Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Studies on Development of Seed Coloring Standards in Paddy and Maize

The investigations on tho effect of seed colouring on paddy and maize seeds encompassing 25 dyes were conducted to identify non-deleterious and deleterious dyes based on their effect on seed quality. The dyes namely Rhodamme-B, Fast green and Fuchsme in order of preference both for paddy and maize are the best dyes for seed colouring at 0.75% concentration. In this paper the possibility of developing colour standards for paddy and matfe seeds and their resultant implications for Indian seed industry has been discussed.
Evaluation of RGB and LiDAR Combination for Robust Place Recognition

Place recognition is one of the main challenges in localization, mapping and navigation tasks of self-driving vehicles under various perceptual conditions, including appearance and viewpoint variations. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive study on the utility of fine-tuned Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN) with three MAC, SpoC and GeM pooling layers to learn global image representation for place recognition in an end-to-end manner using three different sensor data modalities: (1) only RGB images; (2) only intensity or only depth 3D LiDAR point clouds projected into 2D images and (3) early fusion of RGB images and LiDAR point clouds (both intensity and depth) to form a unified global descriptor to leverage robust features of both modalities. The experimental results on a diverse and large long-term Oxford Radar RobotCar dataset illustrate an achievement of 5 m outdoor place recognition accuracy with high recall rate of 90 % using early fusion of RGB and LiDAR sensor data modalities when fine-tuned network with GeM pooling layer is utilized.
Standardized Clinical Profiling in Spanish Patients with Chronic Tinnitus

Background: Tinnitus is a heterogeneous condition. The aim of this study as to compare the online and hospital responses to the Spanish version of European School for Interdisciplinary Tinnitus Research screening-questionnaire (ESIT-SQ) in tinnitus individuals by an unsupervised age clustering. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed including 434 white Spanish patients with chronic tinnitus to assess the demographic and clinical profile through the ESIT-SQ, with 204 outpatients and 230 individuals from an online survey; a K-means clustering algorithm was used to classify both responses according to age. Results: Online survey showed a high proportion of Meniere’s disease (MD) patients compared to both the general population and the outpatient cohort. The responses showed statistically significant differences between groups regarding education level, tinnitus-related hearing disorders (MD, hyperacusis), sleep difficulties, dyslipidemia, and other tinnitus characteristics, including duration, type of onset, the report of mitigating factors and the use of treatments. However, these differences were partially confirmed after adjusting for age. Conclusions: Self-reported tinnitus surveys are a low confidence source for tinnitus phenotyping. Additional clinical evaluation is needed for tinnitus research to reach the diagnosis. Age-based cluster analysis might help to better define clinical profiles and to compare responses in ESIT-SQ among subgroups of patients with tinnitus.
The ACE2 Receptor for Coronavirus Entry Is Localized at Apical Cell—Cell Junctions of Epithelial Cells

Transmembrane proteins of adherens and tight junctions are known targets for viruses and bacterial toxins. The coronavirus receptor ACE2 has been localized at the apical surface of epithelial cells, but it is not clear whether ACE2 is localized at apical Cell—Cell junctions and whether it associates with junctional proteins. Here we explored the expression and localization of ACE2 and its association with transmembrane and tight junction proteins in epithelial tissues and cultured cells by data mining, immunoblotting, immunofluorescence microscopy, and co-immunoprecipitation experiments. ACE2 mRNA is abundant in epithelial tissues, where its expression correlates with the expression of the tight junction proteins cingulin and occludin. In cultured epithelial cells ACE2 mRNA is upregulated upon differentiation and ACE2 protein is widely expressed and co-immunoprecipitates with the transmembrane proteins ADAM17 and CD9. We show by immunofluorescence microscopy that ACE2 colocalizes with ADAM17 and CD9 and the tight junction protein cingulin at apical junctions of intestinal (Caco-2), mammary (Eph4) and kidney (mCCD) epithelial cells. These observations identify ACE2, ADAM17 and CD9 as new epithelial junctional transmembrane proteins and suggest that the cytokine-enhanced endocytic internalization of junction-associated protein complexes comprising ACE2 may promote coronavirus entry.
Multilevel Analysis of the Nutritional and Health Status among Children and Adolescents in Eastern China

