Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhibition of bacterial growth of Leilem leaf extract (Clerodendrum minhassae Teijsm. & Binn)

Leilem (Clerodendrum minhassae Teism. & Binn.) is a plant endemic to Sulawesi. Leilem leaves are used as a typical food vegetable for the Minahasa tribe. However, leilem leaves were used as a medicinal plant for intestinal worms, abdominal pain and chest pain. There has been no research report on the use of leilem leaves as a source of antibacterial bioactivity. This study aims to obtain the best concentration of antibacterial Leilem leaf extract. Leilem leaves are obtained from North Minahasa. Extraction by maceration method using various solvents with a level of polarity. The test concentrations of the extract were 100 mg/L, 200 mg/L, 400 mg/L and 800 mg/L. As a positive control, clindamycin 400 mg/L was used. The results showed that the percentage of solvent yield was ethanol, which was 1.23% at 1:4 (w/v) maceration. The average diameter of bacterial growth is 12.6 mm. The results of the one way ANOVA analysis showed significant differences between test concentrations (p>0.5). Tukey's test showed that the three extracts significantly inhibited the growth of gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus strain ATCC 25923. The n-hexane extract showed the best antibacterial activity, followed by ethanol extract and ethyl acetate extract. Leilem leaves are potential to be developed as a source of antibacterial bioactive.
Review article: Current State of Deep Learning Application to Water-related Disaster Management in Developing Countries

Availability of abundant water resources data is a great concern hindering adoption of deep learning techniques (DL) for disaster mitigation in developing countries. However, over the last three decades, a sizeable amount of DL publication in disaster management emanated mostly from developed countries with efficient data management systems. To understand the current state of DL adoption for solving water-related disaster problems in developing countries, an extensive bibliometric 10 review coupled with a theory-based analysis of related research documents is conducted from 1993 – 2022 using Web of Science, Scopus, VOSviewer software and PRISMA model schema. Results revealed a ‘slightly’ increasing trend of DL-based water disaster publication in developing countries ( tau = 0.35, p = 0.00045, Sen-slope, s = 0.00 at confidence level of 95%), as opposed to the ‘significantly’ increasing trend globally ( tau = 0.910, p = 1.72 e-12, Sen-slope, s = 2.52 at confidence level of 95%). Also, pluvio-fluvial flooding is found to constitute 78% most disaster prevalence and China is the only ‘high human 15 development’ developing country with an impressive 51% DL adoption rate, due to China’s increasing need for AI-based solutions to persistent multiyear severe water stress, climate change, environmental degradation, recurrent flood, and saltwater intrusion into estuaries. COVID-19 among other factors is identified as a driver of DL adoption. Further analysis indicates that developing countries will experience implementation delay based on their low Human Development Indices (HDI) because model deployment in solving disaster problems in real life scenarios is currently lacking due to high cost. Therefore, data 20 augmentation, transfer learning, intensive research, deployment using cheap web-based servers and APIs are recommended to enhance disaster preparedness. Developing countries can explore these solutions to foster inclusion in global DL-based disaster mitigation approaches
Poster: Effectiveness of Moving Target Defense Techniques to Disrupt Attacks in the Cloud

Moving Target Defense (MTD) can eliminate the asymmetric advantage that attackers have in terms of time to explore a static system by changing a system's configuration dynamically to reduce the efficacy of reconnaissance and increase uncertainty and complexity for attackers. To this extent, a variety of MTDs have been proposed for specific aspects of a system. However, deploying MTDs at different layers/components of the Cloud and assessing their effects on the overall security gains for the entire system is still challenging since the Cloud is a complex system entailing physical and virtual resources, and there exists a multitude of attack surfaces that an attacker can target. Thus, we explore the combination of MTDs, and their deployment at different components (belonging to various operational layers) to maximize the security gains offered by the MTDs.We also propose a quantification mechanism to evaluate the effectiveness of the MTDs against the attacks in the Cloud.
Reward architecture in Deep reinforcement learning for disaster road management plan

