Polar Models of Culture-Regressivism Versus Progressivism

The culture wars that simmer within any nation may have been escalating recently;but regardless of their national settings or milieus,many of these wars are informed by two opposing paradigms of culture.This paper analyzes two of these leading paradigms,designated here as Regressivism and Progressivism.Other theorists have long chronicled the differing strengths and weaknesses of these paradigms,taking the former as expressing more conservative,traditional,and nationalistic values,and the latter as expressing more liberal,pluralistic,and cosmopolitan values.Going beyond these perennial distinctions,I argue that Progressivism is more benign and beneficial than the former-by meeting basic human needs better and supporting more effective adaptation to changing exigencies.I also argue that Progressivism does not express merely subjective or relativistic preferences and values,but objectively preferable and quantifiable ones,that benefit not only our personal lives more but also our global village and communal lives more.

Solvability and Construction of a Solution to the Fredholm Integral Equation of the First Kind

The issues of solvability and construction of a solution of the Fredholm integral equation of the first kind are considered. It is done by immersing the original problem into solving an extremal problem in Hilbert space. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a solution are obtained. A method of constructing a solution of the Fredholm integral equation of the first kind is developed. A constructive theory of solvability and construction of a solution to a boundary value problem of a linear integrodifferential equation with a distributed delay in control, generated by the Fredholm integral equation of the first kind, has been created.

Toxicological Assessment of Irvingia gabonensis Leaf Extracts in Albino Rats: A Comparative Study between Aqueous and Ethanol Extraction Methods

Background: This study aimed to assess the toxicity of Irvingia gabonensis leaf extracts in albino rats and investigate their effects on body weight, liver function parameters, and renal function parameters. The research specifically compared the outcomes of aqueous and ethanol extraction methods. Methods: Acute toxicity was evaluated by administering a single oral dose of Irvingia gabonensis leaf extracts to rats and monitoring them for 24 hours and during a 14-day observation period. Sub-acute toxicity was assessed through a 28-day administration of the leaf extract. Body weight changes, liver function parameters, and renal function parameters were measured and compared among treatment groups. Results: No signs of toxicity or mortality were observed in rats treated with Irvingia gabonensis leaf extracts obtained through either aqueous or ethanol extraction methods. The calculated lethal dose required to cause mortality in 50% of the tested animals (LD50) exceeded 5000 mg/kg body weight. Oral administration of the leaf extract at doses of 400 and 800 mg/kg body weight did not induce any observable signs of toxicity or adverse effects during the 28-day study period. Male and female albino rats treated with the leaf extract showed significant weight gains compared to the control group. Higher doses (800 mg/kg) of both aqueous and ethanol extracts led to increased levels of total protein, albumin, and globulin in male albino rats, with the ethanol extract exhibiting a more pronounced effect. The administration of the ethanol extract, particularly at the lower dose (400 mg/kg), resulted in decreased levels of liver enzymes (AST, ALT, and ALP), suggesting potential liver protective properties. Additionally, bilirubin levels, a marker of liver dysfunction, were significantly reduced in all treatment groups, with the lowest levels observed in the groups receiving higher doses of both aqueous and ethanol extracts. The administration of Irvingia gabonensis leaf extracts did not significantly affect renal function parameters in both male and female albino rats. Conclusion: Irvingia gabonensis leaf extracts obtained through aqueous and ethanol extraction methods showed no acute or sub-acute toxicity in albino rats. The extracts demonstrated potential beneficial effects on liver function parameters, particularly at higher doses. However, further research is needed to validate these findings and determine the optimal dosage for potential therapeutic applications in humans.

Business Email Compromise Challenges to Medium and Large-Scale Firms in USA: An Analysis

Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks have emerged as a significant cybersecurity threat, leading to substantial financial losses for organizations. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), BEC attacks resulted in financial losses exceeding $1.8 billion in the USA in 2019 alone. Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks have emerged as a significant cybersecurity threat, leading to substantial financial losses for organizations. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), BEC attacks resulted in financial losses exceeding $1.8 billion in the USA in 2019 alone. BEC attacks target a wide range of sectors. No industry is immune to these attacks, which emphasizes the need for increased vigilance across all sectors. Attackers often impersonate high-level executives or vendors to gain credibility and manipulate employees into complying with fraudulent requests. BEC attacks have a global reach, with threat actors operating from various countries, including Nigeria, Russia, China, and Eastern European nations. We will examine the unique difficulties SMEs encounter in relation to BEC attacks. This study provides a more excellent knowledge of the severity of the problem and offers ideas for efficient mitigation solutions through an investigation of attack characteristics, tactics, and impacts.

