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This study examined the impact of technology-based non-enculturation sources on Yoruba (Nigerian) teenagers' nuclear and contrastive stress assignment to determine the suitability of the facilities as ancillary models of spoken English in Nigeria. Labov's variability theory and Liberman and Prince's metrical phonology served as theoretical framework. Participants were purposively selected from 300 University of Ibadan teenage undergraduates (UIYTUs) and a Briton, who served as the native baseline (NB). The teenagers' technology (TC) levels were ascertained through a questionnaire. Participants were stratified into High(H), Mid(M) and Low(L) TCs. Their production of a prepared text into Speech Filing System (version 1.54) constituted the data which were analysed statistically, metrically and acoustically. The teenagers' nuclear stress assignment to regular [F(2, 297)=63.78; p<.05] and contrastive [F(2, 297)=50.93; p<.05] Designated Terminal Elements was reflective of their level of technology exposure. HTC exhibited metrical pattern similar to the NB. MTC either imposed stress on metrically weak syllables or assigned stress following the NB pattern. LTC productions were predominantly characterised by stress clash. Sample HTC spectrograms showed the highest amplitude and longest duration for the nuclearly stressed syllable. Although the spectrograms of the MTC displayed some alternation, the nuclearly stressed syllable did not receive its due prominence. Sample LTC spectrograms displayed flatness. Technology-based non-enculturation sources of native English available to teenage Nigerians have the capability of enhancing their spoken English. These technological devices should be explored as alternative model of English pronunciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reading digital information from highly dense but lightweight DNA medium nowadays relies on time-consuming next-generation sequencing. Nanopore sequencing holds the promise to overcome the efficiency problem, but high indel error rates lead to the requirement of large amount of high quality data for accurate readout. Here we introduce Composite Hedges Nanopores, capable of handling indel rates up to 15.9% and substitution rates up to 7.8%. The overall information density can be doubled from 0.59 to 1.17 by utilizing a degenerated eight-letter alphabet. We demonstrate that sequencing times of 20 and 120 minutes are sufficient for processing representative text and image files, respectively. Moreover, to achieve complete data recovery, it is estimated that text and image data require 4× and 8× physical redundancy of composite strands, respectively. Our codec system excels on both molecular design and equalized dictionary usage, laying a solid foundation approaching to real-time DNA data retrieval and encoding. DNA is a promising medium for data storage but requires efficient sequencing methods for real-time data retrieval. Here, authors introduce Composite Hedges Nanopores (CHN), a nanopore-based codec scheme that improves sequencing efficiency and data accuracy, supporting real-time data retrieval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As malware samples grow in complexity and employ advanced evasion techniques, traditional detection methods are insufficient for accurately classifying large volumes of sophisticated malware variants. To address this issue, image-based malware classification techniques leveraging machine learning algorithms have been developed as a more optimal solution to this challenge. However, accurately classifying content distribution-based features with unique pixel intensities from grayscale images remains a challenge. This paper proposes an enhanced image-based malware classification system using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) using ResNet-152 and vision transformer (ViT). The two architectures are then compared to determine their classification abilities. A total of 6137 benign files and 9861 malicious executables are converted from text files to unsigned integers and then to images. The ViT examined unsigned integers as pixel values, while ResNet-152 converted the pixel values into floating points for classification. The result of the experiments demonstrates a high-performance accuracy of 99.62% with effective hyperparameters of 10-fold cross-validation. The findings indicate that the proposed model is capable of being implemented in dynamic and complex malware environments, achieving a practical computational efficiency of 47.2 s for the identification and classification of new malware samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Computer vision-based wood identification has been successfully applied to recognize tree species using digital images of wood sections or surfaces. However, this image-to-species approach can only recognize a limited number of species due to two main reasons: 1) the lack of a good reference database requiring high-quality standardized images from multiple individuals of hundreds or even thousands of traded timber species, and 2) species not included in the reference database cannot be identified without expert knowledge. Another bottleneck is that the feature extraction process used by these species recognition approaches is a black box, thereby creating a discrepancy between machine learning features and wood anatomical features. This discrepancy prevents wood anatomists from understanding how these machine-learning algorithms work. Here, we survey currently