Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Separation of α-Lactalbumin-Enriched Fractions from Caprine and Ovine Native Whey Concentrate by Combining Membrane and High-Pressure Processing

Whey from goat and sheep have been gaining attention in the last few years for their nutritional properties. Unfortunately, β-Lg, not found in human milk, may trigger infant allergies if used in infant food formulations, so there is a growing interest in developing ingredients derived from whey with higher α-La/β-Lg ratios. The objective of this work was to study the effect of high-pressure processing (HPP) on caprine and ovine native whey concentrates (NWC) in order to obtain α-Lactalbumin (α-La)-enriched fractions. NWCs were treated at 600 MPa (23 °C) for 2, 4, and 15 min and two pH conditions were studied (physiological pH and pH 4.60). The concentration of β-Lg in supernatant fraction after HPP significantly decreased after 2 min of treatment, while the concentration of α-La was unchanged in both goat and sheep samples. Longer HPP processing times (up to 15 min) progressively increased α-La purification degree but also decreased the α-La yield. Caprine and ovine NWCs treated at physiological pH provided better α-La yield, α-La purification degree, and higher β-Lg precipitation degrees than the corresponding acidified samples, while the corresponding NWC supernatant (NWCsup) showed lower values for both surface hydrophobicity and total free thiol indices, suggesting a higher extent of protein aggregation. Effects of sample acidification and the HPP treatment were opposite to those previously reported on bovine NWC, so further characterization of caprine and ovine β-Lg should be carried out to understand their different behavior.
Measuring Radiation Dose in Computed Tomography Using Elliptic Phantom and Free-In-Air, and Evaluating Iterative Metal Artifact Reduction Algorithm

The need for an accurate and reliable way for measuring patient dose in multi-row detector computed tomography (MDCT) has increased significantly. This research was focusing on the possibility of measuring CT dose in air to estimate Computed Tomography Dose Index (CTDI) for routine quality control purposes. New elliptic CTDI phantom that better represent human geometry was manufactured for investigating the effect of the subject shape on measured CTDI. Monte Carlo simulation was utilized in order to determine the dose distribution in comparison to the traditional cylindrical CTDI phantom. This research also investigated the effect of Siemens health care newly developed iMAR (iterative metal artifact reduction) algorithm, arthroplasty phantom was designed and manufactured that purpose. The design of new phantoms was part of the research as they mimic the human geometry more than the existing CTDI phantom. The standard CTDI phantom is a right
Teaching Behavior and Student Learning Outcomes in Dutch Mathematics Classrooms

In this article I described the means of identifying teaching behaviors that have cognitive and affective learning effects on students who are taking a course in mathematics. This study was conducted on 50 mathematics teachers who were teaching in the eighth grade. I obtained the data on teaching behaviors through direct systematic observation. Multiple regression was used as a method of analysis. For the cognitive domain, the results showed that effective teaching behaviors are: (a) high-level questions put to a large group of students; (b) probing, followed by a correct student response; (c) teacher waiting after asking a question; (d) sucessful redirecting; and (e) all forms of positive acknowledgement. Effective teaching behaviors in the affective domain are: (a) all forms of teacher lecture/explanations; (b) probing, followed by correct student response; and (c) all forms of positive acknowledgement. More teaching behaviors have a positive effect on mathematical knowledge than have a positive effect on students' attitude toward mathematics.
A Coverage Area-Based CoMP Technique for SWIPT-Enabled Mobile Networks