Synthesis of 4-acylpyrazolone Schiff base ligand grafted silica and selectivity in adsorption of lanthanides from aqueous solutions

The Schiff base form of the 4-acylpyrazolone ligand was immobilized on the silica surface by reaction of 3-aminopropyl silica with 4-acetyl-5-methyl-2-phenyl-2,4-dihydro-pyrazol-3-one in 97% yield, producing grafted silica with 0.77 mmol/g ligand loading. This surface modified silica was shown to be selective in the adsorption of Yb3+ ions from dilute aqueous solutions, for which 98% adsorption was observed from a 1.0×10-5 mol/L aq. solution at pH 6.7, after 24 h at room temperature. Six other lanthanides studied Eu3+, Gd3+, Nd3+, Tb3+, Sm3+ and La3+ showed moderate to weaker adsorptions of 39%, 28%, 16%, 12%, 11% and 5% respectively under similar conditions.

Assessing the spatiotemporal distributions of evapotranspiration in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region of China using remote sensing data

Evapotranspiration(ET) is a critical component of the global hydrological cycle, and it has a large impact on water resource management as it affects the availability of freshwater resources. It is important to understand the hydrological cycle for the water resources planning and management. This study used Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) satellite derived ET, and potential evapotranspiration(PET) and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission(TRMM) satellite derived precipitation datasets to assess the spatial and temporal distributions of ET, PET, and precipitation during the study period at Three Gorges Reservoir(TGR) region. Based on the topographic variations and land-use/land-cover distributions, the study region which includes five counties of Hubei Province and nineteen counties of Chongqing Municipality was divided into four study zones. The ET and precipitation data were evaluated using in situ observations. The ET, PET, and precipitation data were compared to analyze the spatial and long-term(2001-2016) temporal distributions of average annual ET, PET, and precipitation, and to understand the relationships between them in the study region. The results showed that each selected zone had highest ET at the counties with the Yangtze River passing through whereas lowest at the counties which were located away from the river. Results also showed increasing trends in ET and PET from south-west to north-east in the study region. Analysis showed TGR had a significant impact on spatial and temporal distributions of ET and PET in the study region. Therefore, this study helps to understand the impact of TGR on spatial and temporal distributions of ET and PET during and after the construction.

Modeling regional landslide susceptibility using dynamic soil moisture profiles

A landslide susceptibility mapping study was performed using dynamic hillslope hydrology. The modified infinite slope stability model that directly includes vadose zone soil moisture(SM) was applied at Cleveland Corral, California, US and Krishnabhir, Dhading, Nepal. The variable infiltration capacity(VIC-3L) model simulated vadose zone soil moisture and the wetness index hydrologic model simulated groundwater(GW). The GW model predictions had a 75% NASH-Sutcliffe efficiency when compared to California's in-situ GW measurements. The model performed best during the wet season. Using predicted GW and VIC-3L vadose zone SM, the developed landslide susceptibility maps showed very good agreement with mapped landslides at each study region. Previous quasi-dynamic model predictions of Nepal's hazardous areas during extreme rainfall events were enhanced to improve the spatial characterization and provide the timing of hazardous conditions.

Analysis of the Load Flow Problem in Power System Planning Studies

Load flow is an important tool used by power engineers for planning, to determine the best operation for a power system and exchange of power between utility companies. In order to have an efficient operating power system, it is necessary to determine which method is suitable and efficient for the system’s load flow analysis. A power flow analysis method may take a long time and therefore prevent achieving an accurate result to a power flow solution because of continuous changes in power demand and generations. This paper presents analysis of the load flow problem in power system planning studies. The numerical methods: Gauss-Seidel, Newton-Raphson and Fast Decoupled methods were compared for a power flow analysis solution. Simulation is carried out using Matlab for test cases of IEEE 9-Bus, IEEE 30-Bus and IEEE 57-Bus system. The simulation results were compared for number of iteration, computational time, tolerance value and convergence. The compared results show that Newton-Raphson is the most reliable method because it has the least number of iteration and converges faster.

