Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Polystichum minutissimum sp nov (sect. Haplopolystichum, Dryopteridaceae): The smallest Polystichum found in a karst cave in China

Polystichum minutissimum (sect. Haplopolystichum, Dryopteridaceae) from a karst cave in southern Guizhou, China, is described as new. Polystichum minutissimum is the smallest species in the genus. It is morphologically most similar to P liboense, a species also described from a limestone area in southern Guizhou, but differs from P liboense in lacking hydathodes near the margin of the pinnae. Additionally, P minutissimum has much smaller lamina (1.3-3.8 x 0.7-1.1 cm) and pinnae (middle ones 2.9-5.8 x 2.8-4.5 mm). In fact, it has the smallest lamina and pinnae in the genus. Polystichum minutissimum grows in cool, moist, and twilight conditions in a cave, where it can be extremely sensitive to environmental changes, thereby raising concern for its conservation.
Antimicrobial Sensitivity of Bacterial Strains Isolated From Newborn Calves in the Abattoir of Batna (Algeria)

The current study conducted on 124 lung and nasal samples from slaughtered veals exclusively males aged less than 2 years slaughtered at Batna abattoirs. The bacteriological examinations indicated that 96.9% samples were positive for mixed bacterial infection, while 3.1% were found to be bacteriologically negative. The isolation rates of most frequently identified species among the 291 bacterial isolates include; E.coli (31.95%), Staphylococcus aureus (7.56%), Streptococcus bovis 1 (4.46%), Pseudomonas aeroginosa (4.46%) and Proteus spp (4.46%). Pasteurella strains were isolated from lungs tissues of 0.68%. The totality of these bacteria seems to be sensitive to different antibiotics used in this study. Our results confirm the importance of bovine respiratory disease in both intensive and traditional breeding. The consequences of these respiratory diseases are very heavy. This is why control measures based on prevention, early detection and effective treatment must be necessary in a modern breeding and must be strongly encouraged in traditional one.
Reconstruct Locally, Localize Globally: A Model Free Method for Object Pose Estimation

Six degree-of-freedom pose estimation of a known object in a single image is a long-standing computer vision objective. It is classically posed as a correspondence problem between a known geometric model, such as a CAD model, and image locations. If a CAD model is not available, it is possible to use multi-view visual reconstruction methods to create a geometric model, and use this in the same manner. Instead, we propose a learning-based method whose input is a collection of images of a target object, and whose output is the pose of the object in a novel view. At inference time, our method maps from the RoI features of the input image to a dense collection of object-centric 3D coordinates, one per pixel. This dense 2D-3D mapping is then used to determine 6dof pose using standard PnP plus RANSAC. The model that maps 2D to object 3D coordinates is established at training time by automatically discovering and matching image landmarks that are consistent across multiple views. We show that this method eliminates the requirement for a 3D CAD model (needed by classical geometry-based methods and state-of-the-art learning-based methods alike) but still achieves performance on a par with the prior art.
Disposal Pattern and Its Impact on Milk Production and Herd Size in Karan Fries and Karan Swiss Cows

