Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Environmental Stresses (Heat, Salt, Waterlogging) on Grain Yield and Associated Traits of Wheat under Application of Sulfur-Coated Urea

Abiotic stresses, such as heat, salt, waterlogging, and multiple-stress environments have significantly reduced wheat production in recent decades. There is a need to use effective strategies for overcoming crop losses due to these abiotic stresses. Fertilizer-based approaches are readily available and can be managed in all farming communities. This research revealed the effects of sulfur-coated urea (SCU, 130 kg ha−1, release time of 120 days) on wheat crops under heat, salt, waterlogging, and combined-stress climatic conditions. The research was done using a completely randomized design with three replicates. The results revealed that SCU at a rate of 130 kg of N ha−1 showed a significantly (p ≤ 0.05) high SPAD value (55) in the case of waterlogging stress, while it was the lowest (31) in the case of heat stress; the control had a SPAD value of 58. Stress application significantly (p ≤ 0.05) reduced the leaf area and was the highest in control (1898 cm2), followed by salt stress (1509 cm2), waterlogging (1478 cm2), and heat stress (1298 cm2). A significantly (p ≤ 0.05) lowest crop yield was observed in the case of heat stress (3623.47 kg ha−1) among all stresses, while it was 10,270 kg ha−1 in control and was reduced up to 35% after the application of heat stress. Among all stresses, the salt stress showed the highest crop yield of 5473.16 kg ha−1. A significant correlation was observed among growth rate, spike length, yield, and physiological constraints with N content in the soil. The SCU fertilizer was the least effective against heat stress but could tolerate salt stress in wheat plants. The findings suggested the feasibility of adding SCU as an alternative to normal urea to alleviate salt stresses and improve wheat crop growth and yield traits. For heat stress tolerance, the applicability of SCU with a longer release period of ~180 days is recommended as a future prospect for study.
The outlook of doctors toward telemedicine: A cross-sectional study of knowledge, awareness, and attitude in central India

Background: In an underdeveloped country like India where there are varied constraints in accessing healthcare, telemedicine can prove to be instrumental in providing access to the scant medical resources and infrastructures. The irony lies in its underutilization, which is multifactorial. Objective: The present research was planned to evaluate the level of awareness, knowledge, and attitude toward telemedicine among the faculty members of tertiary-care teaching centers in Chhattisgarh, India. Methods: A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to collect appropriate data, which were utilized for analysis as well as various intergroup analyses (among different designations, age groups, sex, and worksite). The data have been presented as median and percentage, while for intergroup comparison Mann-Whitney Test was performed. Results: Among the 115 respondents, only 34% were females. The mean age was around 40.7 years, and 58% were <40 years of age. Their median scores of awareness, knowledge, and attitude were estimated to be 06, 14, and +9, respectively. No statistically significant difference was observed in the awareness, knowledge, and attitude among the faculty members belonging to different designations, age groups, and worksites. Conclusions: Though, in general, the faculty members have demonstrated a favorable attitude toward the use of telemedicine yet most of them scored below the median mark. Furthermore, the estimated level of knowledge and awareness was also mediocre.
Applying Augmented Reality Techniques in the Field of Education: "ARSC: Augmented Reality Student Card" An Augmented Reality Solution for The Education Field

Augmented Reality (AR) is the technology of adding virtual objects to real scenes through enabling the addition of missing information in real life. AR is an emerging technology which will grow from about $6 million in 2008 to more than $350 million in 2014. As the lack of resources is a problem that can be solved through AR, this thesis presents and explains the usage of AR technology for the education field. The thesis shows the different AR components for creating any AR solution. Through the thesis detailed study was conducted on the AR technology: the available display types, tracking techniques and the AR libraries which can be used for further researches. This thesis offers a close look on the technology stability, showing all the stages the AR technology went through. We introduce Augmented Reality Student Card (ARSC) as an application of AR in the field of education.ARSC is designed to be a useful low cost solution for serving the education field without sacrificing the educational benefits.ARSC can be used in offline, online and game applications with seven markers, four of them are used as a joystick game controller.
Control strategy for a three phase AC traction drive with three-level GTO PWM inverter

A control strategy developed for two-level inverters is applied to the three-level gate-turn-off PWM inverter. This is done by replacing the three-level inverter by two coupled two-level inverters and taking the coupling condition into account. A control strategy based on the method of direct self-control is described. Results from computer simulation for a traction motor with 1400 kW nominal power are shown and discussed. <<ETX>>
Phenotypes, Lung Microbiota and Cytokine Responses in Pneumonia After Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