The limited power resources for battery-operated mobile devices and the highly dense network deployment in the sixth generation networks make the simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) and coordinated multi-point transmission (CoMP) technologies ever more attractive. However, the CoMP suffers from the heavy handover signalling of high-velocity mobile users (MUs). In this paper, we propose a novel coverage area-based CoMP (CA-CoMP) scheme for SWIPT-enabled mobile networks, aiming at reducing the handover rate and enhancing the SWIPT performance. In particular, by taking into consideration the heterogeneity of base stations’ (BSs’) footprints, the CA-CoMP scheme enables a MU to select and communicate with multiple BSs, whose coverage areas are greater than a pre-defined threshold. By leveraging stochastic geometry tools, we study the CA-CoMP scheme in terms of several key performance metrics, i.e., inter- and intra-cell handover rate, success probabilities, average spectral efficiency, average harvested energy as well as energy efficiency. Our results reveal that the proposed CA-CoMP scheme achieves a much lower handover rate and offers a better SWIPT performance, compared to conventional CoMP schemes, e.g., a 41% improvement of the spectral efficiency can be achieved for MUs with a velocity of 25 m/s; while the optimal area threshold for achieving the best SWIPT performance is numerically evaluated.
Combinatorics on Words 10th International Conference WORDS 2015

This paper defines and studies the notion of primitive root of a bi-periodic infinite picture, that is a rectangular pattern that tiles the bi-periodic picture and contains exactly one representative of each equivalence class of its pixels. This notion extends to dimension 2 the notion of primitive root of a bi-infinite periodic word. We prove that, for each bi-periodic infinite picture P, Ź there exists at least one primitive root of P; Ź there are at most two ordered pairs of positive integers (m, n) such that every primitive root of P has size mˆ n; Ź for each such pair (m, n), every rectangular pattern of size mˆ n extracted from P is a primitive root of P. We also discuss some additional properties of primitive roots.
Rye and Rye Bran as Components of Diets in Piglet Production—Effects on Salmonella Prevalence

Simple Summary Salmonellosis in humans is still a serious disease, which is mainly caused by the consumption of contaminated food. Functional ingredients in feed are expected to reduce susceptibility to the ubiquitous Salmonella and thus prevent food contamination. Rye is becoming increasingly popular in pig feeding. The use of by-products such as rye bran in pig feeding is also of great interest. Rye and its by-product rye bran offer the possibility of introducing high-quality feedstuffs with positive effects on the pig’s intestinal health into a feed. These effects are caused by functional ingredients that are metabolized by microorganisms in the large intestine. Previous studies have shown the positive effect of reducing Salmonella prevalence in young pigs. This study investigated in a field study whether rye or rye bran has a positive effect on Salmonella prevalence in gilts, sows, and piglets. The antibody titers of the rye groups in the gilts were significantly lower. This suggests that the use of rye leads to lower incidents of infection, but this effect was not reflected in the environmental samples. The inconsistent presence of Salmonella and the experimental design were not sufficient to show a clear effect in a field study. Abstract The nutritional benefits of rye (and therefore rye bran) are mainly due to its high content of fermentable dietary fiber, the non-starch polysaccharides (NSP). Microorganisms in the large intestine are able to convert these into short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), including butyrate. Butyrate strengthens the epithelial barrier function in the colon by nourishing the enterocytes and inhibiting the spread of Salmonella in the intestinal tract. Therefore, the aim of this study was to test under field conditions whether a diet with rye or rye bran as the main ingredient for gilts, sows, and weaned piglets is associated with a lower Salmonella prevalence. Depending on the age groups, between 20–30% rye or between 15–20% rye bran was used in the experimental group. A total of n = 1983 boot swabs, n = 356 fecal samples, and n = 1909 serum samples were examined. The results of this study show that rye or rye bran at the levels used had no apparent effect on the number of positive Salmonella samples. However, the Salmonella OD values in the experimental groups were significantly lower than in the control group. This suggests that the use of rye leads to a lower incidence of infection, but this effect could not be proven from swabs.
Tree crown detection and delineation in satellite images using probabilistic voting