Design and Digital Implementation of Controller for PMSM Using Extended Kalman Filter

A novel digital implementation of speed controller for a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) with disturbance rejection using conventional observer combined with Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is proposed. First, the EKF is constructed to achieve a precise estimation of the speed and current from the noisy measurement. Second, a proportional integral derivative (PID) controller is developed based on Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) to achieve speed command tracking performance. Then, an observer is designed and its error is utilized to provide load disturbance compensation. The proposed method greatly enhances the PMSM performance by reducing the control signal variation as well as the disturbance. The speed control performance is significantly improved compared to the case when we have an observer acting alone. The simulation results for the speed response and variation of the states when the PMSM is subjected to the load disturbance are presented. The results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Design and Implementation of Low-Pass, High-Pass and Band-Pass Finite Impulse Response (FIR) Filters Using FPGA

This paper presents the design and implementation of a low-pass, high-pass and a hand-pass Finite Impulse Response (FIR) Filter using SPARTAN-6 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) device. The filter performance is tested using Filter Design and Analysis (FDA) and FIR tools from Mathworks. The FDA Tool is used to define the filter order and coefficients, and the FIR tool is used for Simulink simulation. The FPGA implementation is carried out using Spartan-6 LX75T-3FGG676C for different filter specifications and simulated with the help of Xilinx ISE (Integrated Software Environment). System Generator ISE design suit 14.6i is used in synthesizing and co-simulation for FPGA filter output verification. Finally, comparison is done between the results obtained from the software simulations and those from FPGA using hardware co-simulation. The simulation waveforms and synthesis reports verify the parallel implementation of FPGA which proves its effectiveness in terms of speed, resource usage and power consumption.

The effect of toroidal field on the rotating magnetic field current drive in rotamak plasmas

A rotamak is one kind of compact spherically shaped magnetic-confinement device. In a rotamak the plasma current is driven by means of rotating magnetic field （RMF）. The driven current can reverse the original equilibrium field and generate a field-reversed-configuration. In a conventional rotamak, a toroidal field （TF） is not necessary for the RMF to drive plasma current, but it was found that the present of an additional TF can influence the RMF current drive. In this paper the effect of TF on the RMF current drive in a rotamak are investigated in some detail. The experimental results show that addition of TF increases the RMF driven current greatly and enhances the RMF penetration dramatically. Without TF, the RMF can only penetrate into plasma in the edge region. When a TF is added, the RMF can reach almost the whole plasma region. This is an optimal strength of toroidal magnetic field for getting maximum plasma current when Bv and radio frequency generator power are fixed. Besides driving current, the RMF generates high harmonic fields in rotamak plasma. The effect of TF on the harmonic field spectra are also reported.

Powerful quantifiers for cancer transcriptomics

Every day,investigators find a new link between a form of cancer and a particular alteration in the sequence or/and expression level of a key gene,awarding this gene the title of“biomarker”.The clinician may choose from numerous available panels to assess the type of cancer based on the mutation or expression regulation(“transcriptomic signature”)of“driver”genes.However,cancer is not a“onegene show”and,together with the alleged biomarker,hundreds other genes are found as mutated or/and regulated in cancer samples.Regardless of the platform,a well-designed transcriptomic study produces three independent features for each gene:Average expression level,expression variability and coordination with expression of each other gene.While the average expression level is used in all studies to identify what genes were up-/down-regulated or turn on/off,the other two features are unfairly ignored.We use all three features to quantify the transcriptomic change during the progression of the disease and recovery in response to a treatment.Data from our published microarray experiments on cancer nodules and surrounding normal tissue from surgically removed tumors prove that the transcriptomic topologies are not only different in histopathologically distinct regions of a tumor but also dynamic and unique for each human being.We show also that the most influential genes in cancer nodules[the Gene Master Regulators(GMRs)]are significantly less influential in the normal tissue.As such,“smart”manipulation of the cancer GMRs expression may selectively kill cancer cells with little consequences on the normal ones.Therefore,we strongly recommend a really personalized approach of cancer medicine and present the experimental procedure and the mathematical algorithm to identify the most legitimate targets(GMRs)for gene therapy.

