Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of ethyl methanesulfonate mediated mutation for enhancing morpho-physio-biochemical and yield contributing traits of fragrant rice

Background Chemical mutagenesis has been successfully used for increasing genetic diversity in crop plants. More than 800 novel mutant types of rice (Oryza sativa L.) have been developed through the successful application of numerous mutagenic agents. Among a wide variety of chemical mutagens, ethyl-methane-sulfonate (EMS) is the alkylating agent that is most commonly employed in crop plants because it frequently induces nucleotide substitutions as detected in numerous genomes. Methods In this study, seeds of the widely consumed Basmati rice variety (Super Basmati, Oryza sativa L.) were treated with EMS at concentrations of 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75%, 1.0%, and 1.25% to broaden its narrow genetic base. Results Sensitivity to a chemical mutagen such as ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) was determined in the M1 generation. Results in M1 generation revealed that as the levels of applied EMS increased, there was a significant reduction in the germination percent, root length, shoot length, plant height, productive tillers, panicle length, sterile spikelet, total spikelet, and fertility percent as compared to the control under field conditions. All the aforementioned parameters decreased but there was an increase in EMS mutagens in an approximately linear fashion. Furthermore, there was no germination at 1.25% of EMS treatment for seed germination. A 50% germination was recorded between 0.50% and 0.75% EMS treatments. After germination, the subsequent parameters, viz. root length and shoot length had LD50 between 05.0% and 0.75% EMS dose levels. Significant variation was noticed in the photosynthetic and water related attributes of fragrant rice. The linear increase in the enzymatic attributes was noticed by the EMS mediated treatments. After the establishment of the plants in the M1 generation in the field, it was observed that LD50 for fertility percentage was at EMS 1.0% level, for the rice variety. Conclusion Hence, it is concluded that for creating genetic variability in the rice variety (Super Basmati), EMS doses from 0.5% to 0.75% are the most efficient, and effective.
Distributed autoencoder classifier network for small‐scale and scattered COVID‐19 dataset classification

In healthcare, small‐scare data are stored with individual entities, such as hospitals, and they are not shared. However, data with one entity are not sufficient for training a machine learning model and therefore cannot be fully utilized. Given that a large amount of small‐scale data is widely distributed between hospitals/individuals, it is necessary to deploy an easy, scalable, and secure distributed computational framework. We aim to aggregate these scattered and small‐scale data to train neural networks and achieve classification and detection on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) datasets. We propose a distributed autoencoder (AE) classifier network for this purpose. It contains a central classifier and multiple distributed AEs. The AEs are used as generators. A local generator uses an actual COVID‐19 computed tomography image as the input and outputs a synthetic image. The well‐trained generator provides an image to train the central classifier model. The central classifier network model learns information from all the generated COVID‐19 data using the distributed AE. Experiments are performed using some COVID‐19 datasets. The distributed AE classifier network outperforms all the models that use a single subset, and its performance is similar to that of a regular classifier. The proposed network solves the problem of using small‐scale and scattered COVID‐19 data to train neural networks while ensuring data privacy. The accuracy of the network is the same as that achieved using the entire data.
An Optimal Control Strategy for the DAB-Based Partial Power Converter Based on Extended-Phase-Shift Control

Dual active bridge (DAB) converters are extensively used due to the advantages of wide voltage regulation range and easy realization of soft switching. Besides, the concept of partial power converters (PPCs) has been widely applied to increase the converter efficiency by reducing the power actually processed by the converter. Therefore, in this article, the DAB converter and PPC are combined. And a high frequency DAB-based PPC aiming at efficiency optimization is selected out by analyzing and comparing the characteristics of several connections. Considering the wide voltage regulation range of DAB-based PPC, the extended-phase-shift-based control strategy aiming at zero-voltage switching (ZVS) range and current stress optimization is analyzed and adopted in this article. With the trend of high frequency for power converters, the non-ideal factors like output capacitors of switches need to be considered to improve the performance. The output capacitors are taken into consideration when analyzing the ZVS performance and the magnetizing inductor is utilized to expand ZVS range. To verify correctness of theoretical analysis, a prototype using GaN devices with 1 kW rated output power and 500 kHz switching frequency is built. The experimental results are consistent with the analysis.
Effect of Flammulina velutipes polysaccharides on the physicochemical properties of catfish surimi and myofibrillar protein oxidation during frozen storage