: Reward in Deep RL infers heuristic knowledge of the goal. To derive optimal policy for rapid disrupted mobility recovery, we set human mobility recovery rate, road connectivity, travel cost as the reward factors, and generated the reward framework. However, there exist various relative importance of reward factors, and if the preference is different from the original one, we could not be sure the optimal policy can always be identified. That is, if the framework does not properly represent optimization problem, it might fail to get optimal road recovery plan. Therefore, it is quite important to identify a set of relative preference which derive optimal policies for enhancing the robustness and generality of our model. In this paper, we would identify generalized optimal policy over the space of all possible preferences and confirm underlying preference by applying envelope multi-objective optimization algorithm.
An Effective Noise Resistant FM Continuous-Wave Radar Vital Sign Signal Detection Method

 Abstract — To address the problem that the FM continuous-wave (FMCW) radar extracts human vital sign signals which are susceptible to noise interference and low reconstruction accuracy, a detection scheme for the sign signals is proposed. Firstly, an improved complete ensemble empirical modal decomposition with adaptive noise (ICEEMDAN) algorithm is applied to decompose the radar-extracted thoracic signals to obtain several intrinsic modal functions (IMF) with different spatial scales, and then the IMF components are optimized by a backpropagation (BP) neural network improved by immune genetic algorithm (IGA). The simulation results show that this scheme can effectively separate the noise, accurately extract the respiratory and heartbeat signals and improve the reconstruction accuracy and signal-to-noise ratio of the sign signals.
Building Augmented and Virtual Reality Experiences for Children with Visual Diversity

Currently, a binational network of universities carries out a collaborative project which seeks to promote inclusion and education in environmental issues for children. The so-called “Colombia-Québec collaborative project” seeks to develop interactive narratives about four Colombian animals to help develop language, cognitive and motricity skills in children while they gain awareness of endangered animals. Chosen animals include the cotton top tamarin, the jaguar, the spectacled bear, and the con-dor. We are building several interactive systems which take advantage of augmented and virtual reality technologies to expand narratives developed by speech and language therapists. Our goal is to use these systems to study the effects of the virtuality continuum in visually diverse children’s development. We present our advances
Driving mechanisms for the ENSO impact on stratospheric ozone

While the impact of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on the stratospheric circulation has been long recognized, 5 its effects on stratospheric ozone have been less investigated. In particular, the impact on ozone of different ENSO flavors, Eastern Pacific (EP) El Niño and Central Pacific (CP) El Niño, as well as the driving mechanisms for the ozone variations have not been investigated to date. This study aims to explore these open questions by examining the anomalies in advective transport, mixing and chemistry associated with different El Niño flavors (EP and CP) and La Niña in the Northern Hemisphere in boreal winter. For this purpose, we use four 60-year ensemble members of the Whole Atmospheric Community Climate 10 Model version 4. The results show a significant ENSO signal on total column ozone (TCO) during EP El Niño and La Niña events. During EP El Niño events, TCO is significantly reduced in the tropics and enhanced at middle and high latitudes in boreal winter. The opposite response has been found during La Niña. Interestingly, CP El Niño has no significant impact on extratropical TCO while its signal in the tropics is weaker than for EP El Niño events. The analysis of mechanisms reveals that advection through changes in tropical upwelling is the main driver for ozone variations in the lower tropical stratosphere, with 15 a contribution of chemical processes above 30 hPa. At middle and high latitudes, stratospheric ozone variations related to ENSO result from combined changes in advection by residual circulation downwelling and changes in horizontal mixing linked to Rossby wave breaking and polar vortex anomalies. The impact of CP El Niño on the shallow branch of the residual circulation is small, and no significant impact is found on the deep branch.
Characterization of fault zone, using audio-frequency magneto telluric survey, in the Horonobe area, northern Japan