existing methods used in feature extraction, classification, and deep learning methods applied in wood identification along with their pitfalls and opportunities. As an example of how the field could move forward, we launch the idea of building an image-to-features-to-species identification approach based on microscopic wood images as well as text files comprising wood anatomical descriptions. If we can manage machine learning-based algorithms to recognize the main wood anatomical traits that experts use to identify species in a (semi-)automated way, this would boost wood identification in two ways: (1) extensive reference databases for each species would become less crucial as the databases are ordered at the trait level, (2) timber identification would become more feasible for species that have not yet been included in the reference database as long as wood anatomical descriptions are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic compression methods continuously update the model of the underlying text file to be compressed according to the already processed part, assuming that such models accurately predict the distribution in the remaining part. Since this premise is not necessarily true, we suggest to update the model only selectively. We give empirical evidence that this hardly affects the compression efficiency, while it obviously may save processing time and facilitate the use of the compression scheme for cryptographic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ovarian cancer (OC) is a gynecological malignancy with a high mortality rate worldwide. The unfavorable prognosis of OC is mainly attributed to the recurrent propensity. Recently, mortality from OC has exhibited a downward trend. These favorable patterns are likely to be driven by advancements in novel therapeutic regimens. However, there is a lack of visualize analysis of the application of these new drugs on women with recurrent OC (ROC). Therefore, we aimed to provide a bibliometric analysis of the evolving paradigms in the ROC treatment. Methods: Documents on ROC treatment were systematically collected from the MEDLINE database and Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC). The retrieved documents were exported in the plain text file format, and files were named and saved to the paths specified by the Java application. Microsoft Excel (version 2010), Citespace (6.2.R4) and VOSviewer (1.6.19) were used for data analysis, and included the following: 1) annual publication trend; 2) contributions of countries, institutions and authors; 3) co-citation of journals and references; and 4) cooccurrence of keywords. Results: A total of 914 documents published in the MEDLINE and 9,980 ones in WOSCC were retrieved. There has been an upward trend in the productivity of publications on ROC treatment on by years. The United States was the leading contributor in this field, and the University of Texas System stood out as the most productive institution. Giovanni Scambia and Maurie Markman were the research leaders in the field of ROC treatment. The journal Gynecologic Oncology had the highest citation frequency. The reference entitled with "Niraparib Maintenance Therapy in Platinum-Sensitive, Recurrent Ovarian Cancer" got highest centrality of 0.14 in the co-citation network. Keyword analysis revealed that the focus of current ROC treatment was on platinum-based anticancer drugs, paclitaxel, angiogenesis inhibitors (AIs), immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPis). Conclusion: Scholars from a multitude of countries have been instrumental in the advancement of ROC treatment. The research hotspots and trend in the field of predominantly originated from leading international journals and specialized periodicals focused on gynecologic oncology. Maintenance therapy using AIs or (and) PARPis has emerged as a significant complement to platinum-based chemotherapy for patients with ROC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quadrupole mass spectrometer is currently one of the most widely used small-scale mass spectrometry instruments. Studying the ions trajectory in a quadrupole field is very important for a deeper understanding of the behavior of ions in quadrupole field, which not only helps to propose new scientific and technological issues in mass spectrometry, but also has practical guidance for the development of instruments. The digital simulation of ions trajectory is an efficient mean for studying the motion of ions in quadrupole field. In this paper, a digital simulation model of quadrupole field, namely Sim-Quaq-COM-V1.0, was established based on COMSOL Multiphysics. The simulation results of the model are in good agreement with the theoretical calculation results, and it can be used as an accurate digital model to study the behavior of ions in quadrupole fields. On this basis, the motion behavior of ions in the hyperbolic quadrupole and the cylindrical quadrupole were compared, and the number of m/z 69 ions passing through the hyperbolic quadrupole field is about 4 times that of the cylindrical quadrupole field under the same conditions. The model has three advantages. Firstly, the self-designed general geometric model and grid were adopted as the built-in model, which can be used to simulate the cylindrical quadrupole field and hyperbolic quadrupole field of various geometric sizes. The modular design is simple and clear. Users only need to modify the geometric parameters and mesh parameters to generate the corresponding geometric model and high-precision