This study investigated the effect of Flammulina velutipes polysaccharides (FVPs) on the myofibrillar protein (MP) oxidation protein and physicochemical properties of catfish surimi during 75 days of frozen storage at −18°C. FVP was added to surimi at 1%, 1.5%, and 2%, respectively; the degree of MP oxidation and the physicochemical properties of the surimi were investigated, and the microstructure of the surimi was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that the carbonyl content and the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) in the FVP groups were lower than those in the CK group (the blank surimi). In comparison, the total sulfhydryl content, solubility, and Ca2+-ATPase activity were higher than those in the CK group after 75 days of storage. The addition of FVP significantly increased the water-holding capacity (WHC), gel strength, elastic modulus (G'), and loss modulus (G“) of surimi, and made the gel of surimi have stronger continuity and a denser structure. Therefore, FVP has a better cryoprotective effect on surimi. It improves the quality of surimi, decreases MP oxidation, and reduces lipid and water loss during frozen storage. The anti-freezing effect of FVP added at 2% was similar to that of commercial protectants (4% sucrose and 4% sorbitol).
Research and Application Progress of Resin-Based Composite Materials in the Electrical Insulation Field

The research and application progress of resin-based composite materials in the field of electrical insulation has attracted considerable attention and emerged as a current research hotspot. This review comprehensively summarized the research and application progress of resin-based composite materials in the field of electrical insulation, providing detailed insights into their concept, properties, and preparation methods. In addition, a comprehensive evaluation of the electrical insulation performance, mechanical properties, and thermal properties of resin-based composite materials was presented, along with an in-depth analysis of their current application status. Despite the immense potential and development opportunities of resin-based composite materials, they also face several challenges. This review serves as a valuable reference and resource for researchers in related fields and aimed to promote further research and application development of resin-based composite materials in the field of electrical insulation.
Bacterial Communities Associated with Healthy and Diseased Corals during a Heatwave Event in the Northern Red Sea, Egypt

Coral disease is one of the major threats to coral assemblages globally and can significantly influence the coral microbiome as a result of climatic and anthropogenic stressors. Coral disease surveys were conducted at three patch reefs in the northern Red Sea of Hurghada coast. Surveys occurred during a heatwave event in August 2021, when the average surface water temperature reached about 29 °C. This study compared the differences in bacterial communities associated with healthy and diseased coral tissues of nine reef-building coral genera collected from the surveyed reefs. The five most common coral diseases identified were black band disease (BBD), white syndrome (WS),
Engaged ETFs and firm performance

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) have often tracked indices and charged low fees so their incentives to improve firm performance are questionable although little empirical work has investigated this issue. Theoretically, however, we expect firms to perform better when held by more engaged ETFs. We develop a new measure of engagement using a weighted‐average concentration measure which captures the combined effect of the concentration of the portfolios of the ETFs investing in a firm and the ownership of the firm by those ETFs. Using ETFs' investment in US‐listed firms for the period 2000–2019, we confirm our expectations that more engaged ETFs improve firm performance.
Deccan-related magmatism west of the Seychelles-India rift