Data on 958 Karan Fries (KF) and 780 Karan Swiss (KS) cows, born during 1974 to 1992 at National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal were evaluated for causes of culling and their impact on milk performance and herd strength. Causes of culling were classified as voluntary culling (low milk yield) and involuntary culling (other than milk yield). The milk yield of cows was evaluated inretrospectively by estimating expected breeding value (EBV) on the basis of first lactation yield (FLY) and all available lactation yield (ALY). The culling rate of KF cows over the years varied from 10.89 (1988) to 33.92% (1991) with an overall average of 20.96% and in KS from 19.91 (1984) to 33.74% (1989) with an overall average of 25.01%. Reproductive disorders, teat and udder problems, low milk production, health and locomotive disorders were the major reasons of culling accounted respectively for 5.56, 4.97, 4.61, 3.18 and 2.24% of herd strength in KF cows. The corresponding causes of culling were 6.20, 6.26, 7.69, 1.49 and 2.67% of herd strength in KS cows. The involuntary culling of cows accounted for 82.4% in K F and 76.1% in KS cows of total culling. The average annual disposal rate in KF and KS was 26 and 30% whereas annual replacement rate was 24 and 26% respectively. The EBV of involuntary culled cows on the basis of FLY and ALY was 3,111 and 3,515 kg in KF; and 2,669 and 2,940 kg in KS cows respectively. The EBV of selected cows on the basis of FLY and ALY was 3,242 and 3,549 kg in KF and 2,893 and 3,245 kg in KS cows respectively. The average breeding value of involuntary culled cows was not significantly different from selected cows in both the herds. The high rate of involuntary culling of potential cows might be major factor responsible for declined performance and size in these herds. The results indicated that higher genetic gain (2.14% of herd average in KF and 3.49% of herd average in KS) could be obtained by restricting the involuntary culling (50% of total culling) through improved management practices and increasing replacement rate.
Herbivory effects on the morphology of the brown alga Padina boergesenii (Phaeophyta)

G. Diaz-Pulido, L. Villamil, and V. Almanza. 2007. Herbivory effects on the morphology of the brown alga Padina boergesenii (Phaeophyta). Phycologia 46: 131–136. DOI: 10.2216/05-60.1 Many coral reef benthic algae exhibit morphological plasticity enabling them to persist in diverse habitats under different environmental pressures. Morphological plasticity has been previously observed in the brown alga Padina jamaicensis, which displays a foliose morphology under low grazing pressure and a turf morphology in habitats with medium to high herbivory levels. To determine whether a different species of Padina, P. boergesenii, exhibits morphological plasticity regulated by herbivory, we excluded macroherbivores from experimental plots containing P. boergesenii thalli on a rocky reef off Santa Marta in the Colombian Caribbean. The experiment used exclusion cages to test for effects of herbivores and was carried out in two contrasting oceanographic seasons: upwelling (low water temperature and high water transparency) and rainy (higher temperature and low water transparency). The morphology of P. boergesenii was significantly affected by herbivory but only during the upwelling season. Padina boergesenii rapidly changed from a turf morphology to a fan-shaped form and increased in size when protected from herbivores in full cages in a period of less than a week. Thalli exposed to macroherbivores in open plots did not shift to a foliose morphology, and neither did thalli investigated during the rainy season, independent of herbivore treatment. Our results show that herbivory plays an important role in controlling the morphology and may affect life history processes of the alga P. boergesenii but suggest that plant response to herbivory may be a seasonal process. This suggests that there are important climatic (e.g. trade winds inducing upwelling) and oceanographic factors (e.g. water temperature) limiting algal abundance and that these factors may mediate morphological plasticity of algae. Therefore, reductions of grazing are not enough to promote morphological plasticity during the rainy season.
Nitrogen fixation by unicellular diazotrophic cyanobacteria in the temperate oligotrophic North Pacific Ocean

N2 fixation has been understudied in marine environments outside of the subtropical and tropical oceans and where water temperatures are typically below 20‐25°C. We identified nifH phylotypes and measured N2 fixation rates under ambient conditions (maximum of 19°C) in water collected 750 km off the coast of California in oligotrophic waters of the North Pacific Ocean (34°N, 129°W). Near‐surface N2 fixation rates averaged 0.25 ± 0.05 nmol N L−1 d−1 for 24 incubation bottles. Despite low ambient concentrations of iron (<0.1 nmol L−1) and phosphorus (<0.3 µmol L−1), N2 fixation rates were unaffected by iron and phosphorus amendments. Using reverse transcription‐quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT‐QPCR) methodology, we estimated transcript abundance and patterns of expression for several unicellular diazotrophs, including the group A phylotype, which showed the highest daily mRNA abundances. The N2‐fixing assemblage extended to 60‐80 m depth, well below the seasonal thermocline (40 m). The calculated areal N2 fixation rate (15 µmol N m−2 d−1) was small compared with estimates from other regions of the Pacific; however, the estimated fixation rate was similar to other published results, suggesting that processes other than cellular growth rate may determine the abundance of unicellular diazotrophs. Despite the low N2 fixation rates, the new nitrogen added to the euphotic zone by N2 fixation could account for at least 10% of new production during the study period.
Sex Determining Mechanism in Buergeria buergeri (SCHLEGEL) : II. The Effects of Sex Hormones on the Differentiation of Gonads and the Offspring of Sex-reversed Females