Fault zones have significant influences on ground water flow. It is important to understand the positions and internal structures of fault zones for hydrogeological modeling. These structures include fault cores and damage zones (Caine et al., 1996). The Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute is performing research on investigation and modeling techniques in the process of mapping the geological environment from surface to deep underground in the sedimentary rocks of northern Hokkaido. The main research area is located around the Hokushin district in the Horonobe-cho. Neogene siliceous sediments, divided into the Wakkanai Formation(hard shale) and the Koetoi Formation(diatomaceous mudstone), are distributed in the area. The Omagari fault runs with a NNW-SSE strike, but its detailed position has not been confirmed. The ground water is saline in the deeper part, and fresh in the shallower part. We investigated the position and the internal structure of the Omagari fault, using the results of geological mappings, reflection seismic surveys, audio-frequency magneto telluric surveys, and borehole investigations (HDB_1-8). An outcrop of the Omagari fault is located 5 km south from the main research area. At the outcrop, the internal structure of the Omagari fault consists of a thin fault core (about 10 cm width) and a wide damage zone (over 150 m width). In the main research area, the results of the reflection seismic surveys and of the borehole investigations show the discontinuous nature of the structure known as the Omagari fault. The results of magneto telluric surveys show two high-resistivity zones having a flower-shape structure, especially in the deeper part. These high resistivity zones overlap with the low saline concentration zones. The overlapping suggests the infiltration of the fresh water from the surface into the deeper part through permeable structures. One of the two high-resistivity zones corresponds to the position of the Omagari fault. Therefore, the Omagari fault is believed to be permeable. Oil/gas shows exist near the surface position of the Omagari Fault, and the Omagari fault includes a wide damage zone that is a permeable structure as classified by Caine et al. (1996). This information supports the previous surmise. In addition, the other high-resistivity zone appears to be a permeable structure like the damage zone of the Omagari fault. The fracture zone, similar to the damage zone of the Omagari fault, is distributed in the borehole intersected by the other. Therefore, the Omagari fault may be distributed in the other zone and form over-step structures.
Asteroseismic analysis of two α-enhanced stars KIC 7976303 and KIC 8694723

We intent to use stellar models with and without alpha-enhancement, as well as asteroseismic analysis, to study two alpha-enhanced stars, KIC 7976303 and KIC 8694723. For the alpha-enhanced models, we adopt [alpha/Fe] = 0.2, and 0.4. For the evolved sub-giant KIC 7976303 with mixed-modes, alpha-enhanced models fit the observations better than the models without alpha-enhancement, and point to a star with M = 1.20 $\pm$ 0.02 M_odot, t = 4.88 $\pm$ 0.08 Gyr, R = 2.04 $\pm$ 0.01 R_odot, and L = 5.07 $\pm$ 0.05 L_odot. For the post turnoff star KIC 8694723, we find that the models fit the observations well in all three cases ([alpha/Fe] = 0.0, 0.2, 0.4). According to the observed metal abundances, only alpha- enhanced models are used to estimate the stellar parameters, which are M = 1.13 $\pm$ 0.06 M_odot, t = 5.47 $\pm$ 0.43 Gyr, R = 1.55 $\pm$ 0.13 R_odot, and L = 3.18 $\pm$ 0.26 L_odot. Our alpha-enhanced models indicate KIC 7976303 has a larger mass and younger age than in previous works based on standard models. Furthermore, the differences of estimated mass and age between the three cases are $\sim$ 0.1 M_odot and $\sim$ 0.5 - 1.3 Gyr. These results suggest that we include alpha-enhancement in the modeling of alpha-enhanced stars, such as members of GCs (Globular Clusters), metal-poor stars in the disc and in the halo.
Identification of fish anatomopathological injuries from an experimental fish farm in the Peruvian Amazonia

