Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Monitoring of Wheat Growth Status and Mapping of Wheat Yield's within-Field Spatial Variations Using Color Images Acquired from UAV-camera System

Applications of remote sensing using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in agriculture has proved to be an effective and efficient way of obtaining field information. In this study, we validated the feasibility of utilizing multi-temporal color images acquired from a low altitude UAV-camera system to monitor real-time wheat growth status and to map within-field spatial variations of wheat yield for smallholder wheat growers, which could serve as references for site-specific operations. Firstly, eight orthomosaic images covering a small winter wheat field were generated to monitor wheat growth status from heading stage to ripening stage in Hokkaido, Japan. Multi-temporal orthomosaic images indicated straightforward sense of canopy color changes and spatial variations of tiller densities. Besides, the last two orthomosaic images taken from about two weeks prior to harvesting also notified the occurrence of lodging by visual inspection, which could be used to generate navigation maps guiding drivers or autonomous harvesting vehicles to adjust operation speed according to specific lodging situations for less harvesting loss. Subsequently orthomosaic images were geo-referenced so that further study on stepwise regression analysis among nine wheat yield samples and five color vegetation indices (CVI) could be conducted, which showed that wheat yield correlated with four accumulative CVIs of visible-band difference vegetation index (VDVI), normalized green-blue difference index (NGBDI), green-red ratio index (GRRI), and excess green vegetation index (ExG), with the coefficient of determination and RMSE as 0.94 and 0.02, respectively. The average value of sampled wheat yield was 8.6 t/ha. The regression model was also validated by using leave-one-out cross validation (LOOCV) method, of which root-mean-square error of predication (RMSEP) was 0.06. Finally, based on the stepwise regression model, a map of estimated wheat yield was generated, so that within-field spatial variations of wheat yield, which was usually seen as general information on soil fertility, water potential, tiller density, etc., could be better understood for applications of site-specific or variable-rate operations. Average yield of the studied field was also calculated according to the map of wheat yield as 7.2 t/ha.
Initializing 3D model-based tracking of dice

The initialization process of a 3D model-based tracking method with an extremely fast checking time is presented. One initialized, the algorithm will execute a 3D model-based tracking with pose determination. The tracking method is a two-steps approach, a prediction-correction method. We are studying the possibility of finding the minimum group of interest points and a set of rules which form all the possible movements of a 3D tracked object. Thereby, the computation time-memory for the tracking task could be reduced. We consider rigid objects which can be approximately modeled by a convex polyhedral shape. Our approach works in monocular videos and where the position of the camera is fixed.
Monoaminergic tone supports conductance correlations and stabilizes activity features in pattern generating neurons of the lobster, Panulirus interruptus

Experimental and computational studies demonstrate that different sets of intrinsic and synaptic conductances can give rise to equivalent activity patterns. This is because the balance of conductances, not their absolute values, defines a given activity feature. Activity-dependent feedback mechanisms maintain neuronal conductance correlations and their corresponding activity features. This study demonstrates that tonic nM concentrations of monoamines enable slow, activity-dependent processes that can maintain a correlation between the transient potassium current (IA) and the hyperpolarization activated current (Ih) over the long-term (i.e., regulatory change persists for hours after removal of modulator). Tonic 5 nM DA acted through an RNA interference silencing complex (RISC)- and RNA polymerase II-dependent mechanism to maintain a long-term positive correlation between IA and Ih in the lateral pyloric neuron (LP) but not in the pyloric dilator neuron (PD). In contrast, tonic 5 nM 5HT maintained a RISC-dependent positive correlation between IA and Ih in PD but not LP over the long-term. Tonic 5 nM OCT maintained a long-term negative correlation between IA and Ih in PD but not LP; however, it was only revealed when RISC was inhibited. This study also demonstrated that monoaminergic tone can also preserve activity features over the long-term: the timing of LP activity, LP duty cycle and LP spike number per burst were maintained by tonic 5 nM DA. The data suggest that low-level monoaminergic tone acts through multiple slow processes to permit cell-specific, activity-dependent regulation of ionic conductances to maintain conductance correlations and their corresponding activity features over the long-term.
A Doherty power amplifier with an improved π-type output network

In this paper, works are focused on the impact of output network on PAE (power-added-efficiency) performance of a Doherty circuit. A shunt capacitor π-network is put forward to improve the output network of Doherty amplifier, based on the equivalent quarter wavelength transmission line. The analysis for this amplifier is presented. A Doherty circuit with applying the improved output network is designed, fabricated and tested. The device used is MRF6S21050L LDMOS. The PAE tested of the Doherty circuit gets 2% improvement in the power backoff region. When ACLR is -30dBc, the corresponding output power measured is 43.5dBm and the drain efficiency measured is 45.75%. All these measured data show very good agreements with the simulated ones.
Clinical outcomes of lung‐transplant recipients treated by voriconazole and caspofungin combination in aspergillosis