mesh. Secondly, the parameters of the model could be configured uniformly in a text file, and the model parameters could be adjusted in batches by modifying the text file. Lastly, the function of multi-core and cluster in COMSOL were utilized to achieve large-scale parallel computing through multi-CPU server and quickly process a large number of ions at the same time. Compared with other models like the default COMSOL model for cylindrical quadrupole field, the simulation speed and accuracy of this model are improved. Through the simulation calculation model, the time of geometric design and modeling is saved, the global parameters can be quickly configured, and the difficulty of calculation is reduced. The model supports parallel computing technology. It is greatly improved in terms of calculation speed and calculation amount, thus can process a large number of ions at the same time, shorten the research cycle, and help the digital development of mass spectrometer design and research technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The difficulty of scheduling jobs or workloads increases due to the stochastic and transient characteristics of the cloud network. As a key prerequisite for establishing QoS, it asserts that effective work scheduling must be developed and executed. Maximum profit is made possible for cloud service providers by proper resource management. The most effective scheduling algorithm considers resources given by providers rather than the task set that users have accumulated. This paper developed a model that works in a two-level hierarchical model comprising global scheduling and local schedules to handle the heterogeneous type of request in real-time. These two levels of scheduling communicate with each other to produce an optimal scheduling scheme. Initially, all the requests are passed to the global scheduler, whose task is to categorize the type of request and pass it to the corresponding queue for assigning it to the related local scheduler using a parabolic intuitionistic fuzzy scheduler. In this work, the heterogeneous types of files are handled by maintaining different queues, in which each queue handles only a specific type of file like text doc, audio, image and video. Once the type of req is initiated by the clients, the global scheduler identifies the type of request and passes it to their relevant queue. In the next level, the local scheduler is assigned to each type of web server cluster. Once the work request is dispatched from the global workload scheduler, it is allocated to the local queue of the local scheduler, which allocates the resources of web servers by adapting the Quantum Honey Badger Algorithm, which searches the best-suited server for completing the assigned work based on the available resource parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was aimed at identifying the factors influencing the adherence to publication ethics standards in the research system of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology (MSRT) using the Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) method. This is a qualitative study adopting an exploratory approach and an applied one considering the research results. The researchers used the semi-structured interview method to achieve the goal of the study. The study population consisted of the actors of the research system of the MSRT. A total of 22 activists were included in the study based on the theoretical saturation rule. In order to conduct interviews with the actors of the research system, the researchers prepared an “Interview Package” as the research tool. This package contained: 1) an informed consent form, 2) an interview guide form and 3) and conceptual and operational definitions of the research variables. We also used the CLA method to design the interview questions. This method and its layers, i.e. litany, social causes, discourse/ worldview and myth/ metaphor were developed as a method of foresight. Finally, the text file of each interview transferred to the MAXQDA version 20 to analyze the data. Then, the three-step approach of “thematic analysis” was used for the open and axial coding of the factors influencing. Based on the results of the research, a total of 1055 open codes were extracted from the interviews, of which 345 codes were assigned to the “litany” layer, 315 codes to the “social causes” layer, 301 codes to the “discourse/ worldview” layer, and 94 codes to the “myth/ metaphor” layer. In addition, the category “monitoring of the research system” (with 82 codes) from the “litany” layer, the category “clarification of laws and regulations in terms of implementation” (with 35 codes) from the “social causes” layer, the category “directing the existing social discourses through culture building” (with 43 codes) from the “worldview” layer, and the category “correlation between education and research” (with 15 codes) from the “myth/ metaphor” layer were the most frequent categories. Therefore, although there are many unknowns in the future path, it is necessary to pave the way towards an ethical research system by adopting timely decisions and strategies and implementing necessary measures, especially by macro-level policy makers. One necessary measure to be taken is giving sufficient independence to universities and higher education centers. In addition, the middle circles of research, such as information centers, scientific communities and associations, and libraries play a key role in expansion of the independence of universities and in the development