Performance and Efficiency Simulation Study of a Smart-Grid Connected Photovoltaic System

The availability of non-renewable energy sources such as crude oil, natural gas, coal etc., is fast diminishing. So the renewable energy sources such as solar, hydropower, geothermal, wind, tidal energy, are gaining more and more importance. Many new developments to convert these renewable energy sources into usable forms are taking place. Most renewable energy sources are used to produce electricity. In this paper, a performance and efficiency simulation study of a smart-grid connected photovoltaic system using Chroma DC programmable power supply, AC programmable source and an Aurora Inverter is proposed. The simulation is performed in MATLAB environment where the Current-Voltage (I-V) and Power-Voltage (P-V) curves from the solar array simulator are generated and plotted. The proposed topology has been verified with satisfactory results. In addition, temperature and irradiance effects on I-V and P-V characteristic curves are verified. Also, the efficiency curves of the photovoltaic grid interface inverter are generated in the study. The MATLAB code developed in this paper is a valuable tool for design engineers comparing different inverters, calculating the optimum efficiency of a given inverter type.

Purification of Active Peroxidase Isoenzymes and Their Responses to Nitrogen Fertilization and Rotation of Biomass Sorghum

Peroxidases (EC 1.11.1.7) participate in lignin biosynthesis. But peroxidation is not a tool for assaying lignocellulose metabolism because the active cannot yet be separated from the inactive peroxidases. A biochemical tool for assaying plant cell wall responses to agronomic practices is needed in the lignocellulosic feedstock renewable energy industry. Peroxidase of biomass sorghum was purified to 9 - 13 charge isomers by free solution IEF (Rotofor) technique. Free solution IEF was more effective than chromatographic purification of active peroxidase isoenzymes. Native PAGE separated each charge isomer to three anionic and three cationic isoenzymes. Hydrogen peroxide and o-dianisidine assays showed that only 20% - 30% of the isoenzymes displayed normal Michaelis-Menten kinetics. Sorghum planted without nitrogen fertilization induced the hydrogen peroxide noncompetitive inhibition of peroxidase, but 280 kg·ha–1 nitrogen fertilization and 100% sorghum mineral residue return to the soil tripled the concentration of active peroxidase and relieved the inhibition with concomitant increases of 350 kg lignin and 3532 kg·cellulose·ha–1. Nitrogen fertilization without crop rotation induced hydrogen peroxide inhibition of the peroxidase, but nitrogen fertilization and 25% sorghum rotation changed the PI of the active peroxidase from neutral to mildly acidic and relieved the inhibition with concomitant enormous increases of 690 kg lignin and 7151 kg·cellulose·ha–1. Hydrogen peroxide inhibition kinetics is consistent with the known peroxidase-substrate intermediate dead-end complex formation. Lignocellulosic yield was greatest under the agronomic management that combined 280 kg·ha–1 nitrogen fertilizer with 25% sorghum residue, which resulted in a shift of pI value of the active peroxidase due to a reduction in the Km value of the peroxidase. Therefore, up to 75% of sorghum biomass rather than only 50% can be harvested for conversion to bioenergy products.