Background and objective: Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is a serious cause of death among immune‐compromised patients such as organ‐transplant recipients. Recently, voriconazole has been approved for first‐line therapy in IPA. Theoretically, optimal voriconazole blood level (superior to 1 mg/L according to recent studies) should be reached within 24 h. In practice, a significantly longer time seems to be needed in lung‐transplant recipients. Therefore, caspofungin is now used in combination with voriconazole to provide cover against Aspergillus spp. infection during this gap. The first aim of this study was to investigate Aspergillus spp. infection treated with this combination and the atter’s tolerability. The median time for attainment of apparently active blood levels in lung transplant recipients were compared between those with cystic fibrosis and those without.
Back to the future : Evaluating a project to disseminate practice learning and teaching in Ukraine

This article reports on an experience of training social work practice educators in the Chernihiv law College in northern Ukraine. The purpose of the visit was to examine whether the UK values critical to UK social work training were able to transfer to other cultures. During their visit, the authors taught a five-day module on practice learning and used research tools of questionnaire, structural interviews and focus groups to collate and analyse data that sought to examine the transferability of values. Positive changes to practice teaching were brought about as a result of their visit.
Dynamic Function Replacement for System-on-Chip Security in the Presence of Hardware-Based Attacks

We describe a set of design methodologies and experiments related to enabling hardware systems to utilize on-the-fly configuration of reconfigurable logic to recover system operation from unexpected loss of system function. Methods we explore include programming using locally stored configuration bitstream as well as using configuration bitstream transmitted from a remote site. We examine specific ways of utilizing reconfigurable logic to regenerate system function, as well as the effectiveness of this approach as a function of the type of attack, and various architectural attributes of the system. Based on this analysis, we propose architectural features of System-on-Chip (SoC) that can minimize performance degradation and maximize the likelihood of seamless system operation despite the function replacement. This approach is highly feasible in that it is not required to specially manage system software and other normal system hardware functions for the replacement.
The effect of doxorubicin on the changes of serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE).

BACKGROUND Treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) is known to induce vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression. A recent study has shown that doxorubicin can repress hypoxic induction of VEGF expression in human cancer cells. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the combination effects of doxorubicin and TACE on the change of serum VEGF after TACE. MATERIAL AND METHOD Thirty patients with unresectable HCC were assigned into two groups, the experiment group (n = 15) received TACE with doxorubicin (25-50 mg) plus mitomycin C (5-10 mg), and the control group (n = 15) received TACE with mitomycin C (5-10 mg). Serum VEGF before and after TACE (24 hour) was measured by quantitative sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS Baseline serum VEGF was correlated with the size of tumor (r2 = 0.85; p = 0.03). In addition, serum VEGF was significantly elevated after TACE (p = 0.014). However; the change of serum VEGF after TACE is not statistically different in both groups (p = 0.72). At 2-years, the overall survival was 38% and 40% in the experiment and control group, respectively (p = 0.48). CONCLUSION The present study suggests that doxorubicin improves neither the level of serum VEGF nor the survival in HCC patients treated with TACE.
Beneficial Effects of Lexipafant, a PAF Antagonist on Gut Barrier Dysfunction Caused by Intestinal Ischemia and Reperfusion in Rats

Background: Platelet-activating factor (PAF) may play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of intestinal ischemic injury. Methods: The potential role of PAF in intestinal ischemia and reperfusion (I/R) and the development of gut endothelial and epithelial barrier dysfunction and distant organ injury were investigated by pretreatment with a PAF antagonist, lexipafant. Bidirectional permeability of the intestinal barrier, enteric bacterial translocation, protease-antiprotease balance and mucosal histology, and also changes in pulmonary and liver endothelial barrier permeability were measured following intestinal ischemia for 40 min with 6 h of reperfusion in rats. Results: Intestinal mucosal endothelial and epithelial permeabilities significantly increased in animals with I/R. Lexipafant prevented the increase in albumin leakage from blood to the mucosal interstitium and the intestinal lumen during reperfusion, and the mucosal albumin leakage from the gut lumen to blood during I/R. Bacterial translocation was frequently noted in animals with I/R, while only a few positive cultures were obtained in animals with I/R administered lexipafant. Less leakage of fluorescein isothiocyanate dextran 70,000 into the interstitial space and gut lumen in I/R animals with lexipafant pretreatment was found under fluorescein microscopy. Lexipafant also partly prevented C1 inhibitor, prekallikrein, and factor X consumption in I/R animals and partly prevented changes in pulmonary and liver albumin leakage. Conclusions: PAF seems to play an important role in I/R-associated intestinal dysfunction and the development of distant organ dysfunction, probably by triggering endothelial and epithelial barrier dysfunction. Furthermore, PAF seems to be partly involved in activation of the protease-antiprotease system. The use of PAF antagonists may provide a mode of treatment against I/R-associated organ dysfunction.
Interregional Interaction in Prehistory: The Need for a New Perspective