Abstract The rocks of the Seychelles can be divided into two age groups, namely Precambrian granites and younger (Cretaceous/Tertiary) intrusive rocks. The latter can be further subdivided into alkaline ring complexes (as found on the islands of Silhouette and North Island) and basic dykes (on Praslin, Felicité and Mahé islands). Evidence from offshore seismic work and drill holes suggests that Cretaceous/Tertiary magmatism occurred over the whole Seychelles Bank, producing both flood basalts and central volcanic complexes. The flood basalts extend at least as far south as 10°S/60°E. The younger igneous rocks of the Seychelles show close similarities to the Deccan igneous rocks of India. Tholeiitic dykes from Praslin have previously been shown to resemble Bushe Formation tholeiites from the Deccan, and here we show that the Felicité Island dykes also resemble Bushe. We show also that the alkaline dykes of Mahé and North Island are chemically similar to the dykes at Murud on the west coast of India. Isotopically the Seychelles undersaturated rocks fall within the fields of the Deccan tholeiites. In India, alkaline magmatism post-dates the tholeiitic magmatism; the age difference is of the order of 3 Ma. This is similar to the age difference between shield-building and rejuvenated-stage magmatism on Hawaiian volcanoes, which has been related to reactivation of the volcanoes by the passage of the Hawaiian Arch. We propose that the Deccan alkaline magmatism is a continental equivalent of oceanic rejuvenated-stage volcanism.
High abundance of larval rockfish over Cobb Seamount, an isolated seamount in the Northeast Pacific

The larval fish community in the region of Cobb Seamount (500 km west of Oregon) is dominated by myctophid species commonly encountered in the subarctic North Pacific. However, during a survey in June 1992, the ichthyoplankton community within 30 km of the seamount summit was almost completely dominated by larvae of various rockfish (Sebastes) species. Given their very small size (and hence very young age) and the fact that they occurred only rarely in samples collected > 30 km from the seamount summit, we conclude that these Sebastes larvae were produced locally over Cobb Seamount. Previous studies have shown that the Cobb fish fauna is dominated by various Sebastes spp. and that, unlike other fish present on the seamount, the rockfish populations may be self-recruiting. We suggest that a persistent clockwise (i.e. downwelling) eddy, consistent with a stratified Taylor cone, plays a critical role in retaining larval rockfish over Cobb Seamount and may contribute to the process of self-recruitment. The key to the success of rockfish on Cobb and other shallow Northeast Pacific seamounts seems to be linked to their viviparous life history.
Application of stochastic unsaturated flow theory, numerical simulations, and comparisons to field observations

A stochastic unsaturated flow theory and a numerical simulation model have been coupled in order to estimate the large-scale mean behavior of an unsaturated flow system in a spatially variable soil. On the basis of the theoretical developments of Mantoglou and Gelhar (1987a, b, c), the theory assumes that the local hydraulic soil properties are realizations of three-dimensional random fields, and it derives the large-scale flow structure by averaging the local governing flow equation over the ensemble. The resulting mean model representation is in the form of a partial differential equation, similar to the local flow equation, in which effective model parameters occur (e.g., effective hydraulic conductivity). Further, the theory predicts the variance (prediction error) of the capillary tension head due to the spatial variability of the local hydraulic soil properties. The governing unsaturated flow equation representing the mean system behavior is solved using a finite difference numerical solution technique. The effective parameters are evaluated from the stochastic theory formulas before entering them into the numerical solution for each iteration. The stochastic model is applied to a field site in Denmark, where information is available on the spatial variability of soil parameters and variables. Numerical simulations have been carried out, and predictions of the mean behavior and the variance of the capillary tension head and the soil moisture content have been compared to field observations. The stochastic model predicts the average system behavior reasonably well. Reasonable results are also obtained for the range of variation of the capillary tension head, despite the limited number of measurements and corresponding statistical inference issues. The stochastic model presented here seems to offer a rational framework for modeling large-scale unsaturated flow and estimating areal averages of soil-hydrological processes in spatially variable soils.
Spatial Analysis: A Guide for Ecologists 1st edition

