Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Immune Status and Growth of Broiler Fed Diet with Microparticle Protein Added with Natural Acidifier

The present study was conducted to evaluate the feeding effect of diet composed of microparticle protein added with lime juice as an acidifier on immune status and efficiency of protein utilization in relation to the growth of broiler chicken. Dietary treatments tested were P1 was diet with 20% intact protein and CaCO3 as a Ca source, P2 was diet with 20% microparticle protein and eggshell as a Ca source added with 1.2% lime juice, and P3 was diet with 20% microparticle protein and eggshell as a Ca source added with 2.4% lime juice. Variables measured were protein and amino acids digestibility, retentions of N and Ca, fecal Nτ–methyl histidine (Nτ–MH) excretion as a protein turnover index, lymphoid organs, heterophil and lymphocyte (H/L) ratio, immunoglobulin A (IgA) as a body resistance indicator, feed consumption, body weight gain (BWG), and feed conversion ratio (FCR). The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design with 3 treatments and 8 replications. Data were subjected to analysis of variance and Duncan test at 5% probability. Protein and amino acid digestibility, N, and Ca retentions were significantly (p<0.05) higher in P2 and P3. However, the H/L ratio was significantly (p<0.05) lower in both treatments compared to P1. Bursa fabricius and lymph weights were not difference, but BWG in P2 significantly (p<0.05) increased. In conclusion, protein and some essential amino acids digestibility, N and Ca retentions, IgA, and BWG increase with the decrease in H/L ratio, fecal Nτ–MH, feed consumption, and FCR in broiler fed diet composed of microparticle protein source with additional 1.2 mL acidifier of lime juice.
The concerted action of oncogenic driver mutations directs global translation in intestinal epithelial cells

ABSTRACT Oncogenic transformation of colorectal cancer cells is driven by a set of mutations that cause aberrant signaling of growth factor–receptor pathways. Using organoids, we demonstrate that the most frequent driver mutations in APC, KRAS, SMAD4, and TP53 are enhancers of the global mRNA translational capacity, which is linked to intestinal cell growth in an mTOR-dependent manner.
Načini
informiranja i prepoznavanje lažnih vijesti kod studenata u Hrvatskoj tijekom
COVID-19 pandemije

Problemsko područje rada je informiranje i manipulacije informacijama. Fokus se stavlja na informacijske poremećaje i prepoznavanje lažnih vijesti jer to postaje sve veći problem, posebno u digitalnim medijima koji omogućuju njihovo viralno širenje. U radu su opisane vrste informacijskih poremećaja, s naglaskom na dezinformacije i lažne vijesti koje se najčešće objavljuju s ciljem manipulacije javnošću. Osim njih, terminološki se determiniraju pojmovi misinformacija, malinformacija i infodemija. Analiziraju se načini širenja lažnih vijesti, od onih koje šire ljudi – najčešće putem društvenih mreža, pa do upotrebe „botova“. Da bi se što bolje prepoznali informacijski poremećaji, te na pravilan način reagiralo na njih, iznose se smjernice i alati koji omogućuju provjeru istinitosti informacijskih sadržaja. Dostupna istraživanja ukazuju da je prisutnost lažnih vijesti u medijskom prostoru globalan problem, pogotovo u vrijeme pandemije koronavirusa, ali nije zastupljen u svim zemljama istim intenzitetom. Hrvatska se navodi kao zemlja čiji stanovnici znaju izbjegavati lažne vijesti. Vlastitim istraživanjem dobio se uvid u učestalost i najčešće oblike informiranja kod studenata, te njihovu sposobnost prepoznavanja lažnih vijesti. Studenti preferiraju informiranje putem digitalnih medija (web, društvene mreže), dok je upotreba tradicionalnih medija značajno manja. Smatraju da su najpouzdaniji izvor informacija televizija i radio, a internet (izuzimajući društvene mreže) je na drugom mjestu. Iako smatraju da su uspješni u prepoznavanju lažnih vijesti, iskazali su značajno manju stvarnu sposobnost njihovog prepoznavanja.
Bilateral bidding strategy in joint day-ahead energy and reserve electricity markets considering techno-economic-environmental measures

