Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The use of tolerance limits in production and operations management

Product quality has become highly important in today's competitive world, and the use of tolerance limits has become a common method of specifying the quality of a manufactured product. Even when the usual quality control and reliability procedures have been applied, it is still desirable to know with what confidence one can assert what percentage of the resultant population consists of the relevant product having the required quality. Furthermore, tolerance limits provide a simple, relatively inexpensive, measure to ensure that production will not be outside given specifications. This paper discusses both nonparametric and parametric methods of setting tolerance limits, from which it can be determined with a specified confidence what percentage of a product made under commercial conditions may be expected to have a quality falling between the tolerance limits. The satisfactory application of tolerance limits requires that assignable causes of variability be determined and eliminated so that the remaining variability may be considered random. Tolerance limits are also practical and useful in “unconventional” areas where they are not usually applied, such as warranties, failure-free operational hours of complex machines used in large machine shops, and availability of equipment, etc. The methods for determining tolerance limits are simple yet powerful, and are easily understood and implemented by production engineers and managers. Several examples of the potential application of conventional and unconventional types of tolerance limits are given.
Relating national levels of crop damage to the abundance of large grazing birds: Implications for management

Populations of large grazing birds have increased in Europe during the past five decades, raising conflicts between conservation and farming interests. Managing these conflicts requires knowledge about the currently unknown relationship between population sizes and crop damage levels. We analysed unique data on reported, inspected and compensated crop damage caused by geese, swans and cranes together with data from population surveys in Sweden to investigate how bird abundance is related to damage levels at the national scale between 2000 and 2015. Over the study period, the annual number of damage reports, yield loss and costs for compensation increased. These crop damage levels were positively related to national population indices of common crane, barnacle and greylag goose. The shape of these relationships varied between species and encompassed considerable uncertainty. However, on a year‐to‐year basis (detrended data) we found no evident association between damage levels and bird numbers. Yield loss and compensation costs per reported damage did not increase with higher population indices of greylag goose, but they did so for barnacle goose. Synthesis and applications. We present a novel study of the relationships between different crop damage level indicators (damage reports, yield loss and compensation costs) and population numbers of large grazing birds. We identified a positive relationship with high uncertainty for all cases. We also identified the need to (a) better synchronize the monitoring of damages and bird numbers in time and space and (b) further study the relationships between damage levels and bird numbers at smaller (local and regional) and larger (flyway) spatial scales to reduce the uncertainty of the relationship and to gain a more holistic understanding of the system.
GPU Implementation of Real-Time Biologically Inspired Face Detection using CUDA

In this paper massively parallel real-time face detection based on a visual attention and cortex-like mechanism of cognitive vision system is presented. As a first step, we use saliency map model to select salient face regions and HMAX C1 model to extract features from salient input image and then apply mixture of expert neural network to classify multi-view faces from nonface images. The saliency map model is a complex concept for bottom-up attention selection that includes many processes to find face regions in a visual science. Parallel real-time implementation on Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) provides a solution for this kind of computationally intensive image processing. By implementing saliency map and HMAX C1 model on a multi-GPU platform using CUDA programming with memory bandwidth, we achieve good performance compared to recent CPU. Running on NVIDIA Geforce 8800 (GTX) graphics card at resolution 640×480 detection rate of 97% is achieved. In addition, we evaluate our results using a height speed camera with other parallel methods on face detection application.
Defining the subcellular distribution and metabolic channeling of phosphatidylinositol

Phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns) is an essential structural component of eukaryotic membranes that also serves as the common precursor for polyphosphoinositide (PPIn) lipids. Despite the recognized importance of PPIn species for signal transduction and membrane homeostasis, there is still a limited understanding of how the dynamic regulation of PtdIns synthesis and transport contributes to the turnover of PPIn pools. To address these shortcomings, we capitalized on the substrate selectivity of a bacterial enzyme, PtdIns-specific PLC, to establish a molecular toolbox for investigations of PtdIns distribution and availability within intact cells. In addition to its presence within the ER, our results reveal low steady-state levels of PtdIns within the plasma membrane (PM) and endosomes as well as a relative enrichment of PtdIns within the cytosolic leaflets of the Golgi complex, peroxisomes, and outer mitochondrial membranes. Kinetic studies also demonstrate the requirement for sustained PtdIns supply from the ER for the maintenance of monophosphorylated PPIn species within the PM, Golgi complex, and endosomal compartments. Summary Pemberton et al. characterize a molecular toolbox for the visualization and manipulation of phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns) within intact cells. Results using these approaches define the steady-state distribution of PtdIns across subcellular membrane compartments as well as provide new insights into the relationship between PtdIns availability and polyphosphoinositide turnover.
Randomized kernel approach for Named Entity Recognition in Tamil