The mechanism of sex determination in Buergeria buergeri (SCHLEGEL) was studied by making use of sex-reversed females. There was nearly an equal number of one-nucleolate and two-nucleolate tadpoles in those produced from two pairs of males and females just as in the tadpoles collected from the field. The one-nucleolate and two-nucleolate tadpoles collected from the field as well as those raised in the laboratory were administered estrogen or androgen in order to obtain sex-reversed frogs. Masculinization occurred in a greater or less degree in many of one-nucleolate females administered estrogen or androgen at the tadpole stage. Seven of them administered estrogen or androgen attained sexual maturity. Offspring were obtained from two mature sex-reversed genetic females administered estrogen. Feminization also occurred to a certain degree in many of the juvenile two-nucleolate males administered estrogen at the tadpole stage. Of the 1067 offspring obtained from the two mature sex-reversed genetic females (1-nu) mated with three normal females (1-nu), 243 (22.8%) had no nucleolus, 525 (49.2%) had one nucleolus, and 299 (28.0%) had two nucleoli, when examined at the neurula, tail-bud and tadpole stages. While all the anucleolate individuals did not live beyond the tail-bud stage, the one- and two-nucleolate individuals mostly survived normally and became females and males, respectively. It was confirmed that the sex chromosomes are of the ZZ/ZW-type in Buergeria buergeri and that the nucleolar organizer is situated in the Z chromosome and inherited as a Mendelian character.
Changes in photon flux can induce stomatal patchiness

Images of chlorophyll fluorescence were used to detect the occurrence of stomatal patchiness in leaves from eight species under variable photon flux conditions. Pronounced stomatal patchiness was induced within 5-10 min after PFD was changed from intermediate (450 μmol quanta m -2 s -1 ) to low (150 μmol quanta m -2 s -1 ) levels. This effect was completely reversible by returning PFD to intermediate levels. The pattern of heterogeneous fluorescence for each leaf was usually similar during repeated applications of medium and low PFD. In three species, stomatal patchiness could only be induced in slightly water-stressed plants. Leaves of more severely water-stressed Xanthium strumarium plants in low air humidity exhibited oscillations in fluorescence that corresponded with oscillatory changes in leaf diffusion conductance for water vapour. Stomatal patchiness was also induced by illuminating dark-adapted leaves with low PFD (below 200-300 μmol quanta m -2 s -1 ). Infiltration of leaves with distilled water showed that heterogeneous chlorophyll fluorescence was caused by changes in stomatal apertures.
Global warming at the east coast zone of Peninsular Malaysia.

Problem statement: Global Warming is not a new phenomenon and it is already been felt by people all around the world. Not only the people affected by the global warming, but also our sea. There are a lot of potential threats that can be caused by global warming on the sea such as rise of sea level, changes in waves action, water current and wind velocity, but do one of the main users of the sea which are the fishermen have already felt these impacts? Approach: This is a quantitative study where a developed questionnaire was used to gain the data needed. Through a stratified random sampling a total of 300 registered fishermen from four states in the east coast zone of Peninsular Malaysia namely Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and East Johor have been selected. Results: This study provided a greater understanding of the fishermen views on the changes that happened to the sea due to the global warming impact. They stressed that the temperature, the rainfall season and the coastal areas have changed. Furthermore, according to them, the sea nowadays are no longer easy to predict as the water current, wind velocity and waves actions can easily change their pattern and endanger them while they are at the sea. Conclusion/Recommendation: Effective actions can be taken to assist the fishermen to adapt to impacts of global warming. One of it is to provide them with more information on global warming. Besides, fishermen in Malaysia also can be provided with trainings in order to provide them with other skills besides fishing.
Mosquito‐borne disease and climate change in Australia: time for a reality check