Objective We aim to identify phenotypes of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) patients with pneumonia, discover relations of microbiota composition, cytokine profile, and outcomes between phenotypes. Specific cytokines will be evaluated for their role in lung injury in a murine model. Methods HSCT patients with pneumonia were included, and clustering of variables including cytokine levels provided the phenotypes. Outcomes were compared between phenotypes. Analysis of lung microbiota identified marker species of phenotypes. In the murine model, marker species-related cytokine regulations and the role of cytokines in lung injury were evaluated. Results Seventy-two patients were included, and two phenotypes were identified, namely “reactive” (N=21) and “nonreactive” (N=51) phenotype. Compared to their counterparts, patients with nonreactive phenotype had lower serum IL-6, IL-8, less severe inflammation, worse outcomes and more viruses as marker species in lung microbiota. The animal study validated the pathogens specific cytokine responses that presented in the human study and the potential protective role of IL-6 in these patients. Conclusion HSCT patients with pneumonia can be clustered into two phenotypes with different marker species and outcomes: the “nonreactive” phenotype and the “reactive” phenotype. Serum cytokine levels were different between the two phenotypes, which indicate the existence of the pathogen-related cytokine responses. For patients with the “nonreactive” phenotype, IL-6 therapy may improve their prognosis, which should be further tested in clinical studies.
Revisiting the Effect of Pharmaceuticals on Transmission Stage Formation in the Malaria Parasite Plasmodium falciparum

Malaria parasites rely on specialized stages, called gametocytes, to ensure human-to-human transmission. The formation of these sexual precursor cells is initiated by commitment of blood stage parasites to the sexual differentiation pathway. Plasmodium falciparum, the most virulent of six parasite species infecting humans, employs nutrient sensing to control the rate at which sexual commitment is initiated, and the presence of stress-inducing factors, including antimalarial drugs, has been linked to increased gametocyte production in vitro and in vivo. These observations suggest that therapeutic interventions may promote gametocytogenesis and malaria transmission. Here, we engineered a P. falciparum reporter line to quantify sexual commitment rates after exposure to antimalarials and other pharmaceuticals commonly prescribed in malaria-endemic regions. Our data reveal that some of the tested drugs indeed have the capacity to elevate sexual commitment rates in vitro. Importantly, however, these effects are only observed at drug concentrations that inhibit parasite survival and only rarely result in a net increase of gametocyte production. Using a drug-resistant parasite reporter line, we further show that the gametocytogenesis-promoting effect of drugs is linked to general stress responses rather than to compound-specific activities. Altogether, we provide conclusive evidence for the absence of mechanistic links between the regulation of sexual commitment and the activity of commonly used pharmaceuticals in vitro. Our data hence contradict scenarios in which therapeutic interventions would promote the spread of drug-resistant parasites or malaria transmission in general.
Optimizing Coexistence System with Interference Temperature for Multi-user Environments

We explore the coexistence potential of cognitive system based on interference temperature. The characteristic feature of this interference temperature metric would be their ability to adapt the transmit power and bandwidth of their communication scheme to maximize the QoS for the secondary users while minimizing the interference to the primary users. Considering generalized interference temperature model as a baseline [2], we investigate the throughput variation of the secondary user in the heterogeneous communication environment. Also we propose a certain coexistence scheme that allocates bandwidth and transmit power of secondary user without harming the primary user using the concept of interference temperature.
A compact semi-lumped low-pass filter for harmonics and spurious suppression

A semi-lumped parallel resonance circuit was employed to design a very compact low-pass filter. The semi-lumped shunt arm consists of a capacitor and a transmission line section. In such an arrangement, two finite attenuation poles can be generated near the passband edge. As a result, the proposed filter enjoys sharper cutoff and fewer filter orders than those of the conventional low-pass filters. In addition, these two attenuation poles can be properly designed to suppress the second and third harmonics generated from power amplifier and frequency source. A low-temperature cofired-ceramic (LTCC) multilayer-ceramic (MLC) low-pass filter and a PCB low-pass filter with a 0402 chip capacitor were designed and tested. Experimental results demonstrate the capability of this filter in harmonics and spurious suppression.
Intrusion Detection System Based on Fuzzy Association Rule with Genetic Network Programming

2 Abstract: Intrusion detection which classifies the attacks on the Internet from usual behaviour of usage on the Internet. Here intrusion detection systems are vital tool in the cluster environment fight to keep its computing resources secure . It is an unavoidable portion of the information security system. Emerging variety of network behaviours and the rapid development of attack scenarios, it is vital to develop fast machine-learning-based intrusion detection algorithms with high detection rates and low false positive and false negative -alarm rates with the help of association rule mining. In this course of work a fuzzy class-association rule mining method based on genetic network programming (GNP) for intrusion detection. GNP is an evolutionary optimization technique, which uses directed graph structures leads for enhancing the representation ability . In combination with fuzzy set theory and GNP, the proposed work can deal with mixed database that contains both discrete and continuous attributes and also extract many important class association rule . Therefore, the proposed method can be flexibly applied to both misuse and anomaly detection in network-intrusion-detection . It can extract important rules using these tuples and this mechanisms can calculate measurements of association rules directly using GNP which provides detection rate for prediction based approach.
Keeping cool while saving space and money: a semi-integrated, sensorless PM brushless drive for a 42

