasional. Penelitian ini diharapkan dapat meningkatkan pertumbuhan UMKM melalui pemasaran online. Hasil kajian literatur menyimpulkan bahwa pandemi virus corona telah memberikan dampak yang signifikan bagi para pelaku usaha di seluruh dunia, termasuk di Indonesia. Sebagian besar pelaku usaha terpaksa menghentikan kegiatan usahanya, karena kebijakan yang dikeluarkan oleh pemerintah. Keadaan ini berdampak pada penurunan turnover. Namun di sisi lain terjadi peningkatan transaksi penjualan online yang cukup signifikan sehingga dapat menjadi peluang bagi tumbuhnya UMKM dengan mengoptimalkan pemasaran online.
Genetic Mapping Reveals Novel Exotic and Elite QTL Alleles for Salinity Tolerance in Barley

Soil salinity is one of the constraints of crop production in Egypt. The aims of this study were to identify genomic regions associated with grain weight and its related traits along with their salinity tolerance indices and to identify the most salinity tolerant and high-yielding genotypes. Therefore, we evaluated an advanced backcross mapping population of barley in newly reclaimed soil under two salinity levels of groundwater aquifers in South of Sinai, Egypt. We detected significant QTL associated with grain weight related attributes and the salinity tolerance index (STI) distributed throughout the whole genome of barley, which can be used to enhance salinity tolerance. Moreover, the markers bPb-3739 (4H, 96.3 cM), AF043094A (5H, 156 cM), bPb-8161 (7H, 2.22 cM), and bPb-5260 (7H, 115.6 cM), were the most important identified genomic regions corresponding to vernalization, dwarfing and dehydrin genes, which are correlated with salinity tolerance. Additionally, the doubled haploid lines SI001, SI043, SI044, SI028, SI242, SI035, and SI005 had the highest STI values based on yield average. The present study demonstrated that wild and elite barley do harbor novel valuable alleles, which can enrich the genetic basis of cultivated barley and improve quantitative agronomic traits under salinity conditions.
Factor Momentum and Regime-Switching Overlay Strategy

Investors are faced with challenges in diversifying risks and protecting capital during crash periods. In this article, the authors incorporate regime information in the portfolio optimization context by identifying regimes for historical time periods using an ℓ1-trend filtering algorithm and exploring different machine learning techniques to forecast the probability of an upcoming stock market crash. They then apply a regime-based asset allocation to nominal risk parity strategy. Investors can further improve their investment performance by implementing a dollar-neutral factor momentum strategy as an overlay in conjunction with the core portfolio. The authors demonstrate that the time-series factor momentum strategy generates high risk-adjusted returns and exhibits pronounced defensive characteristics during market crashes. A volatility scaling approach is employed to manage the risk and further magnify the benefits of factor momentum. Empirical results suggest that the approach improves risk-adjusted returns by a substantial amount over the benchmark from both the standalone perspective and the contributory perspective. Key Findings ▪ The authors identify historical regimes with ℓ1-trend filtering and implement a regime-switching risk parity strategy with supervised learning methods to optimize the core portfolio allocation. ▪ By adding a long–short factor momentum strategy on top of the core diversified portfolios, the authors are able to further enhance the portfolio’s risk-adjusted return. ▪ The factor momentum strategy exhibits defensive characteristics during crashes, and its risks can be further managed by scaling the leverage based on the realized volatility.
Supplementary material to "What can we learn from amino acids about oceanic organic matter cycling and degradation?"

Abstract. Amino acids (AA) mainly bound in proteins are major constituents of living biomass and non-living organic material in the oceanic particulate and dissolved organic matter pool. Uptake and cycling by heterotrophic organisms lead to characteristic changes in AA composition so that AA based biogeochemical indicators are often used to elucidate processes of organic matter cycling and degradation. We analyzed particulate AA in a large sample set collected in various oceanic regions covering sinking and suspended particles in the water column, sediment samples as well as dissolved AA from water column and pore water samples. The aim of this study was to test and improve the use of AA derived biogeochemical indicators as proxies for organic matter sources and degradation, and to better understand particle dynamics and interaction between the dissolved and particulate organic matter pools. A principal component analysis (PCA) of all data delineates diverging AA compositions of sinking and suspended particles with increasing water depth. A new sinking particle and sediment degradation indicator (SDI) allows a fine-tuned classification of sinking particles and sediments with respect to the intensity of degradation, which is associated with changes of bulk δ15N ratios. This new indicator furthermore is sensitive to sedimentary redox conditions and can be used to detect past anoxic early diagenesis. A second indicator emerges from the AA spectra of suspended particulate matter (SPM) in the epipelagic and that of the meso- and bathypelagic ocean and is a residence time indicator (RTI). The characteristic changes in AA patterns from shallow to deep SPM are recapitulated in the AA spectra of the dissolved organic matter (DOM) pool, so that deep SPM is more similar to DOM than to any of the other organic matter pools. This implies that there is equilibration between finely dispersed SPM and DOM in the deep sea, which may be driven by microbial activity combined with annealing and fragmentation of gels. As these processes strongly depend on physico-chemical conditions in the deep ocean, changes in quality and degradability of DOM may strongly affect the relatively large pool of suspended and dissolved AA in the ocean that amounts to 15 Pg amino acid carbon (AAC) and 89 ± 29 Pg AAC, respectively.
Economic Policy Uncertainty, Bilateral Investment Treaties, and Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investment

This paper examines the effect of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) in promoting Chinese outward foreign direct investment (COFDI) in the presence of rising economic policy uncertainty in China's partner countries. We postulate that the signing of BITs should help stimulate COFDI because the treaties send a credible signal to foreign investors about the host country's intent to protect Chinese investment, and make it more difficult for the host country to violate its treaty obligations. BITs that contain rigorous investment protection and liberalization provisions, in particular, should be more likely to encourage COFDI as they directly influence Chinese investors' expectations about the stability, predictability, and security of the host market. However, while BITs generally promote COFDI, host country economic policy uncertainty may also limit their effectiveness. This is because uncertainty tends to undermine investor confidence, trigger capital flows from high- to low-risk countries, and dampen commercial activities. Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood (PPML) estimation models of the determinants of COFDI to 188 countries between 2003 and 2017 lend substantial support to our conjectures.
Evaluación de nanopartículas de ZnO para la separación de CH4-CO2

El gas natural contiene diferentes tipos de gases como metano, etano, propano, butano, nitrogeno y dioxido de carbono, siendo el primero su principal componente. La separacion del dioxido de carbono del gas natural se hace indispensable para su uso como combustible domestico, industrial y de automotores. El uso de materiales porosos que sean capaces de adsorber preferencialmente el CO2 es una alternativa viable para obtener gas natural puro, que permite su empleo en dichas aplicaciones. Los materiales tradicionalmente usados como adsorbentes de CO2 son el carbon activado, las zeolitas y otros noveles como los enrejados metalorganicos (MOFs en ingles). En el presente trabajo se evalua la capacidad de adsorcion de CO2 usando nanoparticulas de oxido de zinc (ZnONPs) como adsorbentes atractivos, debido a su bajo costo, su gran estabilidad quimica y su amplia capacidad de funcionalizacion. Palabras clave: nanoparticulas de ZnO, adsorcion, separacion, area superficial.