This study aimed to identify anatomopathological injuries in sick, moribund, or recently dead fish from an experimental fish farm in the Peruvian Amazonia with a necropsy, direct microscopic, and histopathological examination. The study was carried out at the migratory fish production unit where cachama ( Colossoma macropomum ), pacus ( Piaractus brachypomus ), black prochilodus ( Prochilodus nigricans ), and spotted tiger shovelnose catfish ( Pseudoplatystoma punctifer ) are bred. Furthermore, from the non-migratory fish unit where arapaima ( Arapaima gigas ) and Nile tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ) are bred at the fish farm within the Experimental Station of the IVITA Research Center in Ucayali, Peru. Thirty clinical cases distributed in thirteen incidents of diseases observed between January 2013 and June 2014 were evaluated. The tissue macroscopic and microscopic evaluations were performed through necropsies to determine the injuries and the possible causes of mortality. Samples of the skin and gills mucous membrane were collected to identify parasites by direct microscopy, and liver, kidney, and spleen imprints stained with Gram were made to observe the presence of bacteria. Histopathological analyzes of the affected tissues were also performed in some of the evaluated cases. Parasites, mainly trematodes, were found in cachama, protozoa in arapaima, and bacteria suggestive of Flavobacterium sp. in spotted tiger shovelnose catfish. Digestive (14/30), respiratory (9/30), and traumatic (3/30) injuries were identified. mucosa alterations, and areas of slight blood congestion on the edge of the gill membranes, whereas, in one individual, there were no apparent injuries; the stomach and intestines of one fry fish with injuries was collected for a histopathology study. The six postlarvae did not show apparent injuries, and two complete specimens were collected for the histopathology examination.
Linking the chemical composition and optical properties of biomass burning aerosols in Amazonia † Environmental Science: Atmospheres

Biomass burning emissions in Amazonia change the atmospheric composition and aerosol properties during the dry season. We investigated ﬁ ne-mode aerosol chemical composition and optical properties with an intensive ﬁ eld experiment in the dry-to-wet season transition in 2018 in Southwestern Amazonia. Aerosol composition and physical properties were measured using ACSMs, aethalometers, nephelometers, SMPSs, and CPCs. PM 1 mass concentrations showed a mean value of 12.4 (cid:1) 10.1 m g m (cid:3) 3 . Organic matter was the major constituent of PM 1 , contributing more than 75%, whereas black carbon (BC) contributed (cid:4) 15%, and inorganics were less than 10%. The organic fraction of PM 1 was apportioned by positive-matrix factorization (PMF), resolving 4 organic aerosol (OA) factors: two oxygenated OAs (OOA-1 and OOA-2), one hydrocarbon-like (HOA), and one biomass burning OA (BBOA). A low single scattering albedo (637 nm) of 0.77 (cid:1) 0.08 was observed, suggesting a signi ﬁ cant absorption material. BC and brown carbon (BrC) contributions to the absorption coe ﬃ cient (470 nm) were retrieved, and BrC corresponded, on average, to 20% of total absorption. The mass scattering (MSE) and absorption e ﬃ ciencies (MAE) of PM 1 particles were determined by multilinear regression (MLR), using the PMF factors as predictor variables. Overall, organic aerosols showed signi ﬁ cant light absorption in the UV-vis wavelength range and strong spectral dependence indicating the presence of organic species that act as BrC, predominantly associated with biomass burning OAs. Our results emphasize the need for a better understanding of links between aerosol composition and optical properties, including the absorption spectra of BrC in the Amazon. Wild  res emit a variety of compounds both in gas and particulate phases that have implications on atmospheric composition and climate. From  eld observations, we investigated the correlations between aerosol chemical composition and optical properties by reconstructing the absorption and scattering coe ﬃ cients from the mass concentration of PM 1 components and calculating chemically resolved mass absorption and scattering e ﬃ ciencies. The contribution of brown carbon to the absorption coe ﬃ cient was also explored, evaluating its spectral dependence and estimating its absorption e ﬃ ciency at di ﬀ erent wavelengths. Our results reveal the important aspects of how biomass burning emissions alter the physicochemical properties of aerosols and, in turn, disturb the natural characteristics of emissions from the Amazon rainforest, which can in  uence the regional and global climate.
effect in realizing gains and losses”

This paper examines the weekend effect of disposition effect based on a transaction dataset on the Taiwan stock index futures market. Individuals show higher tendency to realize both gains and losses on Friday, and dealers are also prone to realize losses on Friday. But foreign investors show lower propensity to realize loss on Friday. Taken the higher tendency of realizing gains and losses together, the paper concludes that the weekday effect of disposition effect does not exist. In addition, traders are less likely to enter a new contract on Monday regardless of buy or sell orders. But they are liable to close a long position through placing a sell order on Friday.
Environment Warped Gait Trajectory Optimization for Complex Terrains

