Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Refining Nitrogen and Phosphorus Fertilization Strategies for Controlling the Toxigenic Alga Prymnesium parvum 1

Kurten, Gerald L. , Aaron Barkoh, Drew C. Begley, and Loraine T. Fries, 2010. Refining Nitrogen and Phosphorus Fertilization Strategies for Controlling the Toxigenic Alga Prymnesium parvum. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(1):170‐186. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2009. 00401.x
Organic substrates for novel printed sensors in neural interfacing: a measurement method for cytocompatibility analysis

Advances in bioelectronics as interdisciplinary field combining electronics with novel materials for targeting biological monitoring have brought a strong acceleration in the development of sensors for neural interfaces. However, the success of any implantable device comes along with properties such as long-term stability and optimal cytocompatibility. Thus, the need to improve the reliability and reproducibility of quantitative methods for analyzing and comparing cells-substrate interaction of novel heterogeneous materials has become more and more compelling. To this aim, a systematization of the approach to analyze cytocompatibility assays appears as important as the standardization of the acquisition conditions themselves. In this picture, the paper proposes a user-friendly toolbox able to improve the reliability of the analysis of fluorescence images from cultured organic materials. The first section, allowing a proper customization of several parameters, performs an optimal automatized segmentation of the image with an adaptive threshold strategy, evaluating cell parameters distribution on the substrate. The second one estimates the uncertainty in the evaluation of cell number and provides cell density maps at different scales. The comparison among different organic semiconductors demonstrated the possibility to use the software to compare the effect of different materials on cell parameters. Future works will address the correlation of those results from cell imaging with correspondent maps of the most peculiar properties of each cultured substrate.
Alleviating Heterogeneity in SDN-IoT Networks to Maintain QoS and Enhance Security

Software-defined networks (SDNs) offer unique and attractive solutions to solve challenging management issues in Internet of Things (IoT)-based large-scale multitechnological networks. SDN-IoT network collaboration is innovative and attractive but expected to be extremely heterogeneous in future generation IoT systems. For example, multitechnology network, network externality, and nodes heterogeneity in SDN-IoT may seriously affect the flow or application-specific quality-of-service (QoS) requirements. Furthermore, it highly influences security adoption in a network of interconnected IoT nodes. We observe that both QoS and security are interdependent and nonnegligible factors, thus we emphasize that in order to alleviate heterogeneity it is inevitable to study both these factors hand to hand (or vice versa). With this aim, first, we discuss significant and reasonable cases to encourage researchers to study QoS and security integrally in order to alleviate heterogeneity at SDN-IoT control plane. Second, we propose a framework which successfully transforms the $m$ heterogeneous controllers to $n$ homogeneous controller groups. The key metric of our observation and analysis is the SDN controller’s response time. Following this, to validate our approach, we use the mathematical model and a proof of concept (PoC) in a virtual SDN ecosystem is demonstrated. From performance evaluation, we observe that the proposed framework significantly alleviates heterogeneity which helps to maintain QoS and enhance security. This fundamental analysis will enable network security individuals to deal heterogeneity, QoS, and security, of SDN-IoT, in more successful and promising ways.
Effects of bacterial inoculation of unwilted and wilted grass silages. 1. Rumen microbial activity, silage nutrient degradability and digestibility

