Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A survey of computer-based vision systems for automatic identification of plant species.

Plants are unavoidable for the existence of most living things on this planet. There are many needs of both humans and animals that are satisfied by materials from plants. These needs include food, shelter, and medicine. The ability to identify plants is highly important in several applications, including conservation of endangered plant species, rehabilitation of lands after mining activities and differentiating crop plants from weeds. This paper reviews several applications and works that have been made towards computer-based vision systems for automatic identification of plant species. It shows the various techniques alongside their descriptions. It portrays how future researchers in this field (especially precision agriculture or agricultural informatics) may move the knowledge domain forward.
A COMPACT SPIRAL STRIPLINE-LOADED MONOPOLE ANTENNA WITH A VERTICAL GROUND PLANE

In this letter, we propose a compact spiral striplineloaded monopole antenna on a vertical ground plane. The measured results show that the antenna has a fractional bandwidth of 12.1% for a voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) less than 2 at the center frequency of 1.10 GHz, as well as a good omni-directional radiation pattern. The small size of 0.04 o 0.04 o 0.04 o makes it promising for use as an internal antenna in mobile handsets. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 50: 250–252, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop. 23043
Makeup-Invariant Face Recognition using combined Gabor Filter Bank and Histogram of Oriented Gradients

Facial makeup is a global problem from the perspective of recognition and security. In this paper, a hybrid feature extraction method is proposed for makeup-invariant face identification and verification. The Gabor Filter Bank (GFB) and Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) were applied to face images from the Virtual Makeup (VMU) database for feature extraction. The final feature vectors were generated through the combination of GFB and HOG features and classified using the City Block Distance (CBD), Euclidean Distance (EUC) and Cosine Similarity Metric (CSM). Performance evaluation of the CBD, EUC and CSM classifiers produced identification and verification rates of 97.39% and 94.12%, 96.73% and 92.16%, and 94.77% and 89.54% respectively for the VMU database. The CSM has the least recognition rate while the CBD achieved the best recognition rates. The implemented method outclassed several face recognition methods previously developed.
Inmovilización de catalizadores tipo Jacobsen en sílica modificada

Several immobilized Jacobsen type catalysts were covalently anchored on modified SiO2 using 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (3-APTES) as a reactive surface modifier. Characterization of the heterogeneous catalysts, as well as their precursors, by FTIR, DR UV–VIS, TGA and AAS confirms the successful immobilization of chiral Mn(III) salen complexes. These catalysts were examined for the diastereoselective epoxidation of R-(+)-limonene with in situ generated dimethyldioxirane (DMD) as oxidizing agent, yielding 1,2-epoxide as the main product. When compared to homogeneous catalysts, under similar experimental conditions, only a slight selectivity decrease over heterogeneous catalysts was observed. The immobilized catalysts were used three times maintaining the initial selectivity. However, after reusing them more than three times, selectivity to 1,2-epoxide decreased. FTIR results suggest partial degradation of the catalytic species. Despite the immobilization method was chosen to minimize changes in the structure of the homogeneous catalysts the diastereoselectivity (d.e.) of heterogeneous catalysts underwent a remarkable decay. ----
A Certificateless Group Authenticated Key Agreement Protocol for Secure Communication in Untrusted UAV Networks

Smart cities are increasingly relying on information and communication technologies to cope with today's challenges, including increasing population, heterogeneous economic growth, and environmental legislation hardening. The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) generates a growing interest in coping with such challenges, along with new business opportunities. As a result, it is expected to see the number of drone-based applications to rise at a very fast pace, entailing new cybersecurity risks to emerge. In this paper, we propose to tackle the problem of secure communication among untrusting parties with a certificateless-group authenticated key agreement (CL-GAKA) scheme. The intent is to enable confidentiality, message integrity, and authenticity in UAV-to-UAV communication. Provisioning untrusted UAV networks with trusted communication will provide ground for further research and applications, such as collaborative cybersecurity deterrence, network extension using trusted relay nodes, collaborative mission exercise in time-critical applications, or anonymous communication for user privacy. Moreover, in order to fill the gap of technology awareness, we provide an implementation and demonstrate that the generation of a session key between two users can be performed in approximately 600ms on a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ system-on-chip (1.4GHz Cortex-A53). Finally, the protocol is formally evaluated with the Scyther tool.
Ultraviolet Radiation Cataract

