Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GRS-Det: An Anchor-Free Rotation Ship Detector Based on Gaussian-Mask in Remote Sensing Images

Ship detection is a significant and challenging task in remote sensing. Due to the arbitrary-oriented property and large aspect ratio of ships, most of the existing detectors adopt rotation boxes to represent ships. However, manual-designed rotation anchors are needed in these detectors, which causes multiplied computational cost and inaccurate box regression. To address the abovementioned problems, an anchor-free rotation ship detector, named GRS-Det, is proposed, which mainly consists of a feature extraction network with selective concatenation module (SCM), a rotation Gaussian-Mask model, and a fully convolutional network-based detection module. First, a U-shape network with SCM is used to extract multiscale feature maps. With the help of SCM, the channel unbalance problem between different-level features in feature fusion is solved. Then, a rotation Gaussian-Mask is designed to model the ship based on its geometry characteristics, which aims at solving the mislabeling problem of rotation bounding boxes. Meanwhile, the Gaussian-Mask leverages context information to strengthen the perception of ships. Finally, multiscale feature maps are fed to the detection module for classification and regression of each pixel. Our proposed method, evaluated on ship detection benchmarks, including HRSC2016 and DOTA Ship data sets, achieves state-of-the-art results.
Effects of chlorpyrifos on ultimobranchial and parathyroid glands of Indian skipper frog, Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis

This study investigated effects of chlorpyrifos on ultimobranchial (UBG) and parathyroid glands (PTG) of frog, Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis. Frogs were treated with chlorpyrifos for short and long term and sacrificed after 24, 48, 72 or 96 h in short term and after 5.10, 15 and 30 days in long term. Chlorpyrifos exposure provokes decrease in serum calcium levels after 48 h which persists till 96 h. There is slight decrease in the nuclear volume of UBG cells and cytoplasm depict weak staining response after 72 h. After 96 h these changes are more pronounced. PTG of Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis exposed to chlorpyrifos exhibit no change till 96 h. Serum calcium decreases on day 10 after chlorpyrifos exposure which continue to fall progressively till 30 days. After 15 days chloryrifos exposure, nuclear volume of UBG exhibit decrease and follicular epithelium displays decrease in height. Follicular epithelium after 30 days chlorpyrifos exposure reduces to the extent that it becomes single layered. Few degenerating cells have been discerned. At this interval nuclear volume of ultimobranchial cells exhibits a further decrease. PTG of chlorpyrifos treated frog depicts increased nuclear volume of PTG at 10 and 15 days. The nuclei of PTG are hyperchromatic and the gland becomes compact at 15 days. After 30 days following chlorpyrifos treatment nuclear volume exhibits further increase. Also degenerating cells make their appearance. Calcium regulating glands UBG and PTG of frogs were adversely affected by exposure to chlorpyrifos which may disturb the physiological functions of the organism. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.5281/zenodo.4004156
Fabrication of a Porous Slippery Icephobic Surface and Effect of Lubricant Viscosity on Anti-Icing Properties and Durability

A breakdown caused by the icing of power generation infrastructure is one of the serious disasters occurring in the power system. Slippery lubricant-infused porous surfaces (SLIPSs), whose ice adhesion strength is extremely low, have a promising application in the anti-icing field. In the present study, we fabricated SLIPSs with low ice adhesion strength by infusing silicone oil into an anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) substrate. In addition, the effects of the viscosity of silicone oil on the anti-icing properties and durability of the SLIPSs were investigated. The results show that a lower viscosity silicone oil brings about more slippery surfaces and lower ice adhesion strength. The ice adhesion strength was reduced by 99.3% in comparison with the bare Al alloy. However, low-viscosity silicone oil has worse de-icing resistance and heat resistance. Additionally, the porous films filled with low-viscosity silicone oil possess a better self-healing property after icing/de-icing cycles and followed by exposure to the atmosphere. When the viscosity of silicone oil is 50 mPa·s, the SLIPSs exhibit the best durability for anti-icing. Even after 21 de-icing tests or 168 h of heating at 90 °C, the ice adhesion strength still remains below 10% compared with that of bare Al. This work provides some useful advice for the design and fabrication of anti-icing SLIPSs.
Study on the biology of blowfly and the food consumption of blowfly maggots

