Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Concrete defects inspection and 3D mapping using CityFlyer quadrotor robot

The concrete aging problem has gained more attention in recent years as more bridges and tunnels in the United States lack proper maintenance. Though the Federal Highway Administration requires these public concrete structures to be inspected regularly, on-site manual inspection by human operators is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Conventional inspection approaches for concrete inspection, using RGB image-based thresholding methods, are not able to determine metric information as well as accurate location information for assessed defects for conditions. To address this challenge, we propose a deep neural network ( DNN ) based concrete inspection system using a quadrotor flying robot ( referred to as CityFlyer ) mounted with an RGB-D camera. The inspection system introduces several novel modules. Firstly, a visual-inertial fusion approach is introduced to perform camera and robot positioning and structure 3D metric reconstruction. The reconstructed map is used to retrieve the location and metric information of the defects. Secondly, we introduce a DNN model, namely AdaNet, to detect concrete spalling and cracking, with the capability of maintaining robustness under various distances between the camera and concrete surface. In order to train the model, we craft a new dataset, i.e., the concrete structure spalling and cracking ( CSSC ) dataset, which is released publicly to the research community. Finally, we introduce a 3D semantic mapping method using the annotated framework to reconstruct the concrete structure for visualization. We performed comparative studies and demonstrated that our AdaNet can achieve 8.41 % higher detection accuracy than ResNets and VGGs. Moreover, we conducted five field tests, of which three are manual hand-held tests and two are drone-based field tests. These results indicate that our system is capable of performing metric field inspection, and can serve as an effective tool for civil engineers.
Non-Isothermal Simulations to Optimize SiC MOSFETs for Enhanced Short-Circuit Ruggedness

Non-Isothermal simulations to understand Short-Circuit (SC) behavior of SiC MOSFETs were performed. Using the established model, structures to enhance the SC ruggedness were proposed. Thin gate oxide and a narrow JFET region are shown to reduce saturation current enhancing SC ruggedness without increasing Ron,sp. Results indicate thin gate oxide offers moderate improvement in SC capability, at the cost of increased Cgs. In contrast, narrow JFET region provides much improved (2×) SC ruggedness, as well as lower Ron,sp, with no negative impact on Cgs.
PROTEOMICS STUDIES USING A NOVEL BIOTINYLATED DIMEDONE ANALOGUE* □ S

Protein sulfenic acids are reactive intermediates in the catalytic cycles of many enzymes as well as the in formation of other redox states. Sulfenic acid formation is a reversible post-translational modification with potential for protein regulation. Dimedone (5,5-dimethyl-1,3-cyclohexanedione) is commonly used in vitro to study sulfenation of purified proteins, selectively “tagging” them, allowing monitoring by mass spectrometry. However dimedone is of little use in complex protein mixtures because selective monitoring of labeling is not possible. To address this issue, we synthesized a novel biotinylated derivative of dimedone, keeping the dione cassette required for sulfenate reactivity but adding the functionality of a biotin tag. Biotin-amido(5-methyl-5-carboxamidocyclohexane 1,3dione) tetragol (biotin dimedone) was prepared in six steps, combining 3,5-dimethoxybenzoic acid (Birch reduction, ultimately leading to the dimedone unit with a carboxylate functionality), 1-amino-11-azido-3,6,9-trioxaundecane (a differentially substituted tetragol spacer), and biotin. We loaded biotin dimedone (0.1 mM, 30 min) into rat ventricular myocytes, treated them with H2O2 (0.1– 10,000 M, 5 min), and monitored derivatization on Western blots using streptavidin-horseradish peroxidase. There was a dose-dependent increase in labeling of multiple proteins that was maximal at 0.1 or 1 mM H2O2 and declined sharply below basal with 10 mM treatment. Cellwide labeling was observed in fixed cells probed with avidin-FITC using a confocal fluorescence microscope. Similar H2O2-induced labeling was observed in isolated rat hearts. Hearts loaded and subjected to hypoxia showed a striking loss of labeling, which returned when oxygen was resupplied, highlighting the protein sulfenates as oxygen sensors. Cardiac proteins that were sulfenated during oxidative stress were purified with avidin-agarose and identified by separation of tryptic digests by liquid chromatography with on-line analysis by mass spectrometry. Molecular & Cellular Proteomics 6:1473–1484, 2007. Protein cysteinyl thiols can undergo a variety of oxidative addition reactions, such as S-thiolation, S-nitrosylation, and alkylation by reactive lipid adduction. These post-translational
Life history and immature stages of Allograpta zumbadoi THOMPSON, a phytophagous flower fly (Diptera: Syrphidae: Syrphinae) (Lebenszyklus und Jugendstadien von Allograpta zumbadoi THOMPSON, einer phytophagen Schwebfliege (Diptera: Syrphidae: Syrphinae))

