Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Leaf counting: Multiple scale regression and detection using deep CNNs

Visual object counting is a computer vision task relevant to a broad spectrum of problems, and speciﬁcally to the phenotyping domain. We propose two novel deep learning approaches for the visual object counting task, demonstrating their efﬁciency on the CVPPP 2017 Leaf Counting Challenge dataset. The ﬁrst method performs counting via direct regression, predicting the count value using multiple scale representations of the image and using a novel fusion technique to combine the multi-scale predictions. In the second method, we count after predicting and aggregating all the leaf center points. Experimental results show that both our algorithms outperform last year’s CVPPP challenge winners, while our second pipe also provides additional information of the leaf center points with a 95% average precision.
On the Optimality of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs): Passive Beamforming, Modulation, and Resource Allocation

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have recently emerged as a promising technology that can achieve high spectrum and energy efficiency for future wireless networks by integrating a massive number of low-cost and passive reflecting elements. An RIS can manipulate the properties of an incident wave, such as the frequency, amplitude, and phase, and, then, reflect this manipulated wave to a desired destination, without the need for complex signal processing. In this paper, the asymptotic optimality of achievable rate in a downlink RIS system is analyzed under a practical RIS environment with its associated limitations. In particular, a passive beamformer that can achieve the asymptotic optimal performance by controlling the incident wave properties is designed, under a limited RIS control link and practical reflection coefficients. In order to increase the achievable system sum-rate, a modulation scheme that can be used in an RIS without interfering with existing users is proposed and its average symbol error rate is asymptotically derived. Moreover, a new resource allocation algorithm that jointly considers user scheduling and power control is designed, under consideration of the proposed passive beamforming and modulation schemes. Simulation results show that the proposed schemes are in close agreement with their upper bounds in presence of a large number of RIS reflecting elements thereby verifying that the achievable rate in practical RISs satisfies the asymptotic optimality.
Performance Analysis and Design of Non-orthogonal Multiple Access for Wireless Communications

In this thesis, we study performance analysis and resource allocation designs for non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) in wireless communication systems. In contrast to conventional orthogonal multiple access (OMA) schemes, NOMA allows multiple users to share the same degree of freedom via superposition coding and the successive interference cancelation (SIC) decoding. Inspired by the solid foundations from the information theory perspective, NOMA has rekindled the interests of researchers as a benefit of the recent advancement in signal processing and silicon technologies. However, comprehensive performance analysis on NOMA and practical resource allocation designs to exploit potential gains of NOMA in terms of spectral and energy efficiency have not been fully studied and investigated in the literature. This thesis attempts to address these problems by providing a unified performance analysis and a systematic resource allocation design for NOMA in wireless communication systems.
Search for Surviving Companions of Progenitors of Young LMC SN Ia Remnants

We have used two methods to search for surviving companions of Type Ia supernova progenitors in three Balmer-dominated supernova remnants in the Large Magellanic Cloud: 0519–69.0, 0505–67.9 (DEM L71), and 0548–70.4. In the first method, we use the Hubble Space Telescope photometric measurements of stars to construct color–magnitude diagrams (CMDs) and compare positions of stars in the CMDs with those expected from theoretical post-impact evolution of surviving main-sequence or helium star companions. No obvious candidates of surviving companions are identified in this photometric search. Future models for surviving red giant companions or with different explosion mechanisms are needed for thorough comparisons with these observations in order to make more definitive conclusions. In the second method, we use Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer observations of 0519–69.0 and DEM L71 to carry out spectroscopic analyses of stars in order to use large peculiar radial velocities as diagnostics of surviving companions. We find a star in 0519–69.0 and a star in DEM L71 moving at radial velocities of 182 ± 0 km s−1 and 213 ± 0 km s−1, respectively, more than 2. 5σ from the mean radial velocity of the underlying stellar population, 264 and 270 km s−1, respectively. These stars need higher-quality spectra to investigate their abundances and rotation velocities to determine whether they are indeed surviving companions of the supernova progenitors.
Cultivation of Pleurotus ostreatus ( Jacq Fr . ) Kumm on Gossypium hirsutum Roxb . ( Cotton waste ) and Gmelina arborea