This article describes a semiintegrated permanent-magnet (PM) brushless drive for a 42-V electric compressor for automotive heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC). Electric compressors have the advantages of low refrigerant emissions, flexible packaging, and efficient variable-speed operation. These are intended for vehicles where the engine shuts off during stops, as in "stop and go" (starter generator), or for vehicles with auxiliary power units (fuel cells). A low-cost, semiintegrated position sensorless motor controller has been designed, build and tested over a wide speed range with overall system efficiencies of 85% or more over a significant portion of its operating range. Issues related to sensorless operation, packaging and thermal management, EMI abatement and performance of the drive are discussed.
Mie Sensing with Neural Networks: Recognition of Nano‐Object Parameters, the Invisibility Point, and Restricted Models

In this work, artificial neural networks (ANNs) are used to recognize nano‐objects solely from the absorbance spectrum of a macroscopic sample. For this, ANNs with two recognition schemes are constructed. The first one is designed to recognize ensembles of dielectric scatterers. The second ANN model recognizes the dimensions of gold nanospheres in a mixture and the refractive index of a matrix. A challenge in the first scheme arises at and near the invisibility point, i.e., when the refractive index of nanoparticles is close to that of the medium. Of course, particle recognition in this regime faces fundamental physical limitations. However, such recognition near the invisibility point is possible, and this study reveals its unique properties. Interestingly, the recognition process for the refractive index in the vicinity of the invisibility point shows very small errors. In contrast, the errors for recognition of the radius grow strongly near this point. Another regime with limited recognition occurs when the extinction spectra are not unique and can correspond to different realizations of nanoparticle mixtures. The recognition schemes proposed and investigated herein can find their applications in sensing.
Role of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptors (PPARs) in Energy Homeostasis of Dairy Animals: Exploiting Their Modulation through Nutrigenomic Interventions

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are the nuclear receptors that could mediate the nutrient-dependent transcriptional activation and regulate metabolic networks through energy homeostasis. However, these receptors cannot work properly under metabolic stress. PPARs and their subtypes can be modulated by nutrigenomic interventions, particularly under stress conditions to restore cellular homeostasis. Many nutrients such as polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamins, dietary amino acids and phytochemicals have shown their ability for potential activation or inhibition of PPARs. Thus, through different mechanisms, all these nutrients can modulate PPARs and are ultimately helpful to prevent various metabolic disorders, particularly in transition dairy cows. This review aims to provide insights into the crucial role of PPARs in energy metabolism and their potential modulation through nutrigenomic interventions to improve energy homeostasis in dairy animals.
Characterization of a full-field digital mammography detector based on direct x-ray conversion in selenium

We describe a high-resolution digital x-ray detector suitable for producing high quality mammographic images. The detector consists of an array of 3584 by 4096 pixels on 70 micrometer centers covering an area of 25 cm by 29 cm. The conversion layer of the detector is 250 micrometer thick amorphous selenium. Each pixel of the array consists of a storage capacitor for collecting x-ray signals and an amorphous silicon switching transistor. The signal is read out by custom high-speed, low-noise electronics. The integration of this detector with a mammographic x-ray system and acquisition console is described, as well as algorithms for calibration of the full system. We review characterization of the imaging performance of our system based on quantitative analyses of MTF and DQE data, and compare experimental results with theoretical calculations. We compare the performance of our direct conversion system with that of screen/film analog systems and indirect conversion digital detectors, such as LORAD's CsI/CCD detector, operated under similar conditions. MTF degradation mechanisms and system noise sources and their effect on DQE are discussed. We review qualitative aspects of image quality from our detector and present preliminary observer performance characteristics on clinical studies run with our system.
A survey of current cost estimating practices in the UK

The results are documented of an investigation into current cost estimating practices of contractors for construction projects. A questionnaire survey of contractors was undertaken, in which the respondents are classified into four groups based on their turnover namely: very small, small, medium and large firms. The survey indicates that contractors, irrespective of size, continue to undertake cost estimating predominantly for construction planning purposes, including the preparation of tenders and cost control of projects during the execution stage and, to a lesser extent, for construction project evaluation. Recent developments in cost estimating methods and tools that consider risks and variability in cost estimates, such as the use of range estimating and parametric estimating techniques, have not been adopted by contractors. The practice of cost estimating does not differ from conventional techniques based on the use of labour and material constants to obtain prices for bills of quantities items on an item by item basis. The study shows that the major causes of inaccuracy in cost estimating continue to be the lack of practical knowledge of the construction process by those responsible for the estimating function, insufficient time to prepare cost estimates, poor tender documentation and the wide variability of subcontractors' prices.
Adsorption and Desorption Behavior of Ectoine Using Dowex® HCR-S Ion-Exchange Resin