The life history and the immature stages of Allograpta zumbadoi THOMPSON, 2000 (Syrphidae: Syrphinae) are described, illustrated, and compared with those of A. centropogonis NISHIDA, 2003. These two species are the only leaf-mining syrphines known. The larva of A. zumbadoi shows several similarities with those of A. centropogonis, e. g. presence of papillae with antennomaxillary organs surrounding the mouth, the serrated labrum and labium, an identical pattern of segmental sensilla, and spiracular openings that extend radially. Major differences between the mature larvae of the two species were found in the body shape and setation, the number of teeth on the labrum and labium, the robustness of the head skeleton, and the shape of the posterior respiratory process. The immature stages of A. zumbadoi were found on three different species of Centropogon, a genus of the bellflower family (Campanulaceae). The larvae in all instars are solitary. The first and early second instar larvae are leaf miners, the mid-second instar larvae and subsequent stages are stem borers. Pupation takes place on the host plant near the stem base, which has been observed both in the laboratory and in the field.
Effects of deficit irrigation frequency on plant growth, water use and physiology of Pelargonium x hortorum and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L. cv. Ailsa Craig)

In horticultural sectors where water is a threatened resource, altering irrigation frequency may present a viable approach to reduce water use, without any negative effect on crop yield and/or quality. However, our understanding of the physiological impact of this approach in containers in a peat based substrate is limited. Pelargonium x hortorum Bullseye plants were grown in glasshouse conditions under well-watered (WW; daily replacement of 100% of evapotranspiration (ET)), frequent (FDI), or infrequent (IDI) deficit irrigation regimes (50% of ET supplied daily or cumulatively every 4 days, respectively) for four weeks. Both FDI and IDI resulted in short-term increases in water use efficiency, and longer term increases in plant quality (canopy compactness) compared to WW plants. From a physiological perspective, stomatal conductance (gs) decreased similarly under both FDI and IDI, but there were treatment differences in leaf water potential (Ψleaf). FDI resulted in a more positive Ψleaf compared to WW plants, whilst Ψleaf under IDI was typically the lowest. Given the lack of a consistent response for Ψleaf, this suggested another mechanism was regulating stomata in P.hortorum. Under a single drying cycle, different components of the xylem sap were measured. Xylem sap pH, Ca2+ and NO3 - did not change, but the plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) increased in the xylem sap ([X-ABA]leaf) under both irrigation treatments as soil moisture decreased, and showed a strong relationship with gs both in vivo and in a detached leaf transpiration bioassay. However, when plants were irrigated daily at a percentage of daily ET (adapted from FDI), plants showed an attenuated ABA response compared to when irrigation was withheld (adapted from IDI). It was hypothesised that this may have been a root-derived response due to spatial variation in soil moisture distribution, which was investigated in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). Similar results were found where gs decreased as [X-ABA]leaf increased, but again the ABA response was attenuated. Furthermore, stomata showed similar sensitivity to ABA under both irrigation treatments. However, similar results were found for root tissue ([ABA]root) and xylem ([X-ABA]root) ABA, and modelling revealed that both localised root water uptake and soil moisture content are important for explaining the variation in [X-ABA]root between irrigation treatments. This research furthers the fundamental understanding of ABA signalling and suggests that irrigation frequency can be altered for a short period of the growing cycle to deliver specific grower objectives.
Experimental Analysis of the Role of Emigration in Population Regulation of Desert Pupfish