Recent archaeological efforts to model processes of intersocietal interaction have been hampered by a dearth of conceptual tools suitable to these analyses. In particular, there is a need for a theoretical structure that shifts concern from our traditional focus on spatially distinct cultures and their relations to the physical environment. Without such a shift, questions of intersocietal contact cannot be addressed successfully. This article suggests that the concept of social identity has a role to play in this reorientation. The use of social identity focuses attention directly on intersocietal interactions by encouraging us to ask such questions as who is interacting with whom, under what conditions, and what are the effects of the contact on local social change? This paper defines social identity, provides examples suggesting its utility in archaeological research, and considers the specific questions raised by the application of social identity to archaeological materials.
Service Quality of On-Campus Student Housing: A South African Experience

This study adds to the service quality literature on student housing, particularly within a South African context. The study proposes and confirms a modified model of SERVQUAL and assesses the quality of on-campus student housing at a South African university based on 430 respondents’ expectations and perceptions. Exploratory, firstand second-order confirmatory factor analyses performed as part of the data analysis confirmed that on-campus student housing service quality can be viewed as a second-order construct defined by four first-order dimensions: interaction, empathy, general amenities, and room amenities. T-tests and ANOVA tests show that neither age nor gender relates significantly to service quality perceptions. The data also reveal a four-tier structure of service quality which can guide residence managers in allocating limited resources to those service dimensions students regard as most important, but least satisfactory.
Tuning in to the RTLM

Transcripts from radio broadcasts that aired in pre-, early-, and late-genocide Rwanda were content analyzed from a social identity theory perspective to examine whether language use was consistent with theoretical predictions. The data yielded by these analyses (N = 59) are noteworthy because the broadcasters on this station were eventually charged with war crimes for inciting and endorsing the violence between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups. The results from this study found that the transcripts contained language in support of theory such that the Tutsi out-group was increasingly dehumanized as the conflict escalated, the Tutsi were blamed for their fate—while the Hutu were presented as victims of the violence, and an overt prejudice that was initially directed at Tutsi rebel group grew to include all Tutsi people near the end of this conflict. These data provide compelling support for the communication processes that arise within intergroup conflict situations and support the continued application of social identity theory to real-world situations.
Concern for close or distant others: The distinction between moral identity and moral inclusion

Abstract Research has analyzed the relationship between moral identity—the extent to which people experience their moral character as being central to their self-conception—and the inclusion of other people within one’s own moral circle. These studies underline that the higher the moral identity, the larger the moral circle. However, recent studies have observed that a person with a high moral identity feels morally obliged towards close people and may be intolerant towards distant groups. The aim of the present research was to deepen the differences between moral identity and moral inclusion considering prejudicial attitudes, ethnocentrism, altruism and values. The results indicated that moral identity alone does not imply a reduction in intolerant attitudes. Instead, when moral inclusion is considered, the results even show a positive effect of moral identity internalization on prejudice and ethnocentrism. Moreover, moral identity internalization has an effect on values of benevolence, security, tradition and conformity. Hence, a strong moral identity does not denote an extension of one’s own moral circle. Instead, this variable is related to intolerance towards those groups considered not to be included in one’s own moral community.
A New Vision of Collaborative Active Learning

Active learning (AL) is a learning paradigm where an active learner has to train a model (e.g., a classifier) which is in principal trained in a supervised way, but in AL it has to be done by means of a data set with initially unlabeled samples. To get labels for these samples, the active learner has to ask an oracle (e.g., a human expert) for labels. The goal is to maximize the performance of the model and to minimize the number of queries at the same time. In this article, we first briefly discuss the state of the art and own, preliminary work in the field of AL. Then, we propose the concept of collaborative active learning (CAL). With CAL, we will overcome some of the harsh limitations of current AL. In particular, we envision scenarios where an expert may be wrong for various reasons, there might be several or even many experts with different expertise, the experts may label not only samples but also knowledge at a higher level such as rules, and we consider that the labeling costs depend on many conditions. Moreover, in a CAL process human experts will profit by improving their own knowledge, too.
Pten Mutations Alter Brain Growth Trajectory and Allocation of Cell Types through Elevated β-Catenin Signaling