We aimed to identify multiple nutritional health problems and the relevant factors among children and adolescents aged 7–17 years. This study was part of the China Nutrition and Health Surveillance of Children and Lactating Mothers in 2016–2017, conducted in Jiangsu Province in eastern China. After sampling, 3025 school-age children and adolescents were enrolled into this study. Demographic information collections and anthropometric measurements were conducted by trained local Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staff. Venous blood in the amount of 6 mL was drawn from each participant in the morning and used for testing biochemical and nutritional indicators. Multivariate logistic regression analysis and Poisson regression analysis were used for overnutrition- and undernutrition-related disorders to test relevant personal, parental, and household factors. The prevalence of wasting, overweight, and obesity was 5.5%, 14.8%, and 12.7%, respectively. Metabolic syndrome (MetS) was prevalent among 5.1% of participants. Among the study participants, 29.5% had hyperuricemia. The overall prevalence of high low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high total cholesterol (TC) of all participants was 4.8% and 7.4%, respectively. 0.9% of the participants had vitamin A deficiency (VAD) and 14.6% had marginal vitamin A deficiency; 25.1% had vitamin D deficiency (VDD) and 54.5% had inadequate vitamin D levels. Anemia was present in 4.0% of all participants. The prevalence of zinc deficiency was 4.8%. Demographic characteristics, behavioral characteristics, parents’ characteristics, and family characteristics were associated with these multiple malnutrition disorders. The double burdens of malnutrition, which includes overnutrition- and undernutrition-related diseases, were prevalent among the school-age children and adolescents in Jiangsu Province in eastern China. There were various factors related to different nutritional problems. Thus, health education focusing on behavior intervention and nutrition education are necessary in containing nutritional problems among children.
Thin layer flow in rolling element bearings

To extend the service life of rolling element bearings lubricant such as oil or grease is used. In the lubricated contacts between the rollers and the raceways pressures of several GPa can occur. In that case the elastic deformation of the rollers and the raceways has a significant effect on the film thickness and shape. Such contacts are referred to as Elasto-Hydrodynamically Lubricated (EHL) contacts. When the thickness of the lubricant film in an EHL contact is reduced due to insufficient supply of lubricant, it is operating in the so-called starved lubrication regime. This typically occurs in grease lubricated rolling element bearings. As most bearings are lubricated with grease, accurate prediction of the EHL film thickness in starved lubricated rolling element bearings is of great importance. The film thickness in a starved EHL contact is directly related to the thickness of the lubricant layers on the running tracks supplied to the contact. Therefore, accurate models predicting the thickness of these supply layers are a prerequisite to the reliable prediction of the film thickness in rolling element bearings operating in the starved regime. In rolling element bearings the thickness of these supply layers is determined by many effects. In this thesis in particular two effects are modelled: the centrifugal effect and the contact pressure effect. The flow of the liquid layers is effectively modelled using the lubrication approximation. The model is successfully validated experimentally using optical interferometry. It can be used to predict the layer thickness for millions of revolutions and for multiple contacts, without having to solve the starved EHL contact problem for each contact individually.
Water Use and Soil Water Balance of Mediterranean Vineyards under Rainfed and Drip Irrigation Management: Evapotranspiration Partition and Soil Management Modelling for Resource Conservation

Vineyards represent complex Mediterranean agrosystems that deliver significant ecosystem services to society. Yet, many vine-growers still need to assimilate the importance of crop and soil management to the conservation of soil and water resources. The main objective of this study was to evaluate water use and the water balance terms in rainfed and irrigated vineyards in Italy and Portugal, respectively, in both cases aiming at the sustainability of natural resources use. The SIMDualKc model is used for both sites after calibration and validation by fitting soil water content measurements. The Italian case study focused on the impacts of inter-row conservation management in hillslope vineyards while the Portuguese case study analyzed irrigation water management under scarcity in flat vineyards. For the Italian vineyards, the model results focused on the evapotranspiration fluxes and their partition, control of surface runoff, and soil water recharge provided by the inter-row soil management using cover crops. Model results of the Portuguese case study showed the need for improving irrigation water use and the terms of water balance, namely referring to percolation and soil water evaporation. Both case studies further demonstrated the advantages of using computational tools to better cope with climate variability in the Mediterranean region and made evident the benefits of improved crop and soil management practices in counteracting land degradation and valuing the use and conservation of natural resources.
LiDAR-camera Calibration in an Uniaxial 1-DoF Sensor System

This paper introduces a novel camera-LiDAR calibration method using a simple planar chessboard pattern as the calibration object. We propose a special mounting for the sensors when only one rotation angle should be estimated for the calibration. It is proved that the calibration can optimally be solved in the least-squares sense even if the problem is overdetermined, i.e., when many chessboard patterns are visible for the sensors. The accuracy and precision of our unique solution are validated on both simulated and real-world data.
Offspring Education and Parents’ Health Inequality in China: Evidence from Spillovers of Education Reform