In this study, a new bilateral equilibrium model was developed for the optimal bidding strategy of both price-taker generation companies (GenCos) and distribution companies (DisCos) that participate in a joint day-ahead energy and reserve electricity market. This model, from a new perspective, simultaneously takes into account such techno-economic-environmental measures as market power, security constraints, and environmental and loss considerations. The mathematical formulation of this new model, therefore, falls into a nonlinear, two-level optimization problem. The upper-level problem maximizes the quadratic profit functions of the GenCos and DisCos under incomplete information and passes the obtained optimal bidding strategies to the lower-level problem that clears a joint day-ahead energy and reserve electricity market. A locational marginal pricing mechanism was also considered for settling the electricity market. To solve this newly developed model, a competent multi-computational-stage, multi-dimensional, multiple-homogeneous enhanced melody search algorithm (MMM-EMSA), referred to as a symphony orchestra search algorithm (SOSA), was employed. Case studies using the IEEE 118-bus test system—a part of the American electrical power grid in the Midwestern U.S.—are provided in this paper in order to illustrate the effectiveness and capability of the model on a large-scale power grid. According to the simulation results, several conclusions can be drawn when comparing the unilateral bidding strategy: the competition among GenCos and DisCos facilitates; the improved performance of the electricity market; mitigation of the polluting atmospheric emission levels; and, the increase in total profits of the GenCos and DisCos.
A Comparison of Cereal and Cereal/Vetch Crops for Fodder Conservation

Experiments were conducted at three sites across southern New South Wales, Australia, over three years (2008 to 2010), to evaluate the agronomic and quality parameters of two wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), two barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), two oat (Avena sativa L.) and one triticale (× Triticosecale) variety, grown as monocultures or in combination with purple vetch (Vicia benghalensis L.). Harvests occurred when individual cereal varieties were at the boot, anthesis, milk and soft/mid dough stage of maturity; though drought conditions or lodging forced some soft/mid dough stage harvests to be abandoned. Yield and species composition of mixed crops were measured and digestibility, crude protein, water soluble carbohydrates and fibre content were determined. Yield differed between years reflective of growing season rainfall, which varied from 185 to 479 mm. Drought conditions in 2008 were associated with low yield, vetch inclusion and fibre content and high digestibility, water soluble carbohydrates and cereal crude protein content. Conversely, very favourable conditions in 2010 were associated with high yield and fibre content, and lower digestibility, water soluble carbohydrates and cereal crude protein content. Addition of vetch increased crude protein content all crops in 2009 and 2010, and 50% of the crops in 2008. Lodging was observed in later harvests of cereal/vetch crops in 2009 and 2010.
Molecular Characterization and Tissue Distribution of Calcineurin Regulatory B Subunit during the Prevention of Diapause in the Silkworm, Bombyx mori

To clarify the molecular mechanism of prevention of entry into diapause in Bombyx mori by HCl treatment, we biochemically analyzed calcineurin regulatory B subunit (CNB) in diapause eggs treated with HCl solution. Our previous studies revealed that HCl treatment causes Ca2+ to efflux from diapause eggs. Therefore, we attempted to analyze CNB, which is known to associate with Ca2+. The gene expression level of CNB was increased by HCl treatment and the changes of the gene expression were almost the same as that in the non-diapause eggs. As for diapause eggs, almost no gene expression of CNB was confirmed except just after oviposition. In the assay for phosphorylation by protein kinase CK2, recombinant CNB (rCNB) was phosphorylated in vitro. Additionally, a Ca2+ binding assay indicated that rCNB shows affinity for Ca2+. The distribution of CNB was investigated with an immunohistochemical technique using antiserum against rCNB in diapause eggs and HCl-treated diapause eggs. CNB was localized in serosa cells and yolk cells in both eggs. These data may suggest that CNB is activated by intracellular Ca2+ or efflux Ca2+ resulting from HCl treatment, and that it plays a role in the molecular mechanisms of artificial diapause prevention or the breaking of diapause in the silkworm.
Uncovering the Hidden Numbers of Nature in the Standard Accounts of Society: Application to a Case Study of Oak Woodland dehesa and Conifer Forest Farms in Andalusia-Spain