To study the biology of blowfly and the food consumption of blowfly maggots, the present research work was carried out at Entomology research laboratory, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar during 2013. The blowfly (green bottles, blue bottles or carrion flies), is a well known scavenger insects and primary insects commonly utilized to indicate a post-mortem interval. Due to its importance as a death indicator in forensic entomology, a considerable amount of data on its growth and development has been generated. This experiment was conducted in two steps. In step 1, fresh meat was exposed to collect the eggs which were reared and used to study the biology of blowfly. Calculating the age of different life stages of blowfly, hourly developmental data is presented i-e eggs hatched in 16 hours while all the three instars of larvae took 92 hours followed by the pupal stage which was 336 hours. Adult’s life was recorded 192 hours. In this way the total duration was recorded 636 hours. In step 2, to study the food consumption of blowfly maggots, three plastic jars provided each with known amount of meat and 10 active feeding 1 st instar larvae were placed in an incubator at a constant temperature and relative humidity. The average meat consumed by 10 larvae was 19.3 gm and the average meat consumed per larvae was recorded 1.93 gm. This report recommends the study of biology of blowflies on different feeding sources plus growth rates and food consumption rate of blowfly maggots on different body tissues or food sources.
Weight-Oriented Approximation for Energy-Efficient Neural Network Inference Accelerators

Current research in the area of Neural Networks (NN) has resulted in performance advancements for a variety of complex problems. Especially, embedded system applications rely more and more on the utilization of convolutional NNs to provide services such as image/audio classification and object detection. The core arithmetic computation performed during NN inference is the multiply-accumulate (MAC) operation. In order to meet tighter and tighter throughput constraints, NN accelerators integrate thousands of MAC units resulting in a significant increase in power consumption. Approximate computing is established as a design alternative to improve the efficiency of computing systems by trading computational accuracy for high energy savings. In this work, we bring approximate computing principles and NN inference together by designing NN specific approximate multipliers that feature multiple accuracy levels at run-time. We propose a time-efficient automated framework for mapping the NN weights to the accuracy levels of the approximate reconfigurable accelerator. The proposed weight-oriented approximation mapping is able to satisfy tight accuracy loss thresholds, while significantly reducing energy consumption without any need for intensive NN retraining. Our approach is evaluated against several NNs demonstrating that it delivers high energy savings (17.8% on average) with a minimal loss in inference accuracy (0.5%).
The Effects of Corporate Characteristics on Managerial Entrenchment

The present study aims to assess the relationship between some corporate factors and managerial entrenchment in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange during 2011-2017. Panel data regression models were used to test the hypotheses. The obtained results indicated that four corporate factors, namely real earnings management, predictable earnings management, institutional ownership, and board independence have a significant relationship with the managerial entrenchment. In this study, the mixed index of managerial entrenchment is calculated using the principal component analysis based on four governance mechanisms of the percentage of shares available to the CEO, CEO duality, CEO compensation logarithm, and CEO tenure. This process has made the present study distinct from the previous ones, through which individual indexes were used for evaluating the entrenchment.
Knowledge and Awareness about the Mode of Transmission of Vector Borne Diseases among General Public

Vector borne diseases account for more than 17% of other contagious diseases and can be caused either by parasites, bacteria or viruses. Malaria is a parasitic infection caused by female Anopheles mosquitoes. It causes millions of cases globally and most deaths occur in children. Dengue is another vector disease caused by Aedes mosquito and also affects millions of people, also causing more deaths. Other vector diseases may include yellow fever, zika fever, west nile fever, chikungunya, elephantiasis etc. The aim of the study was to assess the knowledge and awareness about the mode of transmission of vector borne disease among the general public and also to analyse the correlation between gender and the level of awareness about vector borne disease among them. A cross sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among people in the region of Original Research Article Aathira et al.; JPRI, 32(16): 87-96, 2020; Article no.JPRI. 59710 88 Chennai. A set of 15 questions including questions on knowledge and awareness on the mode of transmission of vector borne diseases among the general population. It included questions like examples of vector borne diseases, mode of transmission of disease, preventive measures etc. The people of age group between 25-45 years were involved in the survey. There were 100 responses to the survey. The duration of the study was about 7 days. It is clear that the population was aware about the vector borne diseases but not very clear about the preventive measures to be taken to prevent the spread of vector borne diseases.
IT architecture flexibility and IT governance decentralisation as drivers of IT-enabled dynamic capabilities and competitive performance: The moderating effect of the external environment

ABSTRACT A question of central importance for researchers and practitioners is how information technology (IT) can help firms survive and thrive in turbulent and constantly changing business environments. To address this issue, this study develops the idea that IT architecture flexibility helps sustain competitive performance by driving the formation of IT-enabled dynamic capabilities, and that IT governance decentralisation strengthens this relationship. IT architecture flexibility and IT governance decentralisation, therefore, develop complementary effects. We argue that IT-enabled dynamic capabilities are a core antecedent for competitive performance gains, particularly under uncertain external environmental conditions. Tests of the proposed model using survey data from 322 international firms support these ideas. Our research also shows that, under conditions of high environmental heterogeneity, the value of IT architecture flexibility and IT governance decentralisation is increased, while the impact of IT-enabled dynamic capabilities on competitive performance is amplified.
Impact of Perceived Organizational Support on Work Engagement: Mediating Mechanism of Thriving and Flourishing