Agricultural wastes from Gossypium hirsutum and Gmelina arborea sawdust were used to cultivate a mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus. Three hundred gram (300 g) of dried substrates were weighed and mixed individually with 10%, 20% and 30% concentration of additives (rice bran and corn cobs) and loaded into polypropylene bags. Each treatment was replicated thrice. The bags were tied and pasteurized in a drum for 4 hours. After cooling, each bag was inoculated with 10 g of vigorously growing spawn of P.ostreatus. The bags were incubated at 28 ± 20C and observed for growth parameters and fructification. The results showed that G. arborea sawdust with 20% rice bran additive gave the highest stipe length (9.0 cm), pileus diameter (7.7 cm) and stipe width (8.9 cm.) The proximate composition of the harvested fruit bodies showed highest protein content of (24.97%) in G. arborea sawdust with 20% rice bran , highest fat and ash contents (7.72% and10.95%) in G. arborea sawdust with 10% corncobs and highest crude fibre content (8.49%) in G. arborea sawdust supplemented with 20% rice bran. The highest moisture content (86.53%) was found in G. arborea sawdust supplemented with 20% corncobs. The highest carbohydrate value of (17.11%) was recorded in G. arborea sawdust (control). The highest total yield (95.44g) and highest biological efficiency (31.81%) were recorded for G. arborea sawdust plus 20% rice bran. This study shows that Pleurotus ostreatus cultivated on G. arborea sawdust with 20% rice bran incorporated as an additive produced better and bigger mushrooms.
Freely Available Instructional Video and Rubric Can Improve APA Style in a Research Methods Classroom

A key goal for undergraduate psychology students is mastery of APA style. We examined the efficacy of a brief and widely available APA style intervention among a sample of undergraduates registered in a psychology research methods course at a large urban public university. There were 2 groups, an intervention group in which 174 students received standardized and explicit APA style instructions based on the APA manual 6th edition, including a video tutorial and an APA style grading rubric they used for their final paper. The comparison group consisted of 139 students. In this “business as usual” comparison group, instructors proceeded in the class as they typically would be using previous instructional styles they have devised. Participants in the intervention group were better at adhering to APA style, &khgr;2(4) = 24.91, p < . 001, but improvements in design are suggested which could lead to clearer results.
State of knowledge about the community of mollusks on both sides of the Baja California peninsula , Mexico : A comparative analysis

A bibliographic search, a compilation of collection data and recent sampling of deep-water mollusks (from 200 to 4200 m) in the Gulf of California (Talud IV-IX cruises, 2000-2005) yield a total of 685 records on both sides of the Baja California Peninsula, Mexico. Records were split into Gulf of California (GC) and the slope of Baja California in the influence zone of the California Current (Mexico only) records (CC) and a comparative analysis of  diversity for both fauna was made using depth and latitude records. Five commonly used similarity indices (Jaccard, Sørensen, Sokal and Sneath, Braun-Blanquet, and Ochiai-Barkman) were calculated for each cell of the latitude by depth matrix. A total of 281 species and 201 genera were recognized. Number of records and species richness were usually higher in the GC, but diversity profiles obtained on both sides of the Peninsula were similar. Using the Sørensen index, highest similarity between GC and CC fauna was observed at 23°N (species: 13%, genera: 23%) and at 200-699 m (species: 20%, genera: 33%). Based on data available and our present knowledge, the effect of the Baja California Peninsula and of the local currents pattern results in a low similarity between GC and CC fauna (86% of the species and 75% of the genera are distinct). Résumé : Etat des connaissances des populations de mollusques des deux côtés de la péninsule de Basse Californie, Mexique : analyse comparée. Une recherche bibliographique et une compilation des données de capture de mollusques d’eau profonde (entre 200 et 4200 m), y-compris des séries d’échantillonnages obtenus dans le golfe de Californie (croisières Talud IV-IX, 2000-2005), ont permis d’obtenir 685 registres sur les deux côtés de la péninsule de Basse Californie, Mexique. Ceux-ci ont été divisés entre le golfe de Californie (GC) et le courant de Californie (portion correspondant au Mexique) (CC). Une analyse comparative de la ß diversité pour les deux faunes a été faite en fonction de la profondeur et de la latitude. Des gradients de latitude (23°-31°N, divisés en neuf bandes égales) et de profondeur (de 200-4200 m, intervalles de 500 m) ont été définis. En tout, 281 espèces et 201 genres ont été reconnus pour la région et cinq indices de similarité (Jaccard, Sørensen, Sokal et Sneath, Braun-Blanquet et Ochiai-Barkman) ont été calculés. Le nombre de signalements et la richesse en espèces étaient généralement plus élevés dans le GC, mais la diversité des profils obtenus sur les deux côtés de la péninsule étaient similaires. La plus forte similitude en espèces entre le GC et le CC a été observée avec l’indice de Sørensen à 23°N (12,66%) et à 200-699 m (20,00%). Dans le cas des genres, la plus forte similitude a été observée à 23°N (22,54%) et entre 200-699 m (32,91%). Considérant les données actuellement disponibles, l’effet de la péninsule et des courants locaux semble à l’origine d’une faible similitude entre le GC et le CC (86% des espèces et 75% des genres sont distincts).
Localising memory retrieval and syntactic composition: an fMRI study of naturalistic language comprehension