The standard System of National Accounts (SNA) does not estimate the margins of the products without market prices consumed because it assumes that the cost prices of the final products consumed correspond to the consumer marginal willingness to pay (MWTP). Valuations of products consumed without market prices at their cost prices may not coincide with their simulated exchange values (SEV) that would be paid by consumers. This inconsistent SNA valuation can be avoided by simulating stated or revealed market prices based on consumers’ demands. Our Agroforestry Accounting System (AAS) methodology estimates the margins of the individual products without market prices based on the consumer MWTP. The SEV of private owners and public consumers MWTP for these non-market products are estimated in this study by applying stated and revealed preference valuation methods. The objectives of this study are to compare the environmental incomes, ecosystem services and profitability rates obtained by applying the AAS and the refined SNA (rSNA) methodologies to the case-study oak woodland dehesa and conifer forest farms in Andalusia, Spain. The 41 farms comprise 26 large oak woodland dehesa farms in which trees of the Quercus genus predominate, and 15 conifer forest farms where Pinus species predominate. In the studied farms, 20 individual activities have been identified which 19 are common to both the AAS and rSNA approaches, along with the additional activity of carbon which is registered in the AAS. Ownership rights of 13 private activities correspond to the farmer and 7 public activities to the government. In 2010, the case-study results show that livestock and game species consume grazed fodder which represents 50% and 95%, respectively, of their total forage units consumed in the period 2010. Livestock farming accounts for 31% of the labour compensation in the private oak woodland dehesa farms and 1% in the public conifer forest farms for the farm activities as a whole. The ecosystem services measured by the AAS in the privately-owned oak woodland dehesa and publicly-owned conifer forest farms are 2.7 and 4.6 times greater, respectively, than those estimated by the rSNA. The environmental incomes measured by the AAS for the privately-owned oak woodland dehesa and publicly-owned conifer forest farms account for 61% and 53%, respectively, of their total incomes.
Pruebas de aliento basadas en sustratos marcados con carbono 13 Breath test based on substrates labeled with carbon 13

Breath tests have been used in research laboratories for over 30 years. Originally these tests were based on substrates labeled with carbon 14 ( 14 C), a radioactive isotope, contraindicated in children and women in gestational age, and harmful for the environment, which is why in recent decades these tests have been using substrates labeled with carbon 13 ( 13
DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF RAPID STABILITY INDICATING HPLC-DETERMINATIONS OF ANTIEPILEPTIC DRUGS PHENOBARBITAL IN SUPPOSITORIES AND PHENYTOIN IN CAPSULES AS WELL AS IN URINE SAMPLE

Two simple, rapid, accurate, and stability indicating HPLC methods are described for quantitation of Phenobarbital and Phenytoin in bulk powders, dosage forms, or urine. Chromatographic quantitation of Phenobarbital was developed on Chromolith® Performance RP-18e column, using isocratic binary mobile phase of MeOH and H2O (38: 62, V/V) at flow rate of 3 mLmin−1. Determination of Phenytoin was achieved using a conventional RP C-18, applying isocratic binary mobile phase of ACN and H2O (25: 75, V/V) at flow rate of 1 mL min−1. The elution times of Phenobarbital and Phenytoin are 1.397 ± 0.039 and 5.604 ± 0.013 min, respectively. Each method was validated for system suitability, linearity, precision, limits of detection and quantitation, specificity, stability, and robustness. Stability tests were done through exposure of the analyte solutions to four different stress conditions: reflux with 1 N HCl, reflux with 1 N NaOH, reflux with 30% H2O2, and exposure to UV radiation. Limits of detection and quantitation were 0.125 and 0.250 µgmL−1 as well as 0.250 and 0.500 µgmL−1 for Phenobarbital and Phenytoin, respectively. Due to the short separation time of Phenobarbital, the method was applied for dissolution study in presence of beta-cyclodextrin. The proposed methods can be used for routine samples or stability studies.
Field-Cycling Relaxometry as a Molecular Rheology Technique: Common Analysis of NMR, Shear Modulus and Dielectric Loss Data of Polymers vs Dendrimers