Contact-aware gait trajectory optimization is a challenging non-convex programming problem, especially for complex terrain shapes, where prominent numerical algorithms can fail to find a solution or fall into local minima. To alleviate this issue, we propose an environment warping technique that changes the coordinates for decision variables. Given a terrain of some general shape, our method first generates a locally injective, as-conformal-as-possible function that maps the ambient space around the terrain to a warped space. We then formulate the trajectory optimization in the warped space by remapping all the decision variables. Our method frees the numerical optimizer from tuning the trajectories to fit changing terrain shapes, leading to better numerical conditioning and fewer local minima. Numerical results show that our method outperforms direct trajectory optimization in terms of both success rates and quality of solutions.
Identifying Complementarities in Subscription Software Usage Using Advertising Experiments

In this study, we causally examine complementarity in usage across a set of related software products from a multi-product firm. Digital contexts are characterized by little price variation, bundled pricing plans, and infrequent purchase or subscription renewal decisions. In these settings, computing typical cross-price elasticity measures for complementarities is often infeasible. We employ a novel experimental approach to causally identify complementarities, leveraging rich usage data and advertising experiments that affect usage of one product at a time. Though this approach, we directly measure complementarities based on usage rather than purchase. We test our approach using data from a software company with a suite of related products, and find evidence for varying degrees of complementarity between products in the suite. We also explore variation in these effects across user populations, finding that they vary across both product and consumer segments. We show that accounting for complementarity significantly affects the measurement of ad effectiveness. We also document the impact of our estimates on ad targeting decisions by the firm. Ours is one of the first studies to causally examine complementarity and substitutability between products in this context of subscription products, and our identification strategy has application in a variety of contexts.
The Anti-In ﬂ ammatory Effects of Glucagon-Like Peptide Receptor Agonist Lixisenatide on the Retinal Nuclear and Nerve Fiber Layers in an Animal Model of Early Type 2 Diabetes

This study explored the anti-in ﬂ ammatory effects of a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA), known as lixisenatide, on the eyes of early type 2 diabetic mice. Diabetic ( db/db ) mice were divided into three groups: GLP-1RA [lixisenatide (LIX)], insulin (INS) with controlled hyperglycemia based on the glucose concentration of lixisenatide, and diabetic control (D-CON). Nondiabetic control mice ( db/dm ) were also characterized for comparison. After 8 weeks of treatment, mRNA levels of in ﬂ ammatory markers, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling, immunohistochemical staining; Western blot of glial ﬁ brillary acidic protein (GFAP) and thioredoxin-interacting protein and GFAP in the peripheral neurosensory retina compared with and INS, decreased expression of these proteins in the neurosensory retina and immunohistochemical staining compared D-CON.
Conventional Banking and Islamic Banking: Do the Different Philosophies Lead to Different Financial Outcomes?

Islamic Banking (IB) is a contemporary segment of banking and finance that has become increasingly significant in many Muslim countries. Malaysia is one of the countries that has adopted a dual banking system. Conventional Banks (CBs) borrow money from depositors at a low interest rate and lend them to borrowers at a high interest rate. In contrast, interest is forbidden in Islam and therefore Islamic banks enter into profit-sharing arrangements with both depositors and borrowers. This study seeks to determine whether differing banking arrangements based on different philosophies lead to different outcomes. Several previous studies have compared the profitability, liquidity and risk performance of the two banking systems, but few studies have focused on revenue distribution between the two types of banking systems. Secondary data from the annual reports of 10 banks with both conventional and Islamic banking windows for five years was used. We used financial ratios to process the data, such as profit return to depositors’ ratio, net profit ratio, risk ratio and so on. The independent sample test was used to analyse these ratios. Our findings indicate that depositors get higher returns from Islamic banking than from conventional banking. In contrast, conventional banks appear to have a higher taxation cost, operating cost and net profit margin. In the area of profitability and risk performance, conventional banks perform better, while Islamic banks are more liquid.