Abnormal patterns of head and brain growth are a replicated finding in a subset of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is not known whether risk factors associated with ASD and abnormal brain growth (both overgrowth and undergrowth) converge on common biological pathways and cellular mechanisms in the developing brain. Heterozygous mutations in PTEN (PTEN+/−), which encodes a negative regulator of the PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway, are a risk factor for ASD and macrocephaly. Here we use the developing cerebral cortex of Pten+/− mice to investigate the trajectory of brain overgrowth and underlying cellular mechanisms. We find that overgrowth is detectable from birth to adulthood, is driven by hyperplasia, and coincides with excess neurons at birth and excess glia in adulthood. β-Catenin signaling is elevated in the developing Pten+/− cortex, and a heterozygous mutation in Ctnnb1 (encoding β-catenin), itself a candidate gene for ASD and microcephaly, can suppress Pten+/− cortical overgrowth. Thus, a balance of Pten and β-catenin signaling regulates normal brain growth trajectory by controlling cell number, and imbalance in this relationship can result in abnormal brain growth. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We report that Pten haploinsufficiency leads to a dynamic trajectory of brain overgrowth during development and altered scaling of neuronal and glial cell populations. β-catenin signaling is elevated in the developing cerebral cortex of Pten haploinsufficient mice, and a heterozygous mutation in β-catenin, itself a candidate gene for ASD and microcephaly, suppresses Pten+/− cortical overgrowth. This leads to the new insight that Pten and β-catenin signaling act in a common pathway to regulate normal brain growth trajectory by controlling cell number, and disruption of this pathway can result in abnormal brain growth.
Liquidity Premia in Dynamic Bargaining Markets

This paper develops a search-theoretic model of the cross-sectional distribution of asset returns, abstracting from risk premia and focusing exclusively on liquidity. In contrast with much of the transaction-cost literature, it is not assumed that different assets carry different exogenously specified trading costs. Instead, different expected returns, due to liquidity, are explained by the cross-sectional variation in tradeable shares. The qualitative predictions of the model are consistent with much of the empirical evidence.
Essays on Human Capital in Brazil.

This thesis consists of three independent chapters on human capital in Brazil. Chapter one examines the effect of the introduction of automatic grade promotion on student performance in 1,993 public primary schools in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. A difference-in-differences approach that exploits variation over time in the adoption of the policy allows the identification of the treatment effect of automatic promotion. I find a negative and significant effect of about 6% of a standard deviation. I provide evidence from quantile regression DiD estimates consistent with an interpretation of the findings as disincentive effect on student effort associated with the introduction of automatic grade promotion; additional evidence on student and teacher behaviour supports this interpretation. Chapter two provides a novel way of identifying peer group effects in Brazil. Students in Brazil are typically assigned to classes based on the age ranking in their cohort. I exploit this rule to estimate the effects on maths achievement of being in class with older peers for students in fifth grade using a regression discontinuity design. I provide evidence that heterogeneity in age (and in other characteristics) is an important factor for student performance. Information on teaching practices and student behaviour sheds light on how class heterogeneity may harm learning. Chapter three uses microdata from Brazilian vital statistics natality and mortality data between 2000 and 2010 to estimate the impact of in-utero exposure to local violence measured by homicide rates on birth outcomes. Focusing on small communities, for which it is more credible that local homicide rates reflect actual exposure to violence, the analysis shows that exposure to violence during pregnancy leads to deterioration in birth outcomes: one extra homicide during the first trimester of pregnancy increases the probability of low birthweight by around 6 percent.
A Krylov Method for the Delay Eigenvalue Problem

The Arnoldi method is currently a very popular algorithm to solve large-scale eigenvalue problems. The main goal of this paper is to generalize the Arnoldi method to the characteristic equation of a delay-differential equation (DDE), here called a delay eigenvalue problem (DEP). The DDE can equivalently be expressed with a linear infinite-dimensional operator whose eigenvalues are the solutions to the DEP. We derive a new method by applying the Arnoldi method to the generalized eigenvalue problem associated with a spectral discretization of the operator and by exploiting the structure. The result is a scheme where we expand a subspace not only in the traditional way done in the Arnoldi method. The subspace vectors are also expanded with one block of rows in each iteration. More important, the structure is such that if the Arnoldi method is started in an appropriate way, it has the (somewhat remarkable) property that it is in a sense independent of the number of discretization points. It is mathematically equivalent to an Arnoldi method with an infinite matrix, corresponding to the limit where we have an infinite number of discretization points. We also show an equivalence with the Arnoldi method in an operator setting. It turns out that with an appropriately defined operator over a space equipped with scalar product with respect to which Chebyshev polynomials are orthonormal, the vectors in the Arnoldi iteration can be interpreted as the coefficients in a Chebyshev expansion of a function. The presented method yields the same Hessenberg matrix as the Arnoldi method applied to the operator.