In the context of a rapidly aging population, improving the parents’ health outcomes, especially in parents with poorer health, is essential for narrowing elderly health inequality. Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, we took the university enrollment expansion policy as the instrumental variable and employed the two-stage least square (2SLS) and instrumental variable quantile regression (IVQR) approaches to explore the spillovers of offspring education on the elderly parents’ frailty index. The results show that one additional year of offspring educational attainment was associated with a 0.017 or 4.66% decline in the parents’ frailty index. These spillovers are stronger where parents are cohabiting with their children than when separating (more than 2 times higher). Moreover, there is substantial heterogeneity that is determined by the gender of parents. The spillover on mothers is greater than that on fathers. Further analysis of a cohort of parents with different frailty indexes reveals that the upward spillovers of offspring education on parents’ health are non-linear and non-averaged. The spillovers may diminish as parents own health improves. These spillovers suppress the “Matthew Effect”, which can lead to the further widening of health inequality.
Invasive Trichosporonosis in Neonates and Pediatric Patients with Malignancies or Hematologic Disorders

(1) Background: Trichosporon species have emerged as important opportunistic fungal pathogens, with Trichosporon asahii being the leading and most frequent cause of invasive disease. (2) Methods: We performed a global review focused on invasive trichosporonosis in neonates and pediatric patients with malignancies or hematologic disorders. We reviewed case reports and case series of trichosporonosis due to T. asahii published since 1994, the year of the revised taxonomic classification. (3) Results: Twenty-four cases of invasive trichosporonosis were identified in neonates with the presence of central venous catheter and use of broad-spectrum antibiotics recognized as the main predisposing factors. Thirty-two cases were identified in children with malignancies or hematologic disorders, predominantly with severe neutropenia. Trichosporon asahii was isolated from blood in 24/32 (75%) pediatric cases. Cutaneous involvement was frequently observed in invasive trichosporonosis. Micafungin was the most commonly used prophylactic agent (9/22; 41%). Ten patients receiving prophylactic echinocandins were identified with breakthrough infections. A favorable outcome was reported in 12/16 (75%) pediatric patients receiving targeted monotherapy with voriconazole or combined with liposomal amphotericin B. Overall mortality in neonates and children with malignancy was 67% and 60%, respectively. (4) Conclusions: Voriconazole is advocated for the treatment of invasive trichosporonosis given the intrinsic resistance to echinocandins and poor susceptibility to polyenes.
Combining Text and Image Knowledge with GANs for Zero-Shot Action Recognition in Videos

The recognition of actions in videos is an active research area in machine learning, relevant to multiple domains such as health monitoring, security and social media analysis. Zero-Shot Action Recognition (ZSAR) is a challenging problem in which models are trained to identify action classes that have not been seen during the training process. According to the literature, the most promising ZSAR approaches make use of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). GANs can synthesise visual embeddings for unseen classes conditioned on either textual information or images related to the class labels. In this paper, we propose a Dual-GAN approach based on the VAEGAN model to prove that the fusion of visual and textual-based knowledge sources is an effective way to improve ZSAR performance. We conduct empirical ZSAR experiments of our approach on the UCF101 dataset. We apply the following embedding fusion methods for combining text-driven and imagedriven information: averaging, summation, maximum, and minimum. Our best result from Dual-GAN model is achieved with the maximum embedding fusion approach that results in an average accuracy of 46.37%, which is improved by 5.37% at least compared to the leading approaches.
The influence of attorney anger on juror decision making

We investigated the interactive effect of attorney anger expression and attorney gender on juror decision-making. Jury eligible Amazon MTurk participants (N = 455) were recruited. They listened to an audio recording of a male or female prosecutor delivering a closing statement with varying levels of authenticity (authentic, inauthentic or no anger). Then, they rendered a verdict. After the verdict, participants filled out various measures: guilty verdict confidence, current feelings of anger, and perceptions of prosecutor trust and competence. We found that the prosecutor’s authentic displays of anger provoked anger in the participants, which, subsequently, increased the odds of a guilty verdict and guilty verdict confidence. Moreover, authentic displays of anger improved perceptions of the prosecutor’s competence, which also increased the odds of a guilty verdict. However, perceptions of the prosecutor’s trustworthiness did not vary, and attorney gender did not play a moderating role. The implications of these findings are discussed.
SPD Siamese Neural Network for Skeleton-based Hand Gesture Recognition

: This article proposes a new learning method for hand gesture recognition from 3D hand skeleton sequences. We introduce a new deep learning method based on a Siamese network of Symmetric Positive Deﬁnite (SPD) matrices. We also propose to use the Contrastive Loss to improve the discriminative power of the network. Experimental results are conducted on the challenging Dynamic Hand Gesture (DHG) dataset. We compared our method to other published approaches on this dataset and we obtained the highest performances with up to 95,60% classiﬁcation accuracy on 14 gestures and 94.05% on 28 gestures.
Dual Modulated SiO Particles by Graphene Cord and Si/SiO2 Composite for High‐Performance Lithium‐Ion Battery Anodes