Based on organizational support theory, this study examined the indirect influence of perception of organizational support on employee work engagement with the mediating influence of flourishing and thriving at work. Data were collected by utilizing the self-administered questionnaires related to study variables in two different time periods. Using PROCESS Macros on an actual sample of 638 employees, the study found that perceived organizational support was positively associated with employee flourishing, thriving, and work engagement. Moreover, perceived organizational support indirectly influences work engagement via thriving and flourishing. The study provides many insights into evolving constructs (i.e., thriving and flourishing) and examines how organizations can create the psychological state and well-being (hedonic and eudemonic) of employees through the perception of organizational support.
Analysis and Forecasting COVID-19 in India

: The world is dealing with an imperceptible, fatal enemy and enforcing arduous efforts to cope up with menace due to COVID-19. This worldwide health crisis posed a unique challenge in tracking the patients, building dedicated hospitals, purchasing PPE kits, ventilators, and medicines. In this research, the study on the actual situation in India was conducted with the available datasets. In addition, how this pandemic condition would increase in the forthcoming days is predicted through a widely popular approach called Forecasting. Forecasting is a way to predict what is going to occur in the future by taking into consideration the events in the previous and current models. The most prominent forecasting algorithm is deployed on the COVID-19 dataset to forecast how the cases will vigorously increase till November 2020. Moreover, these algorithms are evaluated using metrics such as Mean Squared Error (MSE), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE).
Allelopathic effects of the aqueous extract of Rhazya stricta on growth and metabolism of Salsola villosa

Abstract Allelopathy is a biological process in which plants synthesize allelochemicals that affect the physiological properties, development and survival of other plants. Experiments were conducted to investigate the allelopathic effect of Rhazya stricta leaf extracts on the germination, early seedling growth and metabolism of Salsola villosa. Aqueous extracts (10, 30 and 50 g/ L) decreased germination and growth by reducing the synthesis of chlorophyll pigments. Leachate treatments induced the antioxidant system by upregulating antioxidant enzyme activities. Additionally, the activities of phenylalanine ammonia lyase and indole acetic acid oxidase were stimulated by exposure to leachate. R. stricta leachates reduced the content of polyunsaturated membrane fatty acids with a concomitant increase in the saturated ones. Unsaturated fatty acids were reduced with the increased concentration of leachate. Phospholipids were also reduced due to leachate, thereby affecting membrane functioning considerably. Aqueous extracts from the leaves of R. stricta restrict the growth and metabolism of S. villosa by hampering membrane functioning and photosynthetic capacity.
Tissues Harvested Using an Automated Surgical Approach Confirm Molecular Heterogeneity of Glioblastoma and Enhance Specimen's Translational Research Value

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive primary brain tumor in adults. Designing effective individualized therapies for GBM requires quality fresh tissue specimens, and a comprehensive molecular profile of this highly heterogenous neoplasm. Novel neuro-surgical approaches, such as the automated resection NICO Myriad™ system, are increasingly used by neurosurgeons to better reach the invasive front of tumors. However, no information exists on how harvesting GBM tissue using this approach may impact the translational research value of the sample. Here, we set out to characterize matched specimens from 15 patients, where one tissue sample was obtained using traditional tumor de-bulking (herein referred to as “en bloc” sample), and the other sample was obtained using the MyriadTM System (herein referred to as “Myriad” sample). We investigated the fidelity of patient derived xenografts (PDXs) for each sample type to the corresponding human tissues and evaluated the added value of sequencing both samples for each patient. Matched en bloc and Myriad samples processed in parallel, were subjected to the following assays: cell viability, self-renewal, in vivo tumorigenicity using an orthotopic model of glioma, genomic sequencing, and pharmacological testing using PI3K-MTOR pathway inhibitors. Our results demonstrate that primary GBM cultures derived from matched specimens grew at similar rates (correlation coefficient R = 0.72), generated equivalent number of neurospheres, and had equivalent tumorigenic potential in vivo (mouse survival correlation coefficient R = 0.93). DNA Sequencing using the Illumina tumor panel amplicons revealed over 70% concordance in non-synonymous mutations between matched human GBM specimens. PDX genomic profiles were also highly concordant with the corresponding patient tissues (>70%). RNA sequencing of paired GBM samples revealed unique genomic variants and differential gene expression between the en bloc and Myriad specimens, with the former molecularly resembling the “tumor core” and the latter resembling the “invasive tumor front” signature. Functionally, we show that primary-derived GBM cells—obtained after fresh specimen's dissociation—are more effectively growth-inhibited by co-targeting non-overlapping mutations enriched in each sample type, suggesting that profiling both specimens more adequately capture the molecular heterogeneity of GBM and may enhance the design accuracy and efficacy of individualized therapies.
Value Creation Attributes—Clustering Strategic Options for Romanian SMEs