A set of four silages, comprising unwilted and wilted silages, both with and without bacterial inoculation, was prepared from perennial ryegrass swards on each of eight harvesting occasions during the 1994 growing season. The four silages, within a single harvest, were offered as the total diet at the maintenance level of feeding to 16 wether sheep in an 8-period change-over study with experimental periods of 3 weeks duration, in order to determine whole tract digestibility and urinary excretion of purine derivatives (PD). Silage dry matter (DM) and nitrogen (N) degradabilities were also examined in the rumen of four rumen-fistulated steers offered a medium quality silage and a concentrate supplement at a ratio of 60[ratio ]40 (silage[ratio ]concentrate) on a DM basis. The data presented are the mean results obtained across the eight harvests. There were no significant effects of inoculation on silage pH and ammonia-N/total-N across the unwilted and wilted materials. Inoculation of either the unwilted or wilted silages had no significant effect on microbial activity in the rumen of sheep, as indicated from excretion of urinary PD, or on silage DM or N degradability assessed with rumen-fistulated steers. However, inoculation significantly increased the digestibility of organic matter (1·7%, P<0·01), N (4·6%, P<0·001), energy (2·3%, P<0·01), neutral detergent fibre (1·5%, P<0·05) and acid detergent fibre (2·8%, P<0·001) in the silage. These increases in digestibility following inoculation, in general derived equally from both the unwilted and wilted silages. The results indicate that the increase in silage nutrient digestibility following inoculation probably reflects a more extensive digestion in the abomasum and intestine, rather than in the rumen. Wilting of grass prior to ensiling resulted in silages with significantly lower pH (5·4%, P<0·05) and ammonia-N/total-N (42·7%, P<0·001) across the untreated and inoculant-treated materials. Wilting also significantly increased (P<0·05) urinary PD-N output of sheep by 6·9% and silage DM degradability by steers by 1·6–2·4% across the untreated and inoculant-treated silages. However, there were no significant effects of wilting on silage N degradability and silage nutrient digestibility.
Mineral Utilization in Layers as Influenced by Dietary Oligofructose and Inulin

Sixty White Leghorn hens (57 wk of age) were divided randomly into three groups with two birds per cage. One group received the basal diet, the second group received the basal diet supplemented with 1% (w/w) oligofructose and the third group received 1% (w/w) inulin in the form of 1.3% of a partially purified chicory root extract(Raftifeed®IPE). Birds were allowed free access to feed and water during the 4 w k observation period. Supplementing oligofructose and inulin increased (P 0.05) on the level of magnesium, potassium, copper, zinc or iron in the tibiae was observed among those treatments. In conclusion, dietary oligofructose and inulin can promote bird's health and improve eggshell quality.
Maize seed and stem roots differ in response to neighbouring weeds

Summary Light signals such as the red to far-red ratio (R ⁄FR)reﬂected from stem and leaf surfaces of neighbouringweeds can trigger a shade avoidance response in maizeseedlings, resulting in a reduction in root biomass. Inthis experiment, we tested the hypothesis that maizeroots originating from seed or stem tissue diﬀered intheir response to the R⁄FR ratio reﬂected from neigh-bouring weeds. Laboratory experiments were conductedunder conditions of non-limiting resources using peren-nial ryegrass as a model weed species. The above-ground reduction in the R⁄FR ratio reﬂected fromneighbouring weeds delayed the emergence of the rootradicle and reduced the root relative growth rate fromemergence until the fourth leaf tip stage of maize. Atthis leaf stage, no eﬀect was observed on root lengthor surface area of the root radicle or seminal roots. Incontrast, crown root length, diameter, surface area andnumber were all reduced, compared with crown rootsgrown under weed-free conditions. These changesaccounted for the observed reduction in total rootbiomass and volume. This is the ﬁrst study to reportthat maize roots originating from seed or stem tissuediﬀer in their response to the proximity of neighbouringweeds.Keywords: maize, light quality, R⁄FR ratio, shadeavoidance, root morphology, root architecture, primaryroots, nodal roots, root growth rate, plant competition.A
Modulation of the alternative complement pathway in patients with Gram‐negative bacteraemia

Summary Concentrations of C3b inactivator (C3bINA) and β1H globulin, two proteins which regluate turnover of the alternative complement pathway, have been measured in the sera of 38 patients with Gram‐negative bacteraemia at the onset of fever, prior to the onset of shock. The mean serum concentrations of these two proteins was reduced compared with normal controls (t = 1.8250, P < 0.05 for C3bINA; t =3.9555, P< 0.005 for β1H These reductions were most pronounced in those patients who subsequently developed shock, with or without a fatal outcome. Serum levels of C3bINA and β1H correlated well with levels of C3 factor B, but only poorly with C4. C3bINA, but not β1H, also correlated with properdin. As a result of these findings it has been suggested that low serum concentrations of C3bINA and β1H in Gram‐negative bacteraemia, may predispose to excessive alternative pathway turnover.
Validation of a novel wearable solution for measuring L5/S1 load during manual material handling tasks