To dispose the fragility and poor conductivity problems of SiO‐based anode materials, a “phase change mediation combined with cord reinforcing” concept is proposed, in which graphene cord is in situ fabricated combined with Si and SiO2 nanodomains generated in the SiO matrix via chemical vapor deposition. Being the fabricated composite, graphene cord not only bridges but also wraps the SiO particles, improving the electrical conductivity and flexibility of the fabricated SiO@Gra anode. Moreover, the increased SiO2 regions in the Si/SiO matrix alleviate volume change and release the strain for Li+ insertion, enhancing the tenacity of the SiO electrode according to the phase transformation flexibility mechanism. Besides, the grain boundaries and interfaces among the Si/SiO2/SiO regions contribute to additional Li+ storage and pledge more channels for Li+ transfer and electrolyte wetting. The merit of Si/SiO2/SiO synergistically contributes to the ascendant electrochemical performance of the SiO anodes. The as‐fabricated SiO@Gra anodes deliver a high reversible capacity of 1127 mAh g−1 at 0.2 A g−1 with 87% capacity retention after 200 cycles. The proposed phase change and cord reinforcing not only deepen the understanding of the electrochemical reaction mechanism of Li+ in SiO, but also inspire a rational design tactic for advanced lithium‐ions batteries.
Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG Survival and Quality Parameters in Kefir Produced from Kefir Grains and Natural Kefir Starter Culture

The study aimed to determine the effect of starter cultures (kefir grains and natural kefir starter culture without grains) on Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) survival and on the quality characteristics of kefir. To this end, the viability of probiotic L. rhamnosus GG strain and the rheological properties and quality parameters of kefir beverages were tested during storage over 21 days at 4 °C. The final LGG counts were 7.71 and 7.55 log cfu/mL in natural kefir starter culture and kefir grain, respectively. When prepared with probiotic bacteria, the syneresis values of kefir prepared using natural kefir starter culture was significantly lower (p < 0.05) than that of kefir made using grains. However, the viscosity indices, hysteresis loop, and dynamic moduli were similar between kefir made with natural kefir starter culture and other kefir formulations (p > 0.05). Moreover, all samples showed shear-thinning behavior. The flavor scores for kefir prepared using natural kefir starter culture were significantly higher than for the other samples (p < 0.05), but overall acceptability was similar at the 10-day assessment across both starters (with and without grain) after the addition of probiotic bacteria (p > 0.05). Overall, the results indicate that natural kefir starter culture could be a potential probiotic carrier.
QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF PALM OILS PRODUCED FROM IMPROVED TRADITIONAL, ARTISANAL, MEDIUM AND LARGE SCALE PROCESSES THIS THESIS IS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON

ii DEDICATION iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT v TABLE OF CONTENTS vi LIST OF FIGURES x LIST OF TABLES xii LIST OF APPENDICES xiii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xiv 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Rationale 3 1.3 Objective 4 1.3. 1 Specific Objectives 4 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 5 2.
Human Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stromal/Stem Cells Regulate the Proinflammatory Response of Monocytes and Myeloid Dendritic Cells from Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a disabling autoimmune disease whose treatment is ineffective for one-third of patients. Thus, the immunomodulatory potential of mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) makes MSC-based therapy a promising approach to RA. This study aimed to explore the immunomodulatory action of human bone marrow (BM)-MSCs on myeloid dendritic cells (mDCs) and monocytes, especially on cytokines/chemokines involved in RA physiopathology. For that, LPS plus IFNγ-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells from RA patients (n = 12) and healthy individuals (n = 6) were co-cultured with allogeneic BM-MSCs. TNF-α, CD83, CCR7 and MIP-1β protein levels were assessed in mDCs, classical, intermediate, and non-classical monocytes. mRNA expression of other cytokines/chemokines was also evaluated. BM-MSCs effectively reduced TNF-α, CD83, CCR7 and MIP-1β protein levels in mDCs and all monocyte subsets, in RA patients. The inhibition of TNF-α production was mainly achieved by the reduction of the percentage of cellsproducing this cytokine. BM-MSCs exhibited a remarkable suppressive action over antigen-presenting cells from RA patients, potentially affecting their ability to stimulate the immune adaptive response at different levels, by hampering their migration to the lymph node and the production of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Accordingly, MSC-based therapies can be a valuable approach for RA treatment, especially for non-responder patients.