Cataract is the leading cause of blindness in the world. Epidemiological and experimental evidence supports a link between mid-range ultraviolet radiation (UVR-B) exposure and the development of cataract. Globally, there are 20 million people who have become bilaterally blind from cataract, representing 51 % of cases of all causes of blindness due to eye disease. No conservative methods are available to prevent, delay or reverse the development of cataract. The only cure for cataract is cataract surgery. A large number of people need cataract surgery, which results in a burden to the health care system. In 2004, the World Health Organization estimated that the number of cases of cataract would double by the year 2020. The purpose of this work was to increase our understanding of acute and chronic UVR-B induced cataract development. A novel rat restrainer, a UVR source, a light dissemination meter, macroscopic imaging, light and transmission electron microscopy and quantitative RT-PCR were the methods in this thesis. A new rat restraining device was developed to immobilize the animal and its head in order to permit a single or repeated well-controlled experimental in vivo exposure to optical radiation without the need for anesthesia (paper I). The newly developed rat restrainer was used in three studies: a study on the evolution of damage in the lens after a single in vivo close-to-threshold exposure to UV-B radiation (paper II), a study of subthreshold repeated in vivo exposures to UV-B radiation (paper III) and a study of GADD45α, TP53 and CASP3 gene expression in the lens exposed to UVR-B (paper IV). In the evolution study, we characterized the chronology of morphological changes in the lens exposed to a close-to-threshold dose of UVR-B and revealed that they correlated with previously reported findings at ten times the threshold. The lens epithelium was the site of the initial UVR-B damage that progressed and subsequently involved the entire lens. Light and transmission electron microscopy revealed that epithelial damage occurred due to apoptosis within 48 hours after exposure, followed by repair at 336 hours. Cortical fiber cells remained damaged at 336 hours following exposure. In the study of subthreshold repeated in vivo exposures to UVR-B, daily exposures accumulated to cause cataract, supporting the epidemiological evidence for the association between solar UVR-B exposure and cortical cataract. An increase in the number of exposure days up to 30 days resulted in an increase in tolerance in the lens expressed as MTD2.3:16. This finding deviates from the current safety guidelines stating that all damage in the lens is repaired within 24 hours. Double the threshold dose of UVR-B induced a transient upregulation of the stress sensor GADD45α and a transient downregulation of the apoptosis markers TP53 and CASP3, followed by a constant upregulation of TP53 that preceded a constant upregulation of CASP3 in the rat lens in vivo.
A Novel Method Defense against IP Spoofing Using Packet Filtering and Marking

: With wide spread use of internet in various fields, networks are being exposed to many security vulnerabilities such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, worm/virus, and so on. The prevention failure of network security leads to either revealing of sensitive information or interruption of network services, thereby results in the enormous economic loss. The distributed DoS attack will occurs at Network level by obtaining IP addresses. This kind of vulnerability is called as IP Spoofing. Intrusion Detection System (IDS) has been used to secure these environments for sharing their data over network and host based IDS approaches. This paper focus on the defense against IP spoofing attacks using Packet filtering methods and Packet Marking techniques. This scheme is defense against DDoS attacks and IP Spoofing attacks.
Using hybrid method in selecting timber factory location.

The selection of location is vital for a timber factory to keep on functioning. It is a signifi cant decision during the setup of a business and the preparation of projects. Therefore, dual scaling method often used for selecting the timber factory location and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) have been used in this study. While the AHP method and the double weighing method were previously used separately, the aim of this study was to use these two studies together in order to obtain more reliable results. For this purpose, in the Western Black Sea region of Turkey, fi ve different candidate cities were selected for the establishment of a factory site for timber production: Bartin, Bolu, Kastamonu, Karabük and Zonguldak. At the same time, a total of ten factors including raw materials, labor, market, construction costs, energy and fuel, water, transportation, tax, security and social environment were determined. As a result of the study, the hybrid method, which is based on the average of both methods, yielded more reliable results.
Eubacterial sigma-factors

The initiation of transcription is the most important step for gene regulation in eubacteria. To initiate transcription, RNA polymerase has to associate with a small protein, known as a c-factor. The c-factor directs RNA polymerase to a specific class of promoter sequences. Most bacterial species synthesize several different c-factors that recognize different consensus sequences. This variety in c-factors provides bacteria with the opportunity to maintain basal gene expression as well as for regulation of gene expression in response to altered environmental or developmental signals. This review focuses on the function, regulation and distribution of the 14 different classes of c-factors that are presently known. z 1998 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Determination of surface‐wave phase velocities across USArray from noise and Aki's spectral formulation

We use expressions for the cross‐correlation of stochastic surface waves originally derived by Aki (1957) to develop an algorithm for determining inter‐station phase‐velocity measurements from continuous seismic data. In the frequency domain, the cross correlation of azimuthally isotropic noise is described by a Bessel function, and we associate zeros in the observed spectrum with zeros of the Bessel function to obtain phase‐velocity estimates at discrete frequencies. Phase velocities derived in this way at several frequencies are joined to form a dispersion curve, which is then sampled to obtain phase‐velocity estimates at arbitrary frequencies. We collect a set of dispersion curves for more than 30,000 station pairs of the transportable component of USArray, and derive Rayleigh wave phase‐velocity maps at periods of 12 and 24 s for the western United States. The spectral method lends itself well to automation, and avoids limitations at short inter‐station distances associated with time‐domain methods.
Comparing the Recovery of Indicator Microorganisms from Beef Trimmings Using Swabbing, Rinsing, and Grinding Methodologies