ABSTRACT Crop yield forecasting in a region has become an important research area due to global warming and related climate changes. Although this can be performed by available statistical information, obtaining recent and up to date data to extract reliable statistical information is not easy. Very high resolution satellite images can be used for this purpose. However, manually processing these images acquired from large regions is neither feasible nor reliable. Therefore, automated methods are needed for this purpose. In this study, we propose a novel method to help forecasting the crop yield in an orchard. The number of trees in an orchard with the size and type of each tree crown gives an approximate crop that can be harvested. Therefore, we focus on both tree crown detection and delineation for this purpose. The proposed method for tree crown detection is based on probabilistic voting. For tree crown delineation, we propose a watershed segmentation based ellipse fitting method. We tested the proposed method on 17 satellite images containing 13,476 trees. We compared the method with the classical local maxima/minima filtering and a recent method in literature using three more test images. These tests indicate the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed method.
Effects of Superheavy Quarks and Leptons in Low-Energy Weak Processes KL-> Formula, K+-> + Formula and K0 Formula0

We investigate potentially important effects due to the existence of superheavy quarks and leptons of the sequential type in higher·order weak processes at low energies. The second-order LlS * 0 neutral-current processes Kl. ~ I'ii, K~ 1[+ vi) and KL-Ks mass difference are analysed allowing for fermions of masses comparable to or larger than the weak-boson mass in the Kobayashi-Maskawa scheme and in the general sequential scheme with an arbitrary number of generations. Possible connection between heavy·quark masses and light-heavy quark mixing are also examined. The requirement that the rare decay processes such as KL ~ l1ii and K+ ~ 1[+ vi) be absent up to order aGF yields a rather stringent bound on the magnitude of light-heavy Quark mixing: Such mixing has to be less than mW/mQuack times a factor much smaller than unity.
Data assimilation using an ensemble of models: a hierarchical approach

Abstract. One characteristic of biogeochemical models is uncertainty about their formulation. Data assimilation should take this uncertainty into account. A common approach is to use an ensemble of models. We must assign probabilities not only to the parameters of the models but also to the models themselves. The method of hierarchical modelling allows us to calculate these probabilities. This paper describes the approach, develops the algebra for the most common case and then applies it to the Atmospheric Tracer Transport Model Intercomparison Project (TransCom). We see that the discrimination among models is unrealistically strong, due to optimistic assumptions inherent in the underlying inversion. The weighted ensemble means and variances from the hierarchical approach are quite similar to the conventional values because the best model in the ensemble is also quite close to the ensemble mean. The approach can also be used for cross-validation in which some data are held back to test estimates obtained with the rest. We demonstrate this with a test of the TransCom inversions holding back the airborne data. We see a slight decrease in the tropical sink and a notably different preferred order of models.
Alfven wave absorption in dissipative plasma

We consider nonlinear absorption of Alfven waves due to dissipative effects in plasma and relaxation of temperatures of electrons and ions. This study is based on an exact solution of the equations of two-fluid electromagnetic hydrodynamics (EMHD) of plasma. It is shown that in order to study the decay of Alfven waves, it suffices to examine the behavior of their amplitudes whose evolution is described by a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) obtained in this paper. On finite time intervals, the system of equations on the amplitudes is studied numerically, while asymptotic integration (the Hartman-Grobman theorem) is used to examine its large-time behavior.
Two distortion correcting methods for fisheye images

Fisheye lens forms a circular image on the image plane which is different from people’s perspective view. This paper introduces two practical methods to correct the fisheye image from distortion. Distorted images can be corrected to the perspective views which are suitable for people to watch by rectilinear projection based on lens functions. This paper extended this method so that it can correct images taken by fisheye lens over 180°. Since the rectilinear projection method has the limitation that it can only correct a ROI, the second method based on an improved cylinder projection is proposed to overcome this limitation. The picture corrected by this method has less deformation compared with traditional cylinder projection method.
Intellectual Capital and Shareholders’ Wealth. The Economic Value Added Approach