Linear poly(propylene glycol) (PPG) as well as a poly(propyleneimine) (PPI) dendrimer with different molar masses (M) are investigated by field-cycling (FC) 1H NMR, shear rheology (G) and dielectric spectroscopy (DS). The results are compared in a reduced spectral density representation: the quantity R1(ωτα)/R1α(0), where R1(ωτα) is the master curve of the frequency dependent spin–lattice relaxation rate with τα denoting the local correlation time, is compared to the rescaled dynamic viscosity η′(ωτα)/η′α(0). The quantities R1α(0) and η′α(0), respectively, are the zero-frequency limits of a simple liquid reference system. Analogously, the dielectric loss data can be included in the methodological comparison. This representation allows quantifying the sensitivity of each method with respect to the polymer-specific relaxation contribution. Introducing a “cumulative mode ratio” Fi(M) for each technique i, which measures the zero-frequency plateau of the rescaled spectral density, characteristic power-law beh.
Chunk-Level Speech Emotion Recognition: A General Framework of Sequence-to-One Dynamic Temporal Modeling

A critical issue of current speech-based sequence-to-one learning tasks, such as speech emotion recognition (SER), is the dynamic temporal modeling for speech sentences with different durations. The goal is to extract an informative representation vector of the sentence from acoustic feature sequences with varied length. Traditional methods rely on static descriptions such as statistical functions or a universal background model (UBM), which are not capable of characterizing dynamic temporal changes. Recent advances in deep learning architectures provide promising results, directly extracting sentence-level representations from frame-level features. However, conventional cropping and padding techniques that deal with varied length sequences are not optimal, since they truncate or artificially add sentence-level information. Therefore, we propose a novel dynamic chunking approach, which maps the original sequences of different lengths into a fixed number of chunks that have the same duration by adjusting their overlap. This simple chunking procedure creates a flexible framework that can incorporate different feature extractions and sentence-level temporal aggregation approaches to cope, in a principled way, with different sequence-to-one tasks. Our experimental results based on three databases demonstrate that the proposed framework provides: 1) improvement in recognition accuracy, 2) robustness toward different temporal length predictions, and 3) high model computational efficiency advantages.
Fuzzy Event-Triggered Integral Sliding Mode Control of Nonlinear Continuous-Time Systems

This article investigates the design of an event-triggered-based integral sliding mode control (SMC) for a class of multiinput Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy model (TSFM)-based nonlinear systems with disturbance. Incorporating integral SMC scheme can be used along with the event-triggered control to deal with the simultaneous external disturbances and unnecessary waste of system resources. To further accommodate the characteristic of event-triggered integral SMC (ETISMC), two fuzzy integral switching surfaces are established. One is the triggered-state dependent switching surface which is proposed to obtain the ETISMC law. The other one is the conventional continuous-state dependent switching surface which is designed to ensure the robustness of the controlled system from the initial time instance. The proposed ETISMC is applicable for both single–input and multi–input, and despite the previous studies, a more reasonable ETISMC law is proposed with asynchronous premise variables. Based on Lyapunov function and adopting a decreasing time-varying triggering threshold in the event-triggered condition, the ultimately bounded stability of the closed-loop system is guaranteed. Sufficient conditions for the ultimate bounded of the trajectories of the system states are formulated in terms of new offline linear matrix inequalities. Moreover, the positive lower bound of the internal execution is ensured, which means that there is no Zeno phenomenon. To demonstrate the superiority of the proposed technique, the suggested ETISMC is applied to a two-degree freedom helicopter system and the simulation results verify the validity of the proposed control strategy.
Effect of chemical additives on the degradation of polyamideamine-epichlorohydrin (PAE) films and PAEbased papers made from bleached kraft pulps