In this paper, we present a new approach for Named Entity Recognition (NER) in Tamil language using Random Kitchen Sink algorithm. Named Entity recognition is the process of identification of Named Entities (NEs) from the text. It involves the identifying and classifying predefined categories such as person, location, organization etc. A lot of work has been done in the field of Named Entity Recognition for English language and Indian languages using various machine learning approaches. In this work, we implement the NER system for Tamil using Random Kitchen Sink algorithm which is a statistical and supervised approach. The NER system is also implemented using Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Conditional Random Field (CRF). The overall performance of the NER system was evaluated as 86.61% for RKS, 81.62% for SVM and 87.21% for CRF. Additional results have been taken in SVM and CRF by increasing the corpus size and the performance are evaluated as 86.06% and 87.20% respectively.
Confinement effects in ultrathin ZnO polymorph films: Electronic and optical properties

Relying on generalized-gradient and hybrid first-principles simulations, this work provides a complete characterization of the electronic properties of ZnO ultrathin films, cut along the body-centered-tetragonal(010), cubane(100), hexagonal boron nitride(0001), zinc-blende(110), and wurtzite (10 (1) over bar0) and (0001) orientations. The characteristics of the local densities of states are analyzed in terms of the reduction of the Madelung potential on undercoordinated atoms and surface states/resonances appearing at the top of the valence band and bottom of the conduction band. The gap width in the films is found to be larger than in the corresponding bulks, which is assigned to quantum confinement effects. The components of the high-frequency dielectric constant are determined and the absorption spectra of the films are computed. They display specific features just above the absorption threshold due to transitions from or to the surface resonances. This study provides a first understanding of finite-size effects on the electronic properties of ZnO thin films and a benchmark which is expected to foster experimental characterization of ultrathin films via spectroscopic techniques.
Begging calls provide social cues for prospecting conspecifics in the wild Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata)

Social information can spread fast and help animals adapt in fluctuating environments. Prospecting on the breeding sites of others, a widespread behavior, can help to maximize reproduction by, for instance, settling in the same area as other successful breeders. Previous studies have shown that successful broods have the highest number of prospectors and that they are visited most when offspring in nesting sites are already old, making the information more reliable. In this field study, we experimentally tested how prospectors are attracted to successful nest sites. We presented wild Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia guttata) with different visual or acoustic cues in nest boxes, simulating the presence of small or large clutches or broods. More Zebra Finches visited experimental nests that were associated with playback recordings of begging calls of large broods (7 chicks) as opposed to begging calls of small broods (3 chicks) and controls (white noise and silence). On the other hand, visual cues (nests with different numbers of eggs or rocks), representing nests at early stages, did not influence either the probability of visits, nor number or duration of visits. We present the first evidence that begging calls of chicks in the nest, a signal intended for kin communication, can also provide social information to unrelated prospecting conspecifics. This information could potentially be used for a fast initial assessment of the quality of a breeding site.
Effects of Hatchery Broodstock Collection on Adult Muskellunge Populations

Muskellunge Esox masquinongy stocking programs throughout North America rely on the collection of wild adult Muskellunge to acquire gametes for hatchery propagation. The process of collecting, transporting, confining, handling, and spawning broodstock Muskellunge may cause mortality that could alter Muskellunge density, size structure, and population survival rates. We used long‐term Muskellunge capture‐recapture data collected from the Iowa Great Lakes and Clear Lake in northern Iowa, USA to estimate the number and proportion of Muskellunge captured annually and initial mortality rates resulting from broodstock collection. We also evaluated whether Muskellunge apparent survival rates differed between individuals used as broodstock and those that were not captured annually. Finally, we evaluated whether the number of initial mortalities or the number of individuals captured were related to annual population survival estimates. Collectively, 7,010 adult Muskellunge (3,896 males and 3,114 females) captures occurred between 2001‐2017 and population densities within a system ranged from 0.11 to 0.39 fish/ha. An average of 33% (range: 13% ‐76%) of the population was captured during broodstock operations annually. Between 0 and 28 (0.0000 to 0.0191 fish/ha) Muskellunge died at each hatchery annually and more males died than females (total of 150 males and 68 females; 3.9% and 2.2% of captured fish, respectively). However, annual mortalities were generally a low proportion of Muskellunge in the lake (<2%; <0.001 fish/ha). There was some evidence of size selective mortality, particularly for males, where larger individuals (875‐975 mm) were more likely to die, but we found no evidence to suggest that broodstock collection affected annual population survival estimates. Muskellunge broodstock mortality appears to act in a compensatory manner with natural mortality, and other sources of population mortality are more likely to have a greater effect on the population.
A “molecular guillotine” reveals an interphase function of Kinesin-5