The role of intangible assets such as intellectual capital promoting corporate competitiveness and further shareholders’ value has attracted attention in the finance literature. This study investigated intellectual capital efficiency as a source of creating shareholders’ wealth in Nigeria. To achieve the study's aim, correlational research design was adopted. The study’s data were collected from content analysis of financial statements of listed service companies in Nigeria. The sample used in this study includes 17 service firms listed on the Nigeria Exchange Group from 2011 to 2022. The VAIC model was utilized to estimate intellectual capital. Descriptive statistics were conducted while some diagnostic tests were piloted before the regression analysis. The random effect regression model was used to verify whether the studied variables impact shareholders’ wealth of listed service companies in Nigeria. Findings indicated that value added intellectual coefficient as a measure of intellectual capital has a significant positive association with shareholders’ wealth. Results further revealed that human capital efficiency, relational capital efficiency and capital employed efficiency (as components of intellectual capital) are significantly and positively associated with shareholders’ wealth while structural capital efficiency has a positive but not significant relationship with shareholders’ wealth creation. The study concludes that efficient management of intellectual capital can enhance shareholders’ wealth in listed service companies in Nigeria and recommends amongst others that firms should make strategic plans regarding intellectual capital and intangible assets as it can increase corporate competitive advantage.
Identification of T-DNA structure and insertion site in transgenic crops using targeted capture sequencing

The commercialization of GE crops requires a rigorous safety assessment, which includes a precise DNA level characterization of inserted T-DNA. In the past, several strategies have been developed for identifying T-DNA insertion sites including, Southern blot and different PCR-based methods. However, these methods are often challenging to scale up for screening of dozens of transgenic events and for crops with complex genomes, like potato. Here, we report using target capture sequencing (TCS) to characterize the T-DNA structure and insertion sites of 34 transgenic events in potato. This T-DNA is an 18 kb fragment between left and right borders and carries three resistance (R) genes (RB, Rpi-blb2 and Rpi-vnt1.1 genes) that result in complete resistance to late blight disease. Using TCS, we obtained a high sequence read coverage within the T-DNA and junction regions. We identified the T-DNA breakpoints on either ends for 85% of the transgenic events. About 74% of the transgenic events had their T-DNA with 3R gene sequences intact. The flanking sequences of the T-DNA were from the potato genome for half of the transgenic events, and about a third (11) of the transgenic events have a single T-DNA insertion mapped into the potato genome, of which five events do not interrupt an existing potato gene. The TCS results were confirmed using PCR and Sanger sequencing for 6 of the best transgenic events representing 20% of the transgenic events suitable for regulatory approval. These results demonstrate the wide applicability of TCS for the precise T-DNA insertion characterization in transgenic crops.
Improved Gibbs Sampling Parameter Estimators for Latent Dirichlet Allocation

Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) is a generative probabilistic model for discovering the underlying structure of discrete data. LDA and its extensions have been successfully used for both unsupervised and supervised learning tasks across a variety of data types including textual, image, and biological data. After more than a decade of intensive research on training algorithms for LDA, the Collapsed Gibbs Sampler (CGS), in which the parameters are marginalized out, remains one of the most popular LDA inference algorithms. We introduce a novel approach for estimating LDA parameters from collapsed Gibbs samples, by leveraging the full conditional distributions over the latent variable assignments to efficiently average over multiple samples, for little more computational cost than drawing a single sample. Our approach can be understood as adapting the soft clustering methodology of Collapsed Variational Bayes (CVB0) to CGS parameter estimation, in order to get the best of both techniques. We perform extensive empirical comparisons of our estimators with those of standard collapsed inference algorithms on real-world data for both unsupervised LDA and Prior-LDA, a supervised variant of LDA for multi-label classification. Our results show a consistent advantage of our approach over traditional CGS under all experimental conditions, and over CVB0 inference in the majority of conditions. More broadly, our results highlight the importance of averaging over multiple samples in LDA parameter estimation, and the use of efficient computational techniques to do so.
A Self-Supervised Anomaly Detector of Fruits Based on Hyperspectral Imaging