Electrophoretic Purification and Characterization of Human NADH-Glutamate Dehydrogenase Redox Cycle Isoenzymes Synthesizing Nongenetic Code-Based RNA Enzyme

NADH-glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) is active in human tissues, and is chromatographically purified, and studied because it participates in synthesizing glutamate, a neurotransmitter. But chromatography dissociates the GDH isoenzymes that synthesize nongenetic code-based RNA enzymes degrading superfluous mRNAs thereby aligning the cellular reactions with the environment of the organism. The aim was to electrophoretically purify human hexameric GDH isoenzymes and to characterize their RNA enzyme synthetic activity as in plants. The outcome could be innovative in chemical dependency diagnosis and management. Multi metrix electrophoresis including free solution isoelectric focusing, and through polyacrylamide and agarose gels were deployed to purify the redox cycle isoenzymes of laryngeal GDH, and to assay their RNA enzyme synthetic activities. The laryngeal GDH displayed the 28 binomial isoenzymes typical of higher organisms. Isoelectric focusing purification produced pure GDH. Redox cycle assays of the GDH isoenzymes produced RNA enzymes that degraded human stomach total RNA. In the reaction mechanism, the Schiff-base intermediate complex between α-ketoglutarate and GDH is the target of nucleophiles, resulting to the disruption of synthesis of glutamate, and RNA enzyme. The strongest nucleophiles are the psychoactive alkaloids of tobacco, cocaine, opium poppy, cannabis smoke because they are capable of reacting with GDH Schiff base intermediate to stimulate synthesis of aberrant RNA enzymes that degrade cohorts of mRNAs thereby changing the biochemical pathways and exacerbating drug overdose and chemical dependency. Electrophoretic purification, and characterization of the RNA enzyme synthetic activity set the forecourt for innovative application of GDH redox cycles in the diagnostic management of chemical dependency.

Terpene-Rich Medicinal Plant Spices for Flavoring of Processed Tropical Food

Tropical medicinal plant spices have remained underutilized in commercial food processing because of the inadequate chemical characterization of their terpene compositions. The activity of medicinal plants used in flavoring is due to their terpene contents. Terpene contents of Aframomum danielli seeds, Xylopia aethiopica fruits, Syzygium aromaticum leaves, Piper guineense seeds, and Monodora myristica seeds were determined using headspace solid-phase microextraction combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. P. guineense is rich in terpinene and terpinolene (2.5 g per 100 g), S. aromaticum has caryophyllene (0.68 g per 100 g);A. danielli is rich in ocimene (1.65 g per 100 g);X. aethiopica is rich in ocimene (2.94 g per 100 g);M. mystristica is rich in delta carene (0.49 g per 100 g). Combinations of the five medicinal plant spices are being applied as flavorings in packaged tropical food.

Total RNA Degradation <i>in Vitro</i>and <i>in Vitro</i>by Glutamate Dehydrogenase-Synthesized RNA Enzyme: Biotechnological Applications

Glutamate dehydrogenase regulates crop development, growth, and biomass yield through its synthesis of non-genetic code-based RNA. Understanding the mechanism of GDH-synthesized RNA enzyme would enhance the agriculture innovation capacity of the more than a billion urban gardeners, smallholder, and limited resources indigenous farmers. Different metabolic variants were prepared by treating peanut growing on healthy soil with stoichiometric mixes of mineral salt solutions. Peanut GDH charge isomers were purified to homogeneity by electrophoresis, and made to synthesize RNA enzyme. Peanut total RNA was 5’-end labeled with [γ-32P]ATP and made to react as substrate in vitro with GDH-synthesized RNA from another metabolic variant of peanut. Agarose, and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the reaction products showed that tRNA, rRNA, and most of the mRNAs were degraded to mononucleotides, but total RNAs that were not mixed with GDH-synthesized RNAs were not degraded. When the non-homologous sequence sections of the GDH-synthesized RNA were clipped out, the homologous sections failed to produce Northern bands with peanut total RNA. Therefore, the non-homologous sequence sections served to identify, position, and align the GDH-synthesized RNA to its target total RNA site independent of genetic code;the degradation of total RNA being via non-canonical base alignments in the enzyme-substrate complex, followed by electromagnetic destruction of the total RNA, the less stable of the two kinds of RNA. This is the science-based corner stone that buttresses the crop production efforts of limited resources farmers because GDH-synthesized RNAs quickly degrade superfluous total RNA of the crop in response to the soil mineral nutrient deficiencies thereby minimizing wastage of metabolic energy in the synthesis of unnecessary protein enzymes while optimizing biomass metabolism, crop growth, and maximum crop yields. In vitro hydrolysis of total RNA by GDH-synthesized RNA is the game changing, prototype, R&D methods for cleansing sick total RNA from cells, tissues, and whole organisms.