of endogenous patterns and self-regulating thoughts among researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition to digital mediums among instructors, who are instrumental in shaping the higher education, streamlines and diversifies the instructional methodologies. Yet, it concurrently elevates the concern of digital hoarding behaviours to a prominent position in scholarly discourse. In view of digital hoarding’s detrimental outcomes, the current study initially undertook a descriptive scrutiny of the digital hoarding behaviours among academics, subsequently correlating these tendencies with diverse factors. In addition, the study formulated and empirically tested a theoretical framework for understanding digital hoarding predicated on the employment of digital resources in academia. The research engaged 213 academicians voluntarily, with empirical evidence substantiating 13 of the 27 postulated hypotheses. The data indicated a predominant accumulation of text files among academics, alongside a tendency towards digital hoarding that surpasses the average. The outcomes of the PLS-SEM analysis, conducted to elucidate the justifications for digital hoarding, suggest that the level of experience of academics and the obstacles to digital data elimination exert a profound influence. It is imperative for the cultivation of a robust digitalisation culture within institutions, as well as the formulation and execution of data governance strategies, to involve all stakeholders, especially those within the academic sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Scholars, including those in physical education, have investigated the socialization of higher education faculty members. Informed by self-study of teacher education practices and occupational socialization theory, we aimed to understand Kevin's experiences during a transition from one institution to another with the help of his critical friend, Jim. Methodology/Methods: Data were collected through prolonged journaling and critical friend discussions. Resulting text files were analyzed thematically with a focus on identifying turning points. Findings: Themes developed through qualitative analysis included: (a) readjusting scholarly targets and embracing grantspersonship, (b) giving up control and facilitating research, and (c) balancing being a team player with self-advocacy. Discussion/Conclusions: Kevin's transition was supported by recognizing shifting norms of his new faculty role and influence of self-study of teacher education practices for ongoing, career professional development. Prior and current socialization influences framed this development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The object of research is the process of automating systems for structuring data from several sources. The subject of the research is methods and algorithms for implementing a complete system for automated and parallel processing, validation and structuring of data. One of the most problematic areas is the merging of databases with different structures and several common fields into a generalized structure. The research was aimed at developing a system to increase the efficiency of automation of big data processing. As a result of the work, optimization methods were studied, the influence of their internal parameters on the operation of algorithms was analyzed, their main advantages and disadvantages were determined, and software was developed in which the corresponding methods were implemented. An algorithm for structuring data before processing has been obtained. Data structuring is achieved by performing the «mapping» operation. Mapping can take place by indexes of already cleaned data or using a defined dictionary with a given set of keys, which allows not to care about the sequence of storing values and their possible shift. The practical significance of the developed system lies in the improvement of methods of collecting and processing information for the purpose of its further validation, cleaning and accumulation in the following categories: geographic addresses and geo-coordinates, validation and automated addition of a mobile phone number to the international format, processing of car numbers (in modern and outdated format), VIN code of the engine and car brand, validation of urls of social networks, passport data and processing of personal data. Compared to similar methods for processing large volumes of data, the possibility of splitting the input file or stream into separate parts was used, the cleaned data from which is combined at the end of the system operation. Thanks to this, it is possible to process data whose size exceeds the available volume of the device’s RAM, and the method of working with loosely structured text files in CSV format has been improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multidimensional simulations for diverse solar cells often encounter distinctive configurations, even when employing the same simulation software. The complexity and inefficiency of this process are further exacerbated when employing different simulators. From our extensive decade‐long experience in numerical simulations of diverse solar cells, we have identified ten common simulation steps intrinsic to typical electrical and optical simulations. Subsequently, we propose ten sets of variables that encompass all the relevant details required for these steps. To address the challenge of varying information requirements for each variable across different simulations, we assign a list, a versatile