Will warming climate increase the risk or prevalence of mosquito-borne disease in Australia, as has been projected in a number of scientific publications and governmental reports? Unfortunately, most of these ‘predictions’ do not adequately consider the current and historical distribution of the vectors and diseases, their local ecology and epidemiology and the impact of societal features and the capacity for public health interventions in Australia. Overall, a strong case can be made that we are unlikely to see significant changes in the distribution of transmission of the exotic pathogens causing malaria and dengue, and while activity of endemic arboviruses such as Murray Valley encephalitis and Ross River viruses may possibly increase in some areas, it is likely to decrease in others. The ecologies of mosquito-borne diseases can be complex and difficult to predict, and any evaluation of potential effects of changes in climate will need a detailed examination of site-specific vector, host and other factors likely to influence the outcomes on human health. Of itself, climate change as currently projected, is not likely to provide great cause for public health concern with mosquito-borne disease in Australia.
“Bumpin’ Up Against People and Their Beliefs”

Despite recent improvements for the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer (LGBTQ) students in higher education, marginalizing policies and climates for members of that community are still very present on our campuses. This narrative qualitative study, guided by the tempered radicals framework, explores how student affairs administrator in the southern United States have worked to effect change for LGBTQ student populations on their campuses. Grassroots activism by faculty, staff, and administrators can provide powerful mechanisms for change within higher education. Participants were interviewed to gain in-depth narratives of their experiences working within higher-education institutions to improve the college policies and practices toward LGBTQ students. Overall, participants shared inspiring and frustrating stories of how they worked to navigate institutional bureaucracies to create inclusive campus environments.
Enroll an EMI Course Offered by NSTs or not? Perspective of Undergraduates in Taiwan

English has become one of the most vital skills that non-Westerners university students need to acquire. Most universities in Taiwan have either expanded the percentage of English medium instruction (EMI) lectures offered by native-speaking teachers (NST). Why, or why not, do students endroll an EMI course offered by a NST? The purpose of this paper is to propose a partial least squares (PLS) model on the relationship between EMI determinants and the enrollment from the perspective of students in Taiwan. The result shows that student determinants comprise the key factor affecting the EMI enrollment; teacher determinants, course determinants and keyman determinants all play stimulator and bridging roles regarding the students’ EMI evaluation. It provides insights for the related entities regarding enhancement of higher education in an EMI context. Key-Words: English medium instruction (EMI), native speaking teachers (NST), partial least squares (PLS), undergrates, Taiwan
TextureFusion: High-Quality Texture Acquisition for Real-Time RGB-D Scanning

Real-time RGB-D scanning technique has become widely used to progressively scan objects with a hand-held sensor. Existing online methods restore color information per voxel, and thus their quality is often limited by the tradeoff between spatial resolution and time performance. Also, such methods often suffer from blurred artifacts in the captured texture. Traditional offline texture mapping methods with non-rigid warping assume that the reconstructed geometry and all input views are obtained in advance, and the optimization takes a long time to compute mesh parameterization and warp parameters, which prevents them from being used in real-time applications. In this work, we propose a progressive texture-fusion method specially designed for real-time RGB-D scanning. To this end, we first devise a novel texture-tile voxel grid, where texture tiles are embedded in the voxel grid of the signed distance function, allowing for high-resolution texture mapping on the low-resolution geometry volume. Instead of using expensive mesh parameterization, we associate vertices of implicit geometry directly with texture coordinates. Second, we introduce real-time texture warping that applies a spatially-varying perspective mapping to input images so that texture warping efficiently mitigates the mismatch between the intermediate geometry and the current input view. It allows us to enhance the quality of texture over time while updating the geometry in real-time. The results demonstrate that the quality of our real-time texture mapping is highly competitive to that of exhaustive offline texture warping methods. Our method is also capable of being integrated into existing RGB-D scanning frameworks.
Single sensor airborne data sources for forest inventories by tree species