Building a Productive Domain-Specific Cloud for Big Data Processing and Analytics Service

Cloud Computing as a disruptive technology, provides a dynamic, elastic and promising computing climate to tackle the challenges of big data processing and analytics. Hadoop and MapReduce are the widely used open source frameworks in Cloud Computing for storing and processing big data in the scalable fashion. Spark is the latest parallel computing engine working together with Hadoop that exceeds MapReduce performance via its in-memory computing and high level programming features. In this paper, we present our design and implementation of a productive, domain-specific big data analytics cloud platform on top of Hadoop and Spark. To increase user’s productivity, we created a variety of data processing templates to simplify the programming efforts. We have conducted experiments for its productivity and performance with a few basic but representative data processing algorithms in the petroleum industry. Geophysicists can use the platform to productively design and implement scalable seismic data processing algorithms without handling the details of data management and the complexity of parallelism. The Cloud platform generates a complete data processing application based on user’s kernel program and simple configurations, allocates resources and executes it in parallel on top of Spark and Hadoop.

Responses of bioenergy sorghum cell wall metabolism to agronomic practices

Maximum lignocellulose yield of biomass sorghum [Sorghum bicolor L. (Moench.)] is hampered by complex biological phenomena related to rotation, nitrogen (N) fertilization, soil tillage, and excessive biomass removal. The biochemical basis of the effects of agronomic practices on sorghum production was studied by the enzymology of the active peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.7) isoenzymes that synthesize lignin. All studied practices altered the peroxidase pI values. Control sorghum without rotation and without N fertilization had the most inhibited peroxidase with very low maximum velocity (Vmax) value (3.10 mmol·min﹣1), and very low lignin (857 kg·ha﹣1) yield, which could decrease soil organic carbon possibly leading to adverse changes in soil chemistry. Corn-sorghum rotations with and without N fertilization increased the Vmax values of peroxidase and lignin and cellulose yields. Rotated sorghum subjected to 50% residue return (the percentage of crop residue was returned to the plot immediately after grinding at harvest) and 280 kg·ha﹣1 N fertilization possessed very active peroxidase (Vmax value 66.4 mmole·min﹣1) and the highest lignin (1387 kg·ha﹣1) yield. The 25% residue return rate without N fertilization induced high lignin (1125 kg·ha﹣1) and cellulose (11,961 kg·ha﹣1) but the 25% residue return rate with 280 kg·ha﹣1 N fertilization induced lower lignin (1046 kg·ha﹣1) yield. Continuously cropped sorghum treated with 336 kg·N·ha﹣1 produced active peroxidase that shared competitive inhibition relationship with the peroxidase of the 84 kg·N·ha﹣1 treatment. Ridge tillage combined with 280 kg·ha﹣1 N fertilization under continuous sorghum resulted in inhibited peroxidase possessing low Vmax value (13.0 μmole·min﹣1). Changing to conventional tillage combined with 280 kg·ha﹣1 N fertilization relieved the inhibition and increased the Vmax value to 23.7 mmol·min﹣1. These biological anomalies of sorghum cell wall related to agronomic practices originated from doubly inhibited sorghum peroxidases. This understanding may guide the choice of sustainable agronomic practices for maximizing lignocellulose yields for the bioenergy industry while protecting the environment.

Agent-Based Modeling: An Application to Natural Resource Management

Computer programs have been categorized as a useful tool to evaluate the complexity of systems. In fact, agent-based modeling (ABM) is considered a new method to model complex systems characterized by the role of independent and interrelating agents. Simulations contribute in estimating and comprehending emerging behaviors that require the development of new regulations for local agents that would make improvements to the system. This paper offers an example of a methodology and a process utilized to develop a simulation model named Befergyonet, an ABM used to conduct computer simulations within a spatio-intertemporal environment. The methodology discussed in this paper is intended solely to stimulate the use of innovative computer programs to simulate complex systems as an approach to represent real world events and may be a methodological guide for readers interested in developing their own ABM.