data type, to each variable. This approach, by design, enables concise, coherent, and flexible input, accommodating the unique demands of each simulation. However, to ensure unambiguous simulations, precise specifications for these variables are essential. Computer code has been successfully implemented to ensure adherence to specifications and expedite variable synchronization with Sentaurus, the de facto standard for device simulation. Within this framework, users are only tasked with editing variables in a plain text file, obviating the need for in‐depth knowledge of Sentaurus. This streamlines the prerequisites for engaging in numerical simulation significantly. Through thoughtful design considerations, we preserve the simulation capacity while simultaneously enhancing productivity considerably. This open‐source framework welcomes global collaboration within the photovoltaic community and has the potential to generate an extensive dataset for cost‐effective artificial intelligence training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Searching social media to find relevant semantic domains often results in large text files, many of which are irrelevant due to cross-domain content resulting from word polysemy, abstractness, and degree centrality. Through an iterative pruning process, Cascaded Semantic Fractionation (CSF) systematically removes these cross-domain links. The social network procedure performs community detection in semantic networks, locates the semantic groups containing the terms of interest, excludes intergroup links, and repeats community detection on the pruned intragroup network until the domain of interest is clarified. To illustrate CSF, we analyzed public Facebook posts, using the CrowdTangle app for historical data search, from February 3, 2020, to March 13, 2021, about the possible Wuhan lab leak of COVID-19 over a daily interval. The initial search using keywords located six multi-day bursts of posts of more than 500 per day among 95 K posts. These posts were network analyzed to find the domain of interest using the iterative community detection and pruning process. CSF can be applied to capture the evolutions in semantic domains over time. At the outset, the lab leak theory was presented in conspiracy theory terms. Over time, the conspiratorial elements washed out in favor of an accidental release as the issue moved from social to mainstream media and official government views. CSF identified the relevant social media semantic domain and tracked its changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Taiwan, traditional production equipment for the mainframe panels is imported from overseas, and the parameters are adjusted through the operation panel for automated manufacturing. However, these parameters are slightly different from those used in Taiwan, requiring manual recording of warning parameters to ensure quality control. Currently, the only way to capture the operation records of these machines is by manually recording the system panel information, which is a time-consuming and laborious process that is expensive for production line personnel. In this work, we use image recognition to capture and analyze data externally without damaging the machine. This research improves the ESRGAN network to restore the image details and textures of the mainframe panels. It also captures relevant data with Google OCR to convert panel images into parameter values. The captured results are combined with data analysis to provide more accurate standard mainframe panel information. Even under different interference source conditions, data extraction and analysis can still be carried out to output the text files, effectively assisting the production line in recording the machine panel parameters and reducing personnel's workload. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes how rural provenance foods are portrayed by the promotional materials, websites and social media issued by urban specialty stores in Portugal. Even though provenance food may be defined in multiple ways as, among others, local, regional, traditional, and authentic, provenance is mostly about territories of origin: their biophysical characteristics, cultural values and practices of food production and preparation with socioeconomic and historical features. Interest in and consumption of rural provenance foods have increased in the last few decades and more recently have been accompanied by a growth of specialty food stores in urban contexts. To analyze these stores' role in promoting rural provenance foods, content analysis was conducted on 7489 text and image files, collected from the websites, social media pages and printed materials of 30 stores located in three Portuguese cities (Aveiro, Lisbon and Porto). Data shows that the role of these stores is not limited to the commercialization of food products, but is also key in the promotion and dissemination of their physical, sensorial and symbolic features as well as of the material and immaterial characteristics of their places of origin at local, regional and national scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paleomagnetism is the most important source of information for determining the position of tectonic plates in the geological past. Over the last few decades significant advancements have been made in improving the reliability of paleomagnetic data, ranging from analytical methods to statistical assessments. Here I present the first version of PmagDiR, an R-based open-source package which displays, assesses