Dowex® HCR-S ion-exchange resin was used to adsorb ectoine in a batch system under varying operation conditions in terms of contact time, temperature, pH value, initial concentration of ectoine, and type of salt. Six adsorption isotherm models (Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, Dubinin–Radushkevich, Sips, and Redlich–Peterson) and three kinetic models (pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, and intraparticle diffusion) were used to investigate the ectoine adsorption mechanism of ion-exchange resin. According to the experimental results, the mechanism of ectoine adsorption using an ion exchanger includes the ion-exchange reaction and physisorption. Both the Langmuir and Freundlich models were found to have a high fitting. For the kinetic analysis, the pseudo-second-order and intraparticle diffusion models were suitable to describe the ectoine adsorption. Dowex® HCR-S resin has an average saturated adsorption capacity of 0.57 g/g and 93.6% of ectoine adsorption at 25~65 °C, with an initial concentration of 125 g/L. By changing the pH of the environment using NaOH solution, the adsorbed ectoine on the ion-exchange resin can be desorbed to 87.7%.
Investigating Mass Customization Implementation in Iranian Manufacturing Organizations

The aim of this article is to investigate the extent of mass customization (MC) methods implementation in Iranian manufacturing organizations, mainly based on a descriptive analysis. Based on the review of literature seven methods and motivators and barriers of MC implementation were identified. Through a questionnaire which was distributed among 100 Iranian manufacturing organizations the extent of MC methods applied in the surveyed organizations was studied. And their priorities were determined. Results showed that these organizations have found out the importance and the role of mass customization strategy in fulfilling customer satisfaction and intimacy which could hopefully lead to the increase of their revenue and market share. But based on chi-square test the present study cannot confirm that the use of customization methods and strategy is significantly related to greater company success in Iranian manufacturing context.
Stem Cells Micro-transplantation in Elderly Patients Aged Over 70 With Acute Myeloid Leukemia: a Multicenter, Prospective, Non-interventional Study

BackgroundThe treatment outcomes of elderly patients aged over 70 with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have been very disappointing. In comparison, our designed HLA-mismatched hematopoietic stem cell micro-transplantation (MST) has achieved such encouraging treatment results in AML patients as might warrant further investigations of the outcomes of MST for the above mentioned patients. MethodsOne hundred and eleven patients aged 70-88 years were enrolled. Eighty patients were assigned to the high-risk MST or standard MST group according to high-risk prognostic factors. The other thirty-one patients were assigned to either the chemotherapy group or support group. After receiving induction chemotherapy with cytarabine and anthracycline, patients who achieved complete remission (CR) were given another 2 cycles of post-remission therapy with cytarabine. Each chemotherapy regimen was followed by donor stem cell infusion in the MST groups. ResultMST achieved an encouragingly high CR rate in patients (63.8%), even in high-risk patients (54%). It was significantly higher than that in the chemotherapy alone group. The 1-year overall survival (OS) of MST patients was 57.7% and was 68.6% in the high-risk and standard group, respectively, whereas the OS was only 37.3% in the chemotherapy group. The severe infection rate was 36% and 54% in MST and chemotherapy group. No GVHD was observed in MST patients. A larger updated T cell clones was observed in MST patients by T cell receptor repertoire analysis with a Next Generation Sequencing methodology. ConclusionsThese results suggested that MST is a safe and practical treatment regimen conducive to a longer-term survival for AML patients at a highly advanced age.
Long-Term Water Level Changes in Closed-Basin Lakes of the Canadian Prairies

The semi-arid prairie region of Canada has many closed-basin lakes that are sensitive to climatic variability and change. Long-term water level changes in these lakes provide a measure of the dynamic balance between runoff and precipitation supplying water to the lakes and water loss from the lakes by evaporation. Historic lake water level data can help to improve understanding and prediction of the hydrologic effects of climate change and land-use changes. Water level data for sixteen closed-basin lakes in the Canadian prairies were compiled from a variety of sources and additional measurements were made at some locations. In the Canadian prairie region there is an overall pattern throughout most of the twentieth century of declining lake levels, although with notable exceptions. Possible causes of lake level changes are assessed briefly, but the main objective is to present a regional and long-term perspective on lake level records.
On-line control dispatch at Florida Power & Light

Flight Power and Light (FP&L) is involved in the development and testing of a large, computer-based master station for implementing its load management program. The direct load control (DLC) function of the FP&L load-management system (LMS) has several unique features and provides a comprehensive range of functions for the effective utilization of the available load-control capacity. The authors discuss the design of the DLC function implemented in the master station. Specifically, they focus on the scheduling and utilization flexibilities provided in the design to yield valuable system resource. >