ABSTRACT This study examines memory retrieval and syntactic composition using fMRI while participants listen to a book, The Little Prince. These two processes are quantified drawing on methods from computational linguistics. Memory retrieval is quantified via multi-word expressions that are likely to be stored as a unit, rather than built-up compositionally. Syntactic composition is quantified via bottom-up parsing that tracks tree-building work needed in composed syntactic phrases. Regression analyses localise these to spatially-distinct brain regions. Composition mainly correlates with bilateral activity in anterior temporal lobe and inferior frontal gyrus. Retrieval of stored expressions drives right-lateralised activation in the precuneus. Less cohesive expressions activate well-known nodes of the language network implicated in composition. These results help to detail the neuroanatomical bases of two widely-assumed cognitive operations in language processing.
INTERNATIONAL MOTIVATION AND COOPERATION FOR RESEARCH IN THE ULTRA-HIGH PURIFICATION OF METALS

Due to the dramatic change in the properties as the last traces of impurities are removed, ultra-high purity metals can be considered to be new functional materials, which find dynamically growing applications in a number of specialized fields in modern technology, especially in electronics. Definition of purity levels requires sophisticated techniques. Direct analytical methods can hardly cover all the elements with high accuracy. Indirect methods – mainly by testing the residual resistivity at 4.2 K – are also demanding, but can offer a global index of purity if conditions of the material are standardized. Purification of metals by the conventional techniques may involve several steps of different treatment, often limited in efficiency. Separation of the impurities from the base metal dissolved in HCl solutions may be comprehensive and efficient by anion-exchange. Utilization of the significant differences in chloro-complex formation and ion-exchange sorption can result in the elimination of virtually all the significant impurities. Selectivity is achieved by the appropriate control of HCl concentrations and redox conditions during the ion-exchange procedure.
Structural Change Within versus Across Firms: Evidence from the United States

We investigate the role of intangible knowledge in continuing manufacturing ﬁrms’ substantial contribution to US non-manufacturing employment growth between 1977 and 2019. Empirically, we use new information on auxiliary establishments that primarily serve the other plants of their ﬁrm to develop a new measure of in-house knowledge creation and show that it is associated with faster growth and greater pivoting to diﬀerent industries. Theoretically, we rationalize this relationship in a model in which a ﬁrm’s investments in intangible knowledge raise its productivity in all sectors, facilitating within-ﬁrm structural change. Consistent with the model, we ﬁnd that shocks to ﬁrms’ input prices induce a shift from physical production to services among ﬁrms with greater in-house knowledge.
Chapter 8 from : Insect Molecular Virology Advances and Emerging Trends

Polydnaviruses (PDVs) were originally viewed as large DNA viruses that are beneficial symbionts of parasitoid wasps. Two groups of PDVs were also recognized: bracoviruses (BVs), which are associated with wasps in the family Braconidae, and ichnoviruses (IVs), which are associated with wasps in the family Ichneumonidae. Results to date indicate that BVs are endogenous virus elements (EVEs) that evolved from an ancient betanudivirus. IVs are also likely EVEs but are unrelated to BVs. BVs and IVs are very unusual relative to most known EVEs because they retain many viral functions that benefit wasps in parasitizing hosts. However, BVs and IVs cannot be considered beneficial symbionts because all components of their genomes are fixed in wasps. Recent studies indicate that other nudiviruses have endogenized in insects. Each exhibits a different functional fate from BVs but shares certain architectural features. We discuss options for classifying BVs and other endogenized nudiviruses. We also discuss future directions.
DepCC : Dependency Parsed Corpus Preprocessing : C 4 Corpus ( Apache Hadoop ) Crawling Web Pages : CCBot ( Apache Nutch ) Linguistic Analysis : lefex ( Apache Hadoop )

We present DEPCC, the largest-to-date linguistically analyzed corpus in English including 365 million documents, composed of 252 billion tokens and 7.5 billion of named entity occurrences in 14.3 billion sentences from a web-scale crawl of the COMMON CRAWL project. The sentences are processed with a dependency parser and with a named entity tagger and contain provenance information, enabling various applications ranging from training syntax-based word embeddings to open information extraction and question answering. We built an index of all sentences and their linguistic meta-data enabling quick search across the corpus. We demonstrate the utility of this corpus on the verb similarity task by showing that a distributional model trained on our corpus yields better results than models trained on smaller corpora, like Wikipedia. This distributional model outperforms the state of art models of verb similarity trained on smaller corpora on the SimVerb3500 dataset.
Selective roles for α-PKC in positive signaling for O 2 − generation and calcium mobilization but not elastase release in differentiated HL 60 cells