the reliability, and, when possible, corrects given paleomagnetic directions distributions. The main functions of the package are to: plot paleomagnetic directions, their averages and confidence boundaries; apply different direction cut-offs to identify and filter outliers; perform a test for antipodality; compare the distribution shape with the one predicted by a widely accepted paleosecular variation model; correct flawed distributions for paleomagnetic inclination flattening; and correct for strain-derived paleomagnetic directions deviations when the strain fabric is known. Furthermore, directions can be converted in virtual geomagnetic poles and plotted on a spherical projection for comparison with reference apparent polar wander paths. All main functions of the PmagDiR package return results as comma separated value text files as well as vector graphic files (pdf), optimized for publication purpose with minimal manipulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For covert communication in lossy channels, it is necessary to consider that the carrier of the hidden watermark will undergo multiple image-processing attacks. In order to ensure that secret information can be extracted without distortion from the watermarked images that have undergone attacks, in this paper, we design a novel fragmented secure communication system. The sender will fragment the secret data to be transmitted and redundantly hide it in a large number of multimodal carriers of messenger accounts on multiple social platforms. The receiver receives enough covert carriers, extracts each fragment, and concatenates the transmitted secret data. This article uses the image carrier as an example to fragment the text file intended for transmission and embeds it into a large number of images, with each fragment being redundant and embedded into multiple images. In this way, at the receiving end, only enough stego images need to be received to extract the information in each image, and then concatenate the final secret file. In order to resist various possible attacks during image transmission, we propose a strong robust image watermarking method. This method adopts a watermark layer based on DFT, which has high embedding and detection efficiency and good invisibility. Secondly, a watermark layer based on DCT is adopted, which can resist translation attacks, JPEG attacks, and other common attacks. Experiments have shown that our watermarking method is very fast; both the embedding time and the extraction time are less than 0.15 s for images not larger than 2000 × 2000 . Our watermarking method has very good invisibility with 41 dB PSNR on average. And our watermarking method is more robust than existing schemes and robust to nearly all kinds of attacks. Based on this strong robust image watermarking method, the scheme of fragmenting and hiding redundant transmission content into a large number of images is effective and practical. Our scheme can 100% restore the secret file completely under different RST or hybrid attacks, such as rotation by 1 degree and 5 degrees, scaling by 1.25 and 0.8, and cropping by 10% and 25%. Our scheme can successfully restore the secret file completely even if 30% of received images are lost. When 80% of received images are lost, our scheme can still restore 61.1% of the secret file. If all stego images can be obtained, the original text file can be completely restored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In biomedical research, high-throughput screening is often applied as it comes with automatization, higher-efficiency, and more and faster results. High-throughput screening experiments encompass drug, drug combination, genetic perturbagen or a combination of genetic and chemical perturbagen screens. These experiments are conducted in real-time assays over time or in an endpoint assay. The data analysis consists of data cleaning and structuring, as well as further data processing and visualisation, which, due to the amount of data, can easily become laborious, time-consuming and error-prone. Therefore, several tools have been developed to aid researchers in this process, but these typically focus on specific experimental set-ups and are unable to process data of several time points and genetic-chemical perturbagen screens. To meet these needs, we developed HTSplotter, a web tool and Python module that performs automatic data analysis and visualization of visualization of eitherendpoint or real-time assays from different high-throughput screening experiments: drug, drug combination, genetic perturbagen and genetic-chemical perturbagen screens. HTSplotter implements an algorithm based on conditional statements to identify experiment types and controls. After appropriate data normalization, including growth rate normalization, HTSplotter executes downstream analyses such as dose-response relationship and drug synergism assessment by the Bliss independence (BI), Zero Interaction Potency (ZIP) and Highest Single Agent (HSA) methods. All results are exported as a text file and plots are saved in a PDF file. The main advantage of HTSplotter over other available tools is the automatic analysis of genetic-chemical perturbagen screens and real-time assays where growth rate and perturbagen effect results are plotted over time. In conclusion, HTSplotter allows for the automatic end-to-end data processing, analysis and visualisation of various high-throughput in vitro cell culture screens, offering major improvements in terms of versatility, efficiency and time over existing tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: We annotated the latest published sequences of the 26 Zea mays Nested Association Mapping (NAM) founder lines using GOMAP, the Gene Ontology Meta Annotator for Plants. The maize NAM panel enables researchers to understand and identify the genetic basis of complex traits. Annotations of predicted functions for genes can help researchers investigate gene-phenotype associations, prioritize candidate genes for phenotypes of interest, and formulate testable hypotheses about gene function/phenotype associations. The creation and release of high-confidence, high-coverage gene function annotation sets for the NAM founder lines is critical to accelerate the generation of knowledge in maize genetics research. GOMAP is a high-throughput computational pipeline that annotates gene functions genome-wide in plant genomes using Gene Ontology functional class terms. Here we report and share GOMAP-generated functional annotations for the NAM founder lines. Data description: Datasets include the protein sequences used as input, GOMAP-generated annotation files, scripts used to update obsolete terms, and GAF-formatted tab-delimited text files of gene function annotations along with README files that describe formatting, content, and how files relate to each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After writing the draft of La Construction des villes in 1910 -whose drawings in Germany were discussed in the previous issue of this journal- this project was put on hold until 1915, when he moved to Paris for seven weeks. At the Bibliothéque Nationale he prepared a series of files with texts and sketches and, above all, devoted himself to copying new drawings. Now the workmanship is fast, and rather than faithfully reproducing, he interprets what he sees through a new prism: classicism. There are other references: Blondel and Laugier as sources of authority, but also books and plates by Piranesi, Perelle, Riat, Patte, oriental architecture, historical maps of Paris and prints and engravings from the Cabinet des Estampes. That book was definitively abandoned, but a new conception of the city began to take shape in those days and was reflected in his urban proposals and in Urbanisme, where he published some of these drawings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this article, we discuss the actions favorable to teaching involving argumentation and reflections expressed by pre-service teachers when experiencing a pedagogical cycle (plan-teach-reflect) related to the teaching of chemistry involving argumentation. To do this, we used data from a planning text file, recordings of two classes conducted by the pre-service teachers, recordings of group meetings throughout the training process, two preand post-class questionnaires and an interview. The actions were identified from a set of 27 actions favorable to teaching involving argumentation and the analysis of the reflections occurred based on the identification of elements emphasized by the pre-service teachers. The analysis of the pedagogical cycle experienced by the pre-service teachers indicates that they mobilized theoretical-practical knowledge about argumentation, as they were able to develop classes that could engage students in argumentative processes. However, in the practical dimension, they faced difficulties in promoting argumentation, mainly among students, resulting in an emphasis on Support actions. As an implication, we highlight the limitations of, in the context of initial training, encouraging only the production of lesson plans involving argumentation, or even the analysis of plans as strategies to evaluate the knowledge related to argumentation of pre-service teachers, and the need to create opportunities so that pre-service teachers can plan and conduct real teaching situations, interacting with real students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's world storing a large amount of data, large datasets, handling data in various forms is a challenging task. Data is getting produced rapidly with major small sized files. Hadoop is the solution for the big data problem except few limitations. This method is suggested to provide a better one for small file sizes in terms of storage, access effectiveness, and time. In contrast to the current methods, such as HDFS sequence files, HAR, and NHAR, a revolutionary strategy called VFS-HDFS architecture is created with the goal of optimizing small-sized files access problems. In HDFS When a user requests any file, the client will communicate to NameNode and NameNode will revert in the form of metadata of the file. The metadata contains the information about the blocks and locations. When the client gets this metadata information of a particular file, it communicates with the DataNodes and accesses the data sequentially. In the proposed work caching is introduced to store all the files. When a user requests for an existing file, the data will be retrieved from the cache itself preventing revisiting the NameNode followed by the DataNodes, which reduces the time improving access efficiency. Classification is used to classify the files as per their category and Bucket per category file table holds the metadata of the individual category wise container. The existing HDFS architecture has been wrapped with a virtual file system layer in the proposed development. However, the research is done without changing the HFDS architecture. Using this proposed system, better results are obtained in terms of access