Pupfishes (genus Cyprinodon) have existed for long periods in small desert springs and streams that often lack competitors, major predators, and large environmental changes. How their populations are regulated in these systems is poorly known. We ex- perimentally examined the role of emigration in regulating populations of pupfish by (1) comparing the dynamics of populations held in four pools open to emigration with those of populations held in four pools closed to emigration over a 22-mo period and (2) com- paring the rates of emigration from open pools having different densities of pupfish in relation to resources. When pupfish populations were prevented from emigrating, they exhibited symptoms of overpopulation similar to those well documented for fenced populations of small mam- mals. Their numbers increased more than populations in open pools, mortality was high, and body condition and recruitment were low. Again, as in small-mammal populations, these responses were absent in pupfish populations in open pools, where 84% of the total numbers of fish produced emigrated. The timing and magnitude of pupfish emigration was similar in all four open pools and was related to seasonal temperature changes. More males emigrated than females, and emigrants had significantly lower condition factors than res- idents. When densities of pupfish in relation to resources were doubled in two open pools, the percentages of pupfish that emigrated (41.8 and 42.2%) were almost equal to the 50% drop in resources. In contrast, only 15.5 and 16.0% emigrated from two control pools, where pupfish densities in relation to resources were left unchanged. Our results, demonstrating that emigration is a potentially significant mechanism for regulating populations of desert pupfish, are consistent with data from a variety of other animals (small mammals, hydra, roe deer), suggesting that population regulation via a behavioral spacing mechanism may be common among mobile animals.
Feed-forward neural network for Network Intrusion Detection

The Internet connection is becoming ubiquitous in embedded systems, making them potential victims of intrusion. While in the age of deep learning, these algorithms tend to produce worse results than traditional machine learning. In this paper, we propose a methodology based on feed-forward neural network for intrusion detection. Better performances than traditional machine learning techniques can be achieved when all steps of the methodology are applied. Performance is evaluated on CICIDS2017, showing accuracy better than 99% and a false positive rate lower than 0.5%. After analysis of previous studies, their results are compared to the performance of the proposed approach. Finally, the neural network trained on a PC has been implemented on an automotive processor to characterize performance aspects.
Divergence in morphology, but not habitat use, despite low genetic differentiation among insular populations of the lizard Anolis lemurinus in Honduras

Abstract: Studies of recently isolated populations are useful because observed differences can often be attributed to current environmental variation. Two populations of the lizard Anolis lemurinus have been isolated on the islands of Cayo Menor and Cayo Mayor in the Cayos Cochinos Archipelago of Honduras for less than 15 000 y. We measured 12 morphometric and 10 habitat-use variables on 220 lizards across these islands in 2 y, 2008 and 2009. The goals of our study were (1) to explore patterns of sexual dimorphism, and (2) to test the hypothesis that differences in environment among islands may have driven divergence in morphology and habitat use despite genetic homogeneity among populations. Although we found no differences among sexes in habitat use, males had narrower pelvic girdles and longer toe pads on both islands. Between islands, males differed in morphology, but neither males nor females differed in habitat use. Our data suggest that either recent selection has operated differentially on males despite low genetic differentiation, or that they display phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental variation. We suggest that patterns may be driven by variation in intrapopulation density or differences in predator diversity among islands.
An Effective Discrete Grey Wolf Optimization Algorithm for Solving the Packing Problem