Different bacterial sampling methods that are destructive or nondestructive in nature have been developed to evaluate the microbial quality of meat and determine if it fulfills criteria for distribution to the public. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of swabbing, rinsing, and grinding as sampling methodologies for recovery of indicator microorganisms on beef trimmings. A total of fifteen samples (n = 15) of beef trimmings were collected using the N60 trim sampling technique adopted by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. Each of the 15 samples were divided into 3 parts, with each part assigned to a methodology (swabbing, rinsing, or grinding), and subjected to multiple sequential sampling for a total of three times. A comparison was made between the first sampling and the total bacteria recovered by each methodology. For total aerobic counts (TAC) obtained by the rinse and the grinding methodology, the first sampling as well as the total resulted in aerobic bacteria counts that were not significantly different (P > 0.05); however, swabbing yielded counts that were significantly lower (P < 0.05) than both rinsing and grinding. For total coliforms, rinsing was not significantly different (P < 0.05) from either swabbing or grinding, yet swabbing recovered the least number of bacteria. Within each sampling methodology, the decline in aerobic bacteria counts due to multiple sequential samplings was calculated. Rinsing and grinding resulted in significantly lower counts (P < 0.05) after the initial samplings, whereas swabbing did not (P > 0.05). Linear models showed strong relationships, with a coefficient of determination (r2) of 0.81 (swabbing vs. grinding), 0.67 (swabbing vs. rinsing), and 0.70 (rinsing vs. grinding). Although the sampling methodologies investigated are reliable to determine true bacterial counts of tested samples, consistency and uniformity of sampling is required for the proper interpretation of the acquired results.
A SMECTITE DEHYDRATION MODEL IN A SHALLOW SEDIMENTARY BASIN : MODEL DEVELOPMENT

ÐTraditionally, land subsidence resulting from groundwater over-pumping has often been described by the theory of consolidation. The mechanism of land subsidence due to the dehydration of clay minerals has not been well addressed. Therefore, this study develops a smectite dehydration model to describe the effect of the release of water from the smectite interlayer upon land subsidence. Using a thermodynamic solid-solution model and laboratory studies of clay-water systems, a complete description of the dehydration relationships among the swelling pressure, basal spacing and mw/mc in a Na-smectite water system at 25ëC under variable pressure conditions was derived. Accordingly, the evaluation model of the `hydration state of smectite', and the `solid-solution model of smectite dehydration' were formulated rigorously. These two models were applied to quantify the effects of smectite dehydration on the accumulated land subsidence in the Yun Lin offshore industrial infrastructure complex and in the Tai-Shi area. The result reveals that smectite dehydration is of importance in assessing and predicting land subsidence in a shallow sedimentary basin. Key WordsÐLand Subsidence, Sedimentary Basin, Smectite Dehydration, Thermodynamic Model.
Evidence for Intra-Unit Cell Magnetism in Superconducting Cuprates: a Technical Assessment

Intra unit cell (IUC) magnetic order observed by polarized neutron diffraction (PND) is one of the hallmarks of the pseudogap state of high-temperature copper oxide superconductors. This experimental observation, usually interpreted as a result of loop currents, has been recently challenged based on lower statistics data. We here address the crucial issue of polarization inhomogeneities in the neutron beams showing that the original data had a much better reproducibilty. Within these technical limitations, we here propose a self-consistent analysis that potentially solves the controversy. We show that all the reported PND experiments in superconducting cuprates are actually compatible with the existence of an IUC magnetism.
Oxygen isotope fractionation between cassiterite and water

Abstract Analysis of stable isotopes in coexisting minerals has found wide application in the study of hydrothermal mineral deposits, particularly for elucidating the temperature and source of the fluid phase involved in mineralisation. For these purposes the temperature dependence of isotopic fractionation in several mineral-water systems has already been established (e.g. Friedman and O'Neil, 1977; O'Neil, 1986). Unfortunately, the oxygen isotope fractionation between cassiterite (SnO2) and water has not been adequately characterized, and this has hindered a full utilization of oxygen isotope data derived from studies of tin deposits (e.g. Harzer, 1970; Patterson et al., 1981; Kelly and Rye, 1979). Because of this situation, an attempt is made here to derive a relationship between temperature and the fractionation of oxygen isotopes (Δ) between quartz and cassiterite, based on the fractionations observed in naturally-occurring assemblages and independent temperature estimates.
A Novel Approach to Design the Fast Pedestrian Detection for Video Surveillance System