Excessive values of force on L5/S1 joint can cause work-related musculoskeletal disorders, such as low back pain. Currently, the reference solution for estimating such variables is the combination of optoelectronic system and force platform, used for calculating the bottom up inverse dynamics in laboratory settings. Here we propose and validate a novel, completely wearable solution, composed by twelve inertial measurement units and pressure insole sensors. We validate the wearable solution with respect to the output of the reference solution, with data collected simultaneously on a subject performing lifting and releasing tasks with two different loads. The results are encouraging towards the use of the wearable methodology, considering the great impact of such a solution in a real manufacturing scenario.
The effect of dietary protein levels and synbiotic on performance parameters, blood characteristics and carcass yields of Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix Japonica)

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of synbiotic on performance parameters, blood characteristics and carcass yields of Japanese quails fed diets containing different levels of protein. In a completely randomized design with 3 × 3 factorial arrangements, 720-day-old healthy Japanese quails were randomly allocated into 9 groups with 4 replicates of 20 chicks. Treatments consisted of combination of 3 levels of crude protein (CP): A) sufficient protein diet (24%, high CP) from 0 to 42 days of age; B) low protein diet (22.08%, low CP) from 0 to 42 days of age; C) sufficient protein diet from 0 to 21 days-low protein diet from 21 to 42 (medium CP) days of age and three levels of synbiotic, without, recommended and 150% of recommended levels, respectively. The results showed that there were no significant differences in feed conversation ratio, feed intake and body weight among treatments due to the interaction of CP and synbiotic levels. However, body weight and daily weight gain and feed conversation ratio improved (P<0.05) for bird fed medium and high CP compared with birds fed low CP in diet. The level of serum triglyceride decreased significantly (P<0.05) by adding different levels of synbiotic in diet. However, the effects of synbiotic supplementation on other blood parameters (cholesterol, total protein serum, uric acid, HDL and LDL) were not statistically significant among the groups (P>0.05). The effect of CP and synbiotic levels on the carcass yields of quail were not statistically significant (P>0.05).
Nutrient Cycling in a Eucalyptus obliqua (L'hérit.) Forest. III. Growth, Biomass, and Net Primary Production

The biomass of Eucalyptus obliqua forest in south-eastern Australia was estimated over a 22-year period by using allometric relationships in which tree diameter was the independent variable. Biomass increased from 24 kg m-2 at a stand age of 44 years to 37 kg m-2 at 66 years. Maximum net primary production (NPP) was 1.4 kg m-2 year-1. Biomass accumulation ratios (biomass/NPP) follow a trajectory with age which fits closely R. H. Whittaker's work in temperate forests of the United States. It is proposed that the growth of forests is regulated within three definable and sequential stages: (i) growth of the photosynthetic display and of the metabolic transport system, (ii)development of heartwood as a support structure system, and (iii) maintenance of the ecosystem through the production of litter. Essential to this view is the recognition of heartwood formation as a growth-regulating process rather than as the end-result of an ageing process.
End-to-End Blind Image Quality Prediction With Cascaded Deep Neural Network