Wet strength paper repulping is a challenge for paper recycling. This work proposes a novel approach to study the degradation of PAE-based papers made from bleached kraft pulps. In a first part, cross-linked PAE films, obtained by casting under controlled conditions, were treated by different chemical additives and the film degradation was evaluated as the relative weight difference between dry PAE films before and after the treatment. The selected reagents were sodium hydroxide, sulfuric acid, potassium persulfate and hydrogen peroxide, used alone or in combination. In a second part, the same chemical systems were applied on coated and uncoated PAE-based papers (industrial papers and model papers, i.e. handsheets). The effect of the repulping chemicals was evaluated using an original method by measuring the residual tensile force of wet paper strips after soaking them in aqueous solutions containing the reagents in given experimental conditions. As persulfate is sometimes suspected to induce paper yellowing, handsheets with and without PAE were submitted to the same treatments in order to compare the optical properties. The aqueous solution containing the chemicals before and after the PAE-based handsheet treatment was also analyzed by UV-vis spectrophotometry.
Enhancing seventh-grade students’ academic achievement through epistemologically enriched argumentation instruction

ABSTRACT This study has two aims. The first is to determine the effect of argumentation and epistemologically enriched argumentation on academic achievement. The second is to determine students’ opinions about the effect of the integration of argumentation and epistemologically enriched argumentation into the teaching process on academic achievement. In this regard, a mixed research method was utilised in the study. The sample consisted of 98 seventh-grade students studying in public schools in Turkey. The quantitative data of the research were collected using an achievement test. The qualitative data were collected by semi-structured interviews with 12 students selected from the experimental groups. There were two experimental groups in the study. Students in the first experimental group learned the Structure and Properties of Matter unit by the integration of conventional argumentation into the teaching. In the second group, students learned the same topic through epistemologically enriched argumentation. In the comparison group, the Turkish National Science Curriculum was used with no integration of argumentation. In the study, it was determined that the students in both experimental groups were more successful than the students in the comparison group. The findings of the research are discussed considering the related literature and suggestions were given.
The development of cycling in European countries since 1990

High pre-World-War-2 modal shares of cycling in European countries sharply decreased during the post-war decades. In the 1990s, European governments introduced policies to increase bicycle use. However, a database or longitudinal study on the development of bicycle use in European countries is lacking. The goal of this paper is to examine to what degree the amount of cycling has increased over the past decades, also in the context of potentially competing modes. Distances travelled per capita according to National Travel Surveys have been collected and were aggregated to seven 4-year periods between 1990 and 2017. Multilevel regression analyses on distance travelled per capita by bicycle, on foot, by public transport, and by passenger car were conducted for all countries. Additionally, analyses were conducted for which the 14 countries with data on bicycle use were divided in three groups categorised according to distance cycled per capita at the beginning of the study period. Distance cycled per capita per year ranged from some 30 km to 900 km. The results of all four regression analyses suggested that distance cycled per capita remained fairly constant over the past decades. Germany is an exception with some 150 km per capita more, in relative terms a 50% increase. Geographical variation in development is evidenced by a substantial increase of distance cycled per inhabitant in the capital cities of the countries included in the study. The outcomes suggest distance travelled on foot and by public transport (bus, tram, and metro) also remained fairly constant while the distance travelled by car increased by about 10% during the study period. We did not find indications that cycling substitutes travel on foot, by public transport or by car.
Research on main‐lobe deceptive jamming against FDA‐MIMO radar

A multiple ‐ input multiple ‐ output (MIMO) radar with frequency diverse array (FDA) produces a range ‐ angle ‐ dependent steering vector, which can suppress the deceptive jamming in joint range ‐ angle domain. This in turn complicates the task of radar jamming. With the emergence and development of digital radio frequency memory (DRFM), radar electronic jamming technique has entered the age of coherent jamming. Based on the analysis of the superiority of the FDA ‐ MIMO radar in cancelling the deceptive jammers, a novel range gate pull ‐ off method via DRFM against FDA ‐ MIMO radar is proposed. Compared with the traditional deceptive jamming methods, the proposed method cannot be suppressed due to the mismatch in range. In particular, even the anti ‐ jamming methods based on power domain cease to be effective. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme in jamming the tracking performance of the FDA ‐ MIMO radar is demonstrated via computer simulations.