Hyperspectral imaging combined with chemometric approaches is proven to be a powerful tool for the quality evaluation and control of fruits. In fruit defect-detection scenarios, developing an unsupervised anomaly detection framework is vital, as defect sample preparation is labor-intensive and time-consuming, especially for exploring potential defects. In this paper, a spectral–spatial, information-based, self-supervised anomaly detection (SSAD) approach is proposed. During training, an auxiliary classifier is proposed to identify the projection axes of principal component (PC) images that were transformed from the hyperspectral data cubes. In test time, the fully connected layer of the learned classifier was used as a ‘spectral–spatial’ feature extractor, and the feature similarity metric was adopted as the score function for the downstream anomaly evaluation task. The proposed network was evaluated with two fruit data sets: a strawberry data set with bruised, infected, chilling-injured, and contaminated test samples and a blueberry data set with bruised, infected, chilling-injured, and wrinkled samples as anomalies. The results show that the SSAD yielded the best anomaly detection performance (AUC = 0.923 on average) over the baseline methods, and the visualization results further confirmed its advantage in extracting effective ‘spectral–spatial’ latent representation. Moreover, the robustness of SSAD is verified with the data pollution experiment; it performed significantly better than the baselines when a portion of anomalous samples was involved in the training process.
Some Problems in Algebraic and Extremal Graph Theory.

In this dissertation, we consider a wide range of problems in algebraic and extremal graph theory. In extremal graph theory, we will prove that the Tree Packing Conjecture is true for all sequences of trees th a t are ‘almost stars’; and we prove tha t the Erdos-Sos conjecture is true for all graphs G with girth at least 5. We also conjecture tha t every graph G with minimal degree k and girth a t least 2t + 1 contains every tree T of order kt + 1 such tha t A(T) < k. This conjecture is trivially true for t = 1. We prove the conjecture is true for t = 2 and that, for this value of t, the conjecture is best possible. We also provide supporting evidence for the conjecture for all other values of t. In algebraic graph theory, we are primarily concerned with isomorphism prob­ lems for vertex-transitive graphs, and with calculating automorphism groups of vertex-transitive graphs. We extend Babai’s characterization of the Cayley Isomor­ phism property for Cayley hypergraphs to non-Cayley hypergraphs, and then use this characterization to solve the isomorphism problem for every vertex-transitive graph of order pq, where p and q distinct primes. We also determine the automor­ phism groups of metacirculant graphs of order pq tha t are not circulant, allowing us to determine the nonabelian groups of order pq that are Burnside groups. Addition­ ally. we generalize a classical result of Burnside stating tha t eveiy transitive group G of prime degree p, is doubly transitive or contains a normal Sylow p-subgroup to all pfc. provided th a t the Sylow p-subgroup of G is one of a specified family. We
Theoretical and numerical studies of semi-active friction damper showing viscous-damper-like characteristics

To clarify the feasibility of a novel, semi-active friction damper, its damping characteristics were investigated theoretically and numerically. The proposed damper suppresses vibrations by changing the direction of the frictional force, in contrast to the conventional passive and semi-active friction dampers that only focus on the magnitude of the frictional force. The theoretical analysis indicates that the proposed damper can behave as a conventional friction damper or a viscous damper depending on the use conditions; further, its effective damping ratio can be controlled by the velocity of a friction plate moving in a direction orthogonal to the direction of the vibration. The numerical simulations clarified that damping characteristics can be controlled by the ratio of the amplitude of the excitation force to the frictional force. Finally, the design criteria of the proposed damper were derived.
On the Influence of Material Objectivity on Electroelastic Dissipation in Polarized Ferroelectric Ceramics

An earlier system of rotationally invariant electroelastic equations for deformable insulators, which was derived from a well-defined macroscopic model, is extended to include the simplest mechanical and electrical viscous-type dissipation. The resulting nonlinear description satisfies the principle of material objectivity. When the resulting description is linearized, the viscous-type linear electrical dissipative variable contains the spin tensor because a biasing polarization is present in the ferroelectric ceramic.