This article proposes a novel discrete grey wolf optimization for the packing problem, called the two-dimensional strip packing (2DSP) problem without guillotine constraint. The 2DSP involves cutting pieces from a stock sheet with the objective of minimizing waste. To solve the 2DSP problem by the discrete grey wolf algorithm, many strategies are originally proposed. The searching and attacking operators in the algorithm are redesigned to guarantee coding effectiveness. A novel approach to measure the distance between the wolves is presented. In addition, an improved best-fit strategy is developed to solve this packing problem. The best-fit strategy divides the situation into five cases based on the width and length of the rectangle. Computational results on widely used benchmark instances show that the novel discrete grey wolf algorithm can solve the 2DSP problem effectively, and surpasses most of the previously reported meta-heuristic algorithms.
Effect of Ambient on the Recovery of Hot-Carrier Degraded Devices

nMOSFETs have been degraded by hot-carrier injection and recovered by annealing in various ambients. Hydro-gen will depassivate from the interface due to the hot-carriers, creating dangling bonds, which will cause a shift in the various parameters like the threshold voltage, the subthreshold swing and the interface defect density. This paper investigates how the various ambients (argon, hydrogen, hydrogen plasma and atomic hydrogen) influence the recovery rate of these parameters. Results are discussed in the framework of Stesmans’ model for hydrogen passivation at the interface. Furthermore, the influence of a silicon nitride scratch protection layer on the recovery is investigated. These results can be used to enhance the recovery rate and achieve more recovery at a lower anneal temperature, which is important for delaying the accumulative effect of hot-carrier degradation and, as such, extending the device lifetime.
Temperature requirement for germination of Solanum nigrum seeds

Solanum nigrum has become an increasingly difficult weed in field-grown vegetables in the southern part of Sweden during the last decade. To be able to predict the timing of seedling emergence in the field, which is important for the timing of weed control measures, a study was made with the aim to investigate the timing of seed germination in the weedy species Solanum nigrum L. , as affected by the level of dormancy and temperature conditions. Germination requirements of non-stratified seeds and seeds stratified at 5 and 15 °C were investigated. Germination was tested at i) constant temperatures ranging from 6 to 38 °C, ii) alternating temperatures with 15 °C constant amplitude and increasing mean temperatures from 16 to 33.5 °C, and iii) alternating temperatures with constant mean temperature of 25 °C and increasing amplitude from 0 to 20 °C. It was concluded that seed germination of S. nigrum depends on the level of dormancy and, to a large extent, on the current temperature. Seeds with lower level of dormancy germinate at constant temperatures and alternating temperatures result in a high percentage of germination in seeds with different levels of dormancy.
Craniometric diversity of the common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) in Central and South America

Abstract The common vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus Geoffroy, 1810, is a species with an extensive geographical distribution, occurring in a wide variety of habitats. A recent phylogeographical study using molecular markers described a scenario in which this species is formed by 5 distinct geographically circumscribed mitochondrial clades. Here we studied the craniometric variation of the common vampire bat to assess the amount of subdivision within this species and to test for the possibility of distinct morphological patterns associated with geographical lineages. We used 16 measurements from 1,581 complete skulls of adult D. rotundus representing 226 localities in South America and Mesoamerica. The assessment of morphological diversity between groups was done by the estimation of minimum FST values. Overall, the results show that most of the within-species variation is a result of the size component. Both shape data and size data are correlated with geographic distances. Our results favor the origin of biological diversity as the outcome of genetic drift and stepping-stone pattern of gene flow instead of local adaptations to local environmental conditions. The FST analyses also support male-biased dispersal. The results give little evidence to support previous suggestions that the common vampire bat may be composed of 2 or more species.
PHYCOLOGY FOR THE MAMMALOGIST: MARINE ROCKY SHORES AND MAMMAL-DOMINATED COMMUNITIES—HOW DIFFERENT ARE THE STRUCTURING PROCESSES?