The number and variety of statistical techniques for spatial analysis of ecological data are burgeoning and many ecologists are unfamiliar with what is available and how the techniques should be used. This book provides an overview of the wide range of spatial statistics available to analyze ecological data, and provides advice and guidance for graduate students and practicing researchers who are either about to embark on spatial analysis in ecological studies or who have started but need guidance to proceed.
A Position-Free Signal Transformer via Multiband Inner Relationship Extraction for Understanding Information Flow of Machinery Diagnosis

Intelligent fault diagnosis methods have shown obvious advantages in health management of mechanical equipment and have been widely studied by scholars. Furthermore, diagnosis under various nonideal conditions has become a hot spot in current research. However, the existing methods for monitoring signal learning are not comprehensive enough, and the intelligent diagnosis model still has the potential to be unexploited. In this article, a signal transformer (SiT) is proposed to extract the internal correlation information of monitoring signals for machinery fault diagnosis. We divide monitoring signals into signal patches containing different frequency bands and add a class token to input them into the model. The model mainly includes a linear projection layer, a self-attention encoder, a class attention encoder, and a classifier. In addition, we cancel the position encoding in transformer. The method is verified based on datasets from two different experiments and achieved accuracy comparable to that of the literature methods. Furthermore, we visualize the self-attention matrix extracted by the model for each class, and the results could help people understand the information flow of diagnosis in model, which has good practical potential. Finally, the key parameters of the proposed model are discussed in detail.
Geo-linguistic Route for Exploring the Role of English Language in Mitigating Tension between Dalits and Non-Dalits in Nepal

Social stratification in Nepal is based on the Hindu Chaturvarna system which has obnoxiously kept Dalits at the bottom of the hierarchy creating an inhumane discrimination against them. Such discriminatory practice has intensified the likelihood of tension between Dalits and non-dalits. Thus, this qualitative study exploring the role of English language in mitigating the tension between Dalits and non-dalits was carried out as a narrative inquiry. Analyzing the data collected from six Dalit students studying in Bachelor’s level under different streams in the Kathmandu Valley through semi-structured in-depth interviews concluded that English language can play a positive role to mitigate the tension between Dalits and non-dalits.
Cholinergic Modulation of the Locomotor Network in the Lamprey Cholinergic Modulation of the Locomotor Network in the Lamprey Spinal Cord Spinal Cord

Acetylcholine (ACh) was found here to be a strong modulator of swimming activity in the isolated spinal cord preparation of the adult lamprey ( Ichthyomyzon unicuspis ). During fictive swimming induced with either d-glutamate or N -methyl-d- aspartate, addition of ACh (200 μM) significantly reduced the cycle period of ventral root bursts to 54%, intersegmental phase lag to 32%
The Infancy of the Esports Industry as a Risk to its Sponsors

In less than 10 years, esports have turned into a global phenomenon with a large following that rivals the audience size of popular established sports. This has resulted in a massive influx of esports sponsors. However, because it appeared and evolved so rapidly, sponsors have no idea of what esports really are nor of what risks they may face. Ergo, this research aimed to determine what issues are being caused by the infancy of the esports industry that is threatening sponsors. Hence, this exploratory research used a convergent-parallel mixed method with equal status. Empirical data was obtained through interviews with 22 experts in esports sponsoring and the application of a survey to 5,638 esports fans. Quantitative data was analysed with SPSS 25 and qualitative data with NVIVO 10. The results showed that the majority of experts considered that the problems associated with the infancy of the esports industry are a risk to esports sponsors and almost all esports fans reckon that the competitive gaming market has infancy-related issues to solve. Esports are not like general sports, so sponsors must holistically study this industry to mitigate the dangers of suffering from the problems of this new and unknown market.
Technology Complexity and Firm Performance: The Moderating Effect of Design Innovation