The deep convolutional neural network (CNN) has achieved great success in image recognition. Many image quality assessment (IQA) methods directly use recognition-oriented CNN for quality prediction. However, the properties of IQA task is different from image recognition task. Image recognition should be sensitive to visual content and robust to distortion, while IQA should be sensitive to both distortion and visual content. In this paper, an IQA-oriented CNN method is developed for blind IQA (BIQA), which can efficiently represent the quality degradation. CNN is large-data driven, while the sizes of existing IQA databases are too small for CNN optimization. Thus, a large IQA dataset is firstly established, which includes more than one million distorted images (each image is assigned with a quality score as its substitute of Mean Opinion Score (MOS), abbreviated as pseudo-MOS). Next, inspired by the hierarchical perception mechanism (from local structure to global semantics) in human visual system, a novel IQA-orientated CNN method is designed, in which the hierarchical degradation is considered. Finally, by jointly optimizing the multilevel feature extraction, hierarchical degradation concatenation (HDC) and quality prediction in an end-to-end framework, the Cascaded CNN with HDC (named as CaHDC) is introduced. Experiments on the benchmark IQA databases demonstrate the superiority of CaHDC compared with existing BIQA methods. Meanwhile, the CaHDC (with about 0.73M parameters) is lightweight comparing to other CNN-based BIQA models, which can be easily realized in the microprocessing system. The dataset and source code of the proposed method are available at https://web.xidian. edu.cn/wjj/paper.html.
Effect of spatial scale on factors limiting species distributions in dry grassland fragments

1 Distribution of plant species in fragmented landscapes is the result of both seed and site availability. Little is known about how their relative importance differs at different spatial scales. 2 I sowed seeds of eight dry grassland species into 22 localities that differed in occupancy by these species and followed seedling establishment over 3 years. I compared the number of emerging seedlings at three scales: between previously occupied and previously unoccupied localities, between occupied and unoccupied blocks within occupied localities, and between plots with and without seed addition within occupied blocks. 3 At the two larger scales, I also studied the relationship of the number of seedlings and of the distributions of adult plants to environmental factors. 4 Both seed and site availability are important in structuring the distribution of these species, but site availability becomes less important with increasing spatial scale. The intensity of this effect is, however, species specific. 5 The relationship between environmental factors and pattern of species distribution is also clearly scale dependent, and differs between seedlings and adults. Whilst abiotic factors are the main determinants of seedling distribution, the occurrence of adult individuals is best predicted by the occurrence of other species. This suggests that the present distribution of species in the landscape is determined mainly by historical factors. 6 Conclusions based on the importance of seed and site availability for species distribution in natural communities at one scale cannot be extrapolated to other scales. Only comparisons on multiple scales can provide a full understanding of factors affecting species distribution at landscape level.
Dispersal and germination syndromes of tree seeds in a monsoonal forest in northern India

This paper describes the dispersal–germination characteristics of seeds of 77 native tree species in a seasonal monsoon forest in Uttaranchal state, northern India. Results indicate that 50% of the species dispersed in the hot, dry summer months, 18% during the rainy season, 23% during the cold season and the remainder in late spring. Germination tests on fresh and laboratory-stored seeds revealed a relationship between morphological features of the fruit and both germination percentage and mean germination time (MGT). Highest mean germination (50%) was for dry-dehiscent fruits with winged wind-dispersed seeds, followed by dry-dehiscent fruits with non-winged seeds (38%) and seeds of dry-indehiscent fruits (37%). Lowest germination (29%) was for seeds from fleshy or pulpy fruits. MGT followed the reverse course. Germination data for seeds stored dry in the laboratory during one seeding cycle indicated six patterns of seed germination: (1) average germination percentage of fresh seeds lower than that of stored seeds, indicating an after-ripening requirement; (2) initial high germination percentage followed by low values, indicating a steep to moderate decline in viability following harvest; (3) no germination after 1 or 2 months of seed storage, due to complete loss of viability, indicating short seed longevity; (4) fresh seed germination in some species equalled the average germination value of stored seeds, indicating constant germination for one whole seeding cycle; (5) germination of both fresh and stored seeds remained consistently low throughout the season, indicating a requirement for some kind of pre-treatment or having poor quality of seeds; (6) initial high germination followed by decline and again increase, showing a seasonal rhythm of germination.
Seasonal variations in the occurrence of Golovinomyces orontii and Podosphaera xanthii, causal agents of cucurbit powdery mildew in Northern Italy