Value proposition can be an important source of competitive advantage for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Unlike large companies which follow a rational and sequential process, developing a value proposition in an SME is instead a trial and error process. Therefore, those companies are experimenting with various options. The purpose of this paper was to identify the value strategies used by SMEs based on value dimensions and attributes and to find specific groups of SMEs with a similar market approach. We present a theoretical framework on customer value creation and customer value communication, followed by a quantitative research on 399 Romanian SMEs. We used a principal component analysis to reduce the number of choices and afterwards we ran a cluster analysis to identify the distinct groups of SMEs using specific value propositions. We found that there are three major strategic options based on customer experience, affordability and customization, and four distinct clusters: customer delight (A), multiple sources of differentiation (B), one-to-one marketing (C) and cost—effectiveness (D). Three groups use distinct value propositions—A focuses on customer experience, C on customization, D on affordability—while B mixes all of them.
Recent advancements in MOF‐based catalysts for applications in electrochemical and photoelectrochemical water splitting: A review

A significant interest in the exploration of clean and renewable alternative energy resources has been observed in recent years to combat environmental pollution and energy shortages for a sustainable future. In this regard, hydrogen is clean, energy‐rich fuel with unlimited potential. It can be produced via water‐splitting process using the most abundant resources on earth, that is, water and solar/electrical energy. Metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) are a category of porous crystalline materials with well‐organized structures and unique catalytic, optical, and electrical properties. MOFs and MOF‐derived materials have proved to be excellent catalysts for water‐splitting both by electrochemical and photoelectrochemical (PEC) routes. Furthermore, photochemical and electrochemical capabilities of these MOFs can be fine‐tuned to maximize their performance by modification in the bandgap, surface area, current density, electrochemical active surface area, and overpotential, through tailoring of the organic ligands and/or metal centers. A number of works have been dedicated to this quest resulting in promising and very effective results. Such as for photoelectrocatalysis, a composite nanorod array of TiO2/Co‐MOF acting as photoanode achieved one of the highest photocurrent densities of 2.93 mA/cm2 at 1.23 V (vs reverse hydrogen electrode [RHE]). In another study, MOF‐derived Co3C‐3/TiO2 photoanode attained the photocurrent density of 2.6 mA/cm2 at 1.23 V vs RHE. For electrocatalysis, Fe2O3/Ni‐MOF‐74 exhibited oxygen evolution reaction overpotential of 264 mV to reach 10 mA/cm2 of current density with a low Tafel plot of 48 mV/dec. Another novel material derived from MOF, MoO2‐PC‐rGO displayed a Tafel Plot of 41 mV/dec. Even though this field is in its infancy phase, it is attracting increased attention for promising results suggesting extraordinary potential for practical applications. Focus of this review article is on the overview of the development of MOFs for application in electrocatalytic and photoelectrocatalytic water‐splitting for hydrogen production. This review intends to provide a timely reference and insight for the advancement in catalysts based on MOFs for practical electrochemical and PEC water‐splitting in a clear and comprehensive manner. Starting with the brief introduction, fundamentals, factors affecting catalytic efficiency and evaluation parameters of water‐splitting are summarized followed by synthesis strategies and recent progress made by MOF‐based catalysts for PEC and electrochemical water‐splitting.
Mobile hotel reservations and customer behavior: Channel familiarity and channel type

The present study is centered on mobile hotel reservations in the investigation of the interrelationships between value, attitude, satisfaction, and reuse intention in consideration of the moderating roles of the channel familiarity and the channel type. Utilizing a quantitative approach, the research hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling and multiple-group analyses. The casual relationships proposed among the study variables were found to all be significant, and the importance of the utilitarian value was substantiated. Moreover, the analysis results denoted that the channel familiarity is an important moderator that affects the strength of the relationships between (1) the attitude and the reuse intention and (2) satisfaction and the reuse intention, which suggests that a different approach should be arranged for novice and expert users. Also, channel type moderated the links between (1) hedonic value and satisfaction, (2) utilitarian value and satisfaction, (3) attitude and the reuse intention, and (4) satisfaction and the reuse intention, which separately provided more relevant implications for the hotel owned and the third-party owned channels.
Climate versus weather extremes: Temporal predictor resolution matters for future rather than current regional species distribution models

Climate is considered a major driver of species distributions. Long‐term climatic means are commonly used as predictors in correlative species distribution models (SDMs). However, this coarse temporal resolution does not reflect local conditions that populations experience, such as short‐term weather extremes, which may have a strong impact on population dynamics and local distributions. We here compare the performance of climate‐ and weather‐based predictors in regional SDMs and their influence on future predictions, which are increasingly used in conservation planning.