Protein kinase C (PKC) isotypes and Ca mobilization have been implicated in phagocytic cell functions such as O2 − generation. Ca/DGdependent α-PKC and β-PKC have similar substrate specificities and cofactor requirements in vitro. However it is not known if these isotypes play redundant or unique roles in the intact cell. In the present study, a role for α-PKC in positive signaling for fMet-Leu-Pheand PMA-activated O2 − generation was probed using an siRNA strategy in HL60 cells differentiated to a neutrophilic phenotype (dHL60 cells). A selective decrease in α-PKC in dHL60 cells attenuated O2 − generation but not degranulation, and reduced ligand-induced phosphorylation of p47 as previously shown for β-PKC. However α-PKC, unlike β-PKC, was a positive regulator of fMet-Leu-Phe-triggered Ca uptake via SOCC (Store Operated Calcium Channels). The ability of a selective SOCC inhibitor, MRS1845, to decrease fMet-Leu-Phe induced Ca uptake and O2 − generation confirmed that Ca uptake via SOCC was required for O2 − generation. These results indicate that α-PKC and β-PKC are required for optimal O2 − generation, but play different roles in Ca signaling for phagocytic responses such as O2 − generation. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Technology Acceptance Model Limitations and Criticisms: Exploring the Practical Applications and Use in Technology-related Studies, Mixed-method, and Qualitative Researches

Many researchers have been citing the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) because of the simplicity of the model without considering actual applications in their studies. This paper presented some of the criticisms and limitations of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), taking into consideration, the use of the model technology-related studies across various disciplines particularly in social sciences, educations and management researches. The TAM limitations, critiques and criticism were presented based on the literature review, the model suitability and practical application of the model within enterprises and institutional context. The paper used a desktop research approach. The paper objective addressed the limitation and of the TAM model, and presented a modified model for LIS and social sciences research general applications. However, this paper argues that the TAM model was more appropriate for individual use and acceptance of technology rather than in a corporate or institutional application that requires integration of information technology. The paper uses literature as secondary data and insights gathered from attempts to utilize the model for doctoral studies to presents its limitations and impracticality in an institutional environment. However, based on the findings from the field research, a Technology Acceptance and Use Model was proposed which takes into account, the identified limitations and criticism of TAM, companies’ rules and regulations regarding how technology is used for different business processes. The core argument is that staff IT proficiency and experiences promote the ease of use of technology, while technology acceptance and intention is moderated by the company’s rules, policy, and IT guidelines.
THE RELATIONSHIP OF ACCREDITATION AND LICENSING STANDARDS, TRAINING, AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT OUTCOMES

This study examined the relationship of child development outcomes to accreditation systems (NAEYC & NECPA), training (Wheelock & NAEYC), and standards (APHA/AAP & Stepping Stones). The purpose of the study was multi-dimensional to re-validate the NECPA accreditation system and to compare various standards with child development outcomes. Twenty centers from Pennsylvania with 200 children and 100 teachers participated in the study. Several child development as well as accreditation, professional development, and standards based tools were used in the study. The results from this study clearly show a positive relationship between licensing and accreditation standards, and training with program quality and child development outcomes. All areas of a child’s development are positively related with those programs that would be accredited, have an effective and efficient professional development system, and meet or go beyond licensing standards.
Branding in the Post-truth News era : A Social Media Hegemony in Zimbabwe Tourism Brand Equity Modelling

The study was premised on understanding the basis of Zimbabwe tourism brand ascendancy particularly looking at the role of social media in improving positive publicity in a world dominated by post news falsification. This was achieved through comparing social media and other types of media namely traditional and digital on the effect to Brand Equity Variables. The brand equity variables comprised of brand awareness, brand image, perceived brand quality, brand loyalty and brand association. The study applied a sequential mixed methods by starting with a qualitative research design followed by a quantitative. Indepth interviews were used to obtain qualitative data and a survey questionnaire for quantitative data. The results from a qualitative research helped in coming up with the most used types of media in a tourism destination as: Magazine, Electronic, WhatsApp, Twitter, LinkedIn, Newspaper, Radio, Television, Facebook, Website, Blogs, Instagram, Google and Portal. A survey was further done in order to group them under three main categories which are Social Media, Traditional Media and Digital Media. The results showed that Social Media comprise of WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn: Traditional Media was discovered to have Magazine, Television, Radio and Newspaper. Digital Media was comprised of Electronic Boards, Website, Google, Blogs and Portal. A further survey was done in order to understand the relationship between each group of media and the brand equity variables. This then aided in producing a model for destination branding linking Social Media and Brand Equity Variables; Traditional Media and Brand Equity Variables; and Digital Media and Brand Equity Variables. The study therefore recommended that destination marketers should work in partnership with various media providers throughout the whole process of destination brand development since it might influence the crafting and framing news so as to attract potential tourists.