In today’s highly competitive markets, firms can no longer ensure competitive advantage through the development of highly complex technologies or differentiation based solely on technological and functional factors. Simultaneously, there is growing recognition that design and aesthetic factors can contribute to firms’ competitive advantage and profitability. Hence, this study examines the effects of design innovation, captured by formal design registration, on firms’ financial performance. We investigated the relationship between technology complexity, design innovation, and firm performance to unveil design innovation’s role in exploiting complex technologies. Our main hypothesis is that design innovation positively moderates the negative effect that technology complexity yields on firm performance. We used a unique dataset that aggregates all patent data published by US-headquartered publicly-traded firms to the parent company level. We combined this with firms’ financial information and design patent data from the Computat and PATSTAT databases based on their matching firm identifier. Focusing on 1,765 US firms from 1980 to 2015, we calculated firm-level technology complexity based on the structural diversity of technologies. The results confirmed our hypotheses. This study contributes to firms’ resource-based view by recognizing design as a strategic resource that firms can utilize to gain a competitive advantage and by discovering design innovation’s role in generating economic profits.
Combined microbial, seismic surveys predict oil and gas occurrences in Bolivia

Microbial and geophysical surveys in the jungles of Bolivia's extensive Sub-Andean region have combined for three successful predictions of deep oil and gas reserves in as many tries. Hydrocarbon microseepage measured by microbial soil samples predicted the Carrasco, Katari, and Surubi structures of Bolivia's Chapare region in 1991--92, detecting traps with reserves at depths exceeding 4,500 m. Approximately 800 km of seismic lines covering 3,500 sq km was completed by Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) for evaluation of the YPFB reserve block. For 1 month each year at the end of the field season, seismic lines were quickly traversed by several microbial sampling teams. Using hand augers or shovels, the teams collected more than 3,200 samples approximately 20 cm (8 in.) deep at intervals of 250 m next to staked seismic locations. Microbial results were directly compared with seismic profiles for identification and ranking of traps and structures. The paper discusses the survey predictions and the microbial approach.
Coastal systems and low-lying areas

Since the IPCC Third Assessment Report (TAR), our understanding of the implications of climate change for coastal systems and low-lying areas (henceforth referred to as ‘coasts’) has increased substantially and six important policy-relevant messages have emerged. Coasts are experiencing the adverse consequences of hazards related to climate and sea level (very high confidence). Coasts are highly vulnerable to extreme events, such as storms, which impose substantial costs on coastal societies [6.2. 1, 6.2. 2, 6.5. 2]. Annually, about 120 million people are exposed to tropical cyclone hazards, which killed 250,000 people from 1980 to 2000 [6.5. 2]. Through the 20th century, global rise of sea level contributed to increased coastal inundation, erosion and ecosystem losses, but with considerable local and regional variation due to other factors [6.2. 5, 6.4. 1]. Late 20th century effects of rising temperature include loss of sea ice, thawing of permafrost and associated coastal retreat, and more frequent coral bleaching and mortality [6.2. 5]. Coasts will be exposed to increasing risks, including coastal erosion, over coming decades due to climate change and sea-level rise (very high confidence). Anticipated climate-related changes include: an accelerated rise in sea level of up to 0.6 m or more by 2100; a further rise in sea surface temperatures by up to 3°C; an intensification of tropical and extratropical cyclones; larger extreme waves and storm surges; altered precipitation/run-off; and ocean acidification [6.3. 2]. These phenomena will vary considerably at regional and local scales, but the impacts are virtually certain to be overwhelmingly negative [6.4, 6.5. 3].
Survey of Skinning Method in 3D Character Animation

: Character skinning is one of the most important tasks in 3D animations, games design and visual effects in film production. With the development of 3D animations, a good way of skinning becomes an important role. With the increasing requirements of skinning, many new methods and techniques have emerged. The most core part is real-time shape deformations, to make the skin of characters to act more realistic, no informal deformation should happen. This paper introduces skinning technique in 4 categories: geometric methods, physical methods, example based approaches, energy based methods. A brief discussion and comparison of these methods are provided in the end.