Powdery mildew, caused by Golovinomyces orontii and Podosphaera xanthii, is a widespread disease that causes important losses in cucurbit production. To determine the aetiology and the epidemiology of cucurbit powdery mildew disease in the North of Italy, observations on the occurrence of the main disease-causing fungal species were conducted during the 2010, 2011 and 2012 growing seasons. Samples of infected leaves of zucchini, melon and pumpkin plants, either from field or greenhouse crops, were collected every 15–18 days from May to September/October. To identify the fungal species, both morphological observations based on the asexual stage and molecular identifications by a Multiplex-PCR reaction with species-specific primers were performed. Climatic parameters of temperature and relative humidity were also monitored. Pearson's correlation coefficient and Principal Component Analysis showed a negative significant correlation between the two species, and a peculiar epidemiological behaviour was also observed: the earlier infections were caused by G. orontii, which was the predominant species till the end of June–middle of July. At this time, this species progressively decreased in frequency and was replaced by P. xanthii that became the main species infecting cucurbits till the end of the growing season. As the two species have different ecological requirements, these seasonal variations in the cucurbit powdery mildew species composition could possibly be explained by the influence of temperature and relative humidity on the pathogen epidemiology during the growing season but also by the different overwintering strategies adopted by the two species.
Rehabilitation Outcome in Patients undergone Hip or Knee Replacement Surgery using Inertial Technology for Gait Analysis

Modern biomedical technologies are increasingly spreading to overcome the limitation based on the use of qualitative methods such as clinical scales, in fact in the clinical practice wearable inertial systems for gait analysis are spreading to support the clinical-therapeutic decision and to control the follow-up of patients. The purpose of this study is to investigate the rehabilitation outcome of patients under examination in terms of spatiotemporal parameters using the Stand and Walk test. A population-based sample of 30 post-surgical patients undergone hip or knee replacement surgery was studied; gender, age, weight, drug therapy and physiotherapy treatment were recorded. Data were calculated using a wearable inertial system for gait analysis: Opal System by APDM and analyzed using ANOVA test. Overall, ANOVA test between admission phase and discharge one, it emerges that there is a significant statistical difference on six spatiotemporal parameters related to gait, turning and anticipatory postural adjustments (APA). Study results suggest that there is an improvement in mobility of patients hospitalized at the Operating Rehabilitation and Functional Recovery Unit of ICS Maugeri Institute of Care and Scientific Research of Bari (Italy) after only a month of rehabilitation treatment. This result suggest the importance of rehabilitation and of the rehabilitation institutes in the follow-up of post-surgical patients.
Effect of rotational crop herbicides on water- and dry-seeded Oryza sativa

Abstract Greenhouse and field studies were conducted to evaluate Oryza sativa response to the simulated carryover of fluometuron, imazethapyr, metolachlor, and norflurazon in dry- and water-seeded culture. In the greenhouse, fluometuron and norflurazon did not affect O. sativa emergence, but reduced O. sativa shoot and root dry weight at all the residue levels. Greater reduction in O. sativa emergence and shoot dry weight was observed with imazethapyr and metolachlor in dry- compared with water-seeded O. sativa. In the field, imazethapyr at 0.04 kg ai ha−1 injured dry-seeded O. sativa both years, but O. sativa yield was reduced only in the second year. Greater O. sativa injury and yield reduction were observed in dry- compared with water-seeded O. sativa with metolachlor at most residue levels. Norflurazon at 0.42 and 0.21 kg ai ha−1 caused greater O. sativa yield reduction in water-seeded O. sativa than in dry-seeded O. sativa in the first and second year, respectively. The results indicate that water-seeded O. sativa has less risk of being damaged by imazethapyr and metolachlor but is more susceptible to residues of norflurazon compared with dry-seeded O. sativa. Thus, choosing the right seeding method following a specific rotational crop herbicide could help to minimize the risk of O. sativa injury from herbicide carryover. Nomenclature: Fluometuron, imazethapyr, metolachlor, norflurazon, Oryza sativa L. ‘Maybelle’, rice.