efficiency of small sized files in HDFS. A case study is performed on the British Library datasets on.txt and.rtf files. The proposed system can be used to enhance the library if the catalogue is categorized as per their category in a container reducing the storage, improving the access efficiency at the cost of memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chinese/Mandarin language instruction to undergraduate students from non-Chinese speaking countries has become a topic of increasing interest, driven by China's influential role in global political and economic dynamics. With Mandarin being the language spoken by approximately 70% of Chinese speakers, it is not only taught within China but also in institutions around the world. While teaching any second or foreign language presents unique challenges, the specific challenges faced in Mandarin language education have not received comprehensive scrutiny, prompting the need for further investigation. Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to explore the challenges associated with teaching and learning Mandarin from the perspectives of non-native Mandarin language teachers. By adopting a qualitative (phenomenological) research approach, we aimed to uncover the multifaceted challenges that confront both educators and learners in the context of Mandarin language instruction. Methodology: The research methodology employed for this study involved the use of semi-structured interviews conducted with 15 Mandarin language teachers, who were chosen through theoretical sampling. These interviews were transcribed into text files and subsequently subjected to qualitative data analysis, which was facilitated by the use of MAQDA software. This approach allowed us to identify and categorize the various challenges and problems encountered in the teaching and learning of Mandarin. Findings: The research findings revealed a range of challenges and problems experienced in Mandarin language education. These challenges were grouped into two primary thematic categories: psycho-linguistic and educational challenges. The linguistic challenges are deeply rooted in the distinctive features of the Mandarin language, presenting obstacles that necessitate innovative teaching strategies and materials. Educational challenges extend beyond native speaker proficiency, emphasizing the requirement for a comprehensive pedagogical skill set among instructors. Implications: : The implications of this research extend to various stakeholders in the field of Chinese/Mandarin language education, including policymakers, educators, curriculum designers, and learners. Understanding the linguistic, educational, and psychological challenges can inform the development of more effective teaching methods, curriculum design, and motivation-enhancing strategies, ultimately promoting a more successful and engaging Mandarin language learning experience for non-native speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphics are widely used to provide summarization of complex data in scientific publications. Although there are many tools available for drawing graphics, their use is limited by programming skills, costs, and platform specificities. Here, we presented a freely accessible easy-to-use web server named SRplot that integrated more than a hundred of commonly used data visualization and graphing functions together. It can be run easily using all Web browsers and there are no strong requirements on the computing power of users' machines. With a user-friendly graphical interface, users can simply paste the contents of the input file into the text box according to the defined file format. Modification operations can be easily performed, and graphs can be generated in real-time. The resulting graphs can be easily downloaded in bitmap (PNG or TIFF) or vector (PDF or SVG) format in publication quality. The website is updated promptly and continuously. Functions in SRplot have been improved, optimized and updated depend on feedback and suggestions from users. The graphs prepared with SRplot have been featured in more than five hundred peer-reviewed publications. The SRplot web server is now freely available at http://www.bioinformatics.com.cn/SRplot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, many conventional signal processing methods have been applied in the image fusion field to extract image features, such as discrete wavelet transform (DWT), contourlet transform, shiftinvariant shearlet transform and quaternion wavelet transform etc. For the infrared and visible image fusion task. But these methods may introduce artifacts into the fused image. To overcome these problems optimization based fusion schemes are proposed. These methods take multiple iterations to find the optimal solution (fused image). These optimization methods may over smooth the fused image because of multiple iterations. This work focused on hardware-oriented implementation of VLSI based implementation of VI-IR image fusion mechanism. Initially, images are read using Matlab environment. Then, stationary wavelet transform is applied to decompose the VI, and IR images into multiple bands. The low-low bands are converted into text files. Further, the band fusion rule is applied on low-low bands, where multiplexer-based adder is used to combine both images. Finally, Matlab environment is used to reconstruct the fused image from the obtained text files. The simulation results show that the proposed method resulted in better performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]