The pedestrian detection is a hot research topic in computer recognition. It involves not only the pedestrian location information but also the intrusion detection function, which has wide prospects in the application of vehicle traffic, campus monitoring, and building guard. However, the identification accuracy and recognition speed play an important role in the pedestrian detection, which calls for a fast pedestrian detection approach. The general pedestrian detection implementation, based on the integral channel features method and soft cascade classifier, is the popular technique in the current business application since its better speed and accuracy. Thus, this method uses the feature approximation technique and multiple classifiers to achieve the feature computing, which speeds up the detection without resizing image. To this end, this paper is motived to propose a multi-scale handling method for the fast pedestrian detection, using the tactics detection from sparse to dense. Our pedestrian detection method consists of four parts functions, mainly pedestrian statistics and intrusion detection, pedestrian tracking and pedestrian flow statistics. All these modules are introduced with its details about design and implementation. In Addition, the proposed multi-scale handling method can be applied into most of object detectors to improve their recognition speed. In conclusion, our proposed approach has a good potential application prospect in the video surveillance system.
DEVELOPMENT OF TISSUE-EQUIVALENT HEAT-SENSITIVE GEL FOR THE EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION OF NEAR INFRARED (NIR) LASER-MEDIATED CANCER DETECTION AND THERAPY

SUMMARY Polymer gels have long been used in clinics and laboratories to obtain three dimensional dose profiles in radiation therapy. Recent advances and emergence of thermal imaging and therapy modalities have again prompted the use of tissue equivalent heat-sensitive gels for phantom measurements and treatment verification purposes. Much effort has been made in developing tissue equivalent phantom materials to accurately predict and capture the extent of heat evolution and thermal damage. In order for any heat-sensitive gel to be feasible and clinically acceptable, it must meet the following requirements: tissue equivalency in thermal and optical properties, thermal stability at high temperatures, and capability of capturing the heat damage three dimensionally. Additionally, an ideal thermal phantom material must be reproducible, inexpensive, and easy to fabricate. The existing thermal gels either use extremely toxic chemicals or do not completely satisfy the aforementioned requirements. Thus, the primary motivation for this research was to develop a tissue equivalent phantom made of relatively nontoxic substances that has high thermal stability and that has the ability to capture thermal damage across volume. Two agar based non-toxic thermal gels, TG1 and TG2, have been developed and characterized in terms of their optical response to 808 nm Near Infrared (NIR) laser and thermal damage. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to image the gels and quantify thermal damage based on T2 values. TG1 gel, agar and bovine serum albumin (BSA) mixture, was found not to be optically tissue-equivalent compared to the previously reported gelatin based gel phantom [5]. However, TG1 gel has demonstrated unambiguous digital response capable of distinguishing temperature of at least 70 °C compared to the sample receiving no heat. Additionally, focusing only in the thermal therapy temperature regime (60 – 80 °C), TG1 gel produced high degree of linearity (R
Tillaux and Volkmann Fractures: A Report on Two Cases, Treatment Determined by Syndesmosis Instability

We report two cases of isolated Tillaux fracture and Volkmann fracture without other associated ankle fractures. The case of Tillaux fracture was a 15-year-old female who tripped and fell over during a 400 m hurdle running competition. Preoperative radiographs and CT scans showed Salter-Harris type III, an isolated Tillaux fragment, with more than 2 mm anterior and lateral displacement. Surgical stabilization of Tillaux fragment was performed via anterolateral minimal invasive approach with anatomic reduction of Tillaux fragment and two parallel cannulated screw fixation. The second case was a 21-year-old female who fell off a snowboard with her ankle in an odd position. Preoperative radiographs did not reveal any bony injuries. However, CT scans showed a Volkmann fracture at the posterolateral aspect of posterior malleolus without displacement. Non surgical management was given, after intraoperative imaging intensifier screening to confirm that there was no syndesmotic diastasis. The mechanism of injury and options of management are discussed in this report.
NANOSTRUCTURED MICROELECTRODES FOR ELECTROCHEMICAL SENSING IN DIGITAL MICROFLUIDIC DEVICES

Darius G Rackus, Michael DM Dryden, Alex Zaragoza, Julian Lamanna, Brian Lam, Shana O Kelley, and Aaron R Wheeler University of Toronto, CANADA ABSTRACT Nanostructured microelectrodes (NMEs) are three-dimensional electrodes with superb sensitivity. Here we report the integration of NMEs with digital microfluidics (DMF), for eventual application to diagnostics outside of the laboratory. The new system was observed to outperform similar planar sensing electrodes also integrated with DMF. A rubella virus (RV) IgG immunoassay was developed to evaluate the diagnostic potential for the new system. The limit of detection of the assay (0.80 IU mL) was >10x below the World Health Organization defined cut-off for rubella immunity.