Abstract The Hairston, Smith, and Slobodkin (1960) paper stimulated 40 years of interest on how communities are organized. Their “green world” perspective, in which terrestrial vegetation was considered to be resource rather than consumer limited, failed to acknowledge a significant role for mammals, especially ungulates. As such, its conclusions differed from comparable overviews developed for aquatic ecosystems in which the character of the producer level is determined by consumers, especially on marine intertidal shores. I argue here that omission of mammals as influential grazers distorted their perspective. Experimental studies published since 1960 identify mammals as strong interactors, that their grazing can dominate the rate of primary production, alter floristic composition, and change successional trajectories. When strong interactions have been documented in other ecosystems, they are often associated with a significant increase in indirect effects, alternative assemblage states, and even trophic cascades. Although these features will be more difficult to identify in terrestrial communities because of slow rates of assemblage response and experimental intractability of the interactors, they should be sought.
Species-specific effects of grass litter mass and type on emergence of three tall grass prairie species

Abstract Because the mat of dead grass stems and leaves, or litter, is a conspicuous feature of grasslands and has been shown to affect various plant processes, I performed a growth chamber experiment on the effect of both grass litter mass (density) and type (species mixes) on emergence of three common prairie grass species. I found that (1) switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) emergence decreased significantly at the highest litter density, but different types of litter had no effect; (2) little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) emergence decreased significantly at the highest litter density and with those litter types that included switchgrass litter; and (3) indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans) emergence increased significantly at medium density and decreased significantly under its own litter. The results show that the smallest-seeded species had reduced emergence through the litter mat and that amount of litter was more important than type of litter. In conclusion, the full range of litter effects occurred: (1) two species were inhibited by density while the other species was facilitated, and (2) one species was inhibited by litter from another species, one species was inhibited only by its own litter, and one species was unaffected by the species composition of the litter. Finally, the results indicate a potential for grass litter of different species to differentially influence regeneration of tall grass prairie species.
Threshold Voltage Shift in a-Si:H Thin film Transistors under ESD stress Conditions

We present physical insights into the instability behavior of hydrogenated amorphous TFTs under ESD stress using real-time current-voltage and capacitance-voltage characterization. A threshold voltage increase under moderate stress and a recovery under high stress is investigated. Impact of gate-bias and device dimension is explored. Physics of gate-bias annealing and an associated device recovery is explored. Finally, we investigate the instability behavior in a-Si:H gated diodes and explore the role of self-heating on their reliability.
Listening to families’ views regarding institutionalization & deinstitutionalization

Various care approaches have been offered to people with intellectual disabilities over time. Amongst these approaches, deinstitutionalization has been considered to be the most crucial development in delivery of services for people with intellectual disabilities. Although families’ ongoing participation is regarded as a key element in achieving successful deinstitutionalization, it seems little attempt has been made in Australia to examine families’ perspectives on institutionalization and deinstitutionalization. This study examines families’ perspectives and attitudes about institutionalization and deinstitutionalization. The sample of the study consisted of 22 families whose relatives were living in an institution. Based on a qualitative study, a semi‐structured interview was undertaken for collecting data, and the NUD*IST computer software package was used to code and analyze the data in the current study. Families’ views about institutionalization and deinstitutionalization were discussed. Families expressed their oppositions to deinstitutionalization for the following reasons: adverse impacts on themselves and on their relatives with intellectual disabilities, inadequacy of community‐based residential settings, and provision of good services by the current institution. Limitations and implications of the study are highlighted.
Identifying Volatiles in Soursop and Comparing Their Changing Profiles during Ripening

The volatile compounds in soursop (Annona muricata L.) were obtained by a liquid-liquid continuous extraction procedure from the aqueous solution of blended soursop pulp and analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and GC-mass spectrometry (MS). Twelve volatiles were identified by comparing their mass spectra and Kovats retention indexes with those of standard compounds: five were identified tentatively from MS data only, eight are being reported for the first time. (Z) -3-hexen-l-ol was the main volatile present in mature-green fruit, while methyl (E) -2-hexenoate, methyl (E) -2- butenoate, methyl butanoate, and methyl hexanoate were the four main volatiles present in ripe fruit. Concentrations of these five volatiles decreased and several other unidentified volatiles appeared when the fruit became overripe.