Modern remote sensing-based forest inventory methods utilize airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and optical image data for the prediction of forest attributes by tree species. These methods assume that the three-dimensional information provided by LiDAR can be used to predict the total growing stock attributes, while the spectral reflectance of tree crowns, contained in optical image data, are beneficial for the discrimination of tree species. In Finland, airborne image data has been found suitable for the discrimination of the most common tree species: pine (Pinus sylvestris), spruce (Picea abies) and broadleaves (mainly Betula pendula and Betula pubescens). There are, however, numerous issues in the collection and use of two different types of datasets in the inventory process, such as incorrect coregistration of datasets and increased data acquisition and processing costs. In the wake of advances in algorithms and hardware, two new data sources have been merged as single sensor solutions for tree species-specific forest inventories: stereo matching of aerial images and multispectral airborne LiDAR. Both data sources offer structural and optical information beneficial in tree species classification. However, due to differences in observational geometry, the interpretation, and, thus, the usefulness of the optical information may differ between these two data sources. It is, therefore, essential to examine whether the differences in data characteristics between stereo matching of aerial images and multispectral airborne LiDAR affect the performance of the inventory. In this thesis, stereo matching data and multispectral airborne LiDAR data are evaluated as single sensor solutions for tree species-specific forest inventories. The results provide a unique insight as to how these data sources compare to the traditional use of single wavelength airborne LiDAR and aerial images. The findings can be used to support future species-specific forest inventories on the selection of remotely sensed data.
Threelobe Morningglory (Ipomoea triloba) Germination and Response to Herbicides

Abstract Experiments were conducted in the laboratory and screenhouse to determine the effects of scarification; alternating day/night temperatures; light, salt, and water stress; seed burial depth; and rice residue on seed germination and seedling emergence of threelobe morningglory, and to evaluate the response of this weed to commonly available POST herbicides in the Philippines. Germination was stimulated by seed scarification, suggesting that inhibition of germination in this species is mainly due to the hard seed coat. Germination of the scarified seeds was not influenced by the tested temperatures (alternating day/night temperatures of 25/15, 30/20, and 35/25 C) and light. The concentrations of sodium chloride, ranging from 0 to 250 mM, did not influence germination of the scarified seeds of threelobe morningglory. The osmotic potential required for 50% inhibition of maximum germination was −0.35 MPa, although some seeds germinated at −0.6 MPa. Seedling emergence was greatest for the seeds placed on the soil surface (96%), and emergence declined with increased burial depth in soil. The burial depth required for 50% inhibition of maximum emergence was 2.8 cm. No seedlings emerged from a burial depth of 6 cm or greater. Residues of up to 6 Mg ha−1 on the soil surface did not influence seedling emergence of threelobe morningglory. The herbicide 2,4-D at 400 g ai ha−1 provided excellent control of threelobe morningglory when applied at the four-leaf (100%) and six-leaf (97%) stages. However, at the eight-leaf stage, percent control was reduced to 67% and herbicide rate had to be increased twofold to achieve 95% control. The information gained from this study could contribute to developing components of integrated weed management strategies for threelobe morningglory. Soil inversion by tillage to bury weed seeds below their maximum depth of emergence and early application of an effective POST herbicide could serve as important tools for managing threelobe morningglory. Nomenclature: 2,4-D; glyphosate; metsulfuron + chlorimuron; threelobe morningglory, Ipomoea triloba L. IPOTR; rice, Oryza sativa L.