Motor proteins are important for transport and force generation in a variety of cellular processes and morphogenesis. Here we design a general strategy for conditional motor mutants by inserting a protease cleavage site at the “neck” between the head domain and the stalk of the motor protein, making the protein susceptible to proteolytic cleavage at the neck by the corresponding protease. To demonstrate the feasibility of this approach, we inserted the cleavage site of TEV protease into the neck of the tetrameric motor Kinesin-5. Application of TEV protease led to a specific depletion and functional loss of Kinesin-5 in Drosophila embryos. By this, we revealed that Kinesin-5 stabilized the microtubule network during interphase in syncytial embryos. The “molecular guillotine” can potentially be applied to many motor proteins due to the conserved structures of kinesin, dynein and myosin with accessible necks. Author summary We design a general strategy for conditional motor mutants by inserting a protease cleavage site between head and stalk domain of the motor protein, making it susceptible to specific proteolytic cleavage. We demonstrate the feasibility of the approach with the motor Kinesin-5 and the protease TEV in Drosophila embryos. This approach can potentially be applied to motor proteins kinesin, dynein and myosin due to the conserved structures.
A simple texture descriptor for texture retrieval

Texture feature extraction is an important part in content-based image retrieval system. This paper describes a simple and effective texture feature extraction algorithm. Previous work based on image decomposition techniques usually use mean and variance of each subband in decomposition domain to form texture descriptor. The proposed texture descriptor uses the variance information and the luminance property of the texture to form the descriptor. Experimental results on the Brodatz texture database show that the proposed descriptor can provide comparable retrieval performance with approximately only half the number of features used compared with previous work.
Packing Problems in Industrial Environments: Application to the Expedition Problem at INDASA

This work proposes a generic algorithm to ameliorate the organization of expedition containers at INDASA. The implementation of the proposed algorithm required to simulate the packing of orders to be delivered. The problem was divided into a Bin Packing Problem, the pallet loading with the products, and a Knapsack Problem, the container loading with the already loaded pallets. In order to solve these two problems, three different algorithms are proposed in this paper: a Layer Building algorithm, an Extreme Points First Fit Decreasing algorithm and an Ant Colony Optimization applied to Extreme Points. These algorithms were able to meet the requirements, and the last one allows solving both the Bin Packing Problem and the Knapsack Problem. Two real world INDASA instances were tested, and it was possible to reduce the number of necessary pallets from 26 to 23 three in the first instance, and from 24 to 20 in the second one. Moreover, benchmark instance for Bin Packing Problems and for Knapsack Problems were tested. The proposed algorithm was able to achieve better or similar results than state of the art algorithms.
Wavelet-based texture analysis for SAR image classification

A novel method for SAR image classification based on the stationary wavelet transform is described. First, a SAR image is decomposed into 4 subbands using the stationary wavelet transform. Each pixel is then represented by a 4-dimension vector those components are taken from the wavelet subbands. The pixels are finally classified into a small set of categories by using a parametric supervised classification algorithm. The classification using this wavelet transform was successfully applied to a JERS-1/SAR image.
Alpha Activity during Emotional Experience Revealed by ERSP

The objective of this study is to investigate the power spectrum distribution of EEG from different emotion responses, especially in the alpha band (8~13 Hz). An affective picture stimulation task was designed to find out neuro-physiological characteristics of brain waves. Taskrelated EEG dynamics in power changes were analyzed by independent component analysis (ICA) and time-frequency. ERSP image results revealed EEG activities in the different emotion responses. Thirty healthy college students volunteered the stimulus experiment with the standard IAPS affective pictures. These affective pictures are classified in five emotion states. They are calm, happy, neutral, sad, and scared. The results show that, there were the differences of stimuli response between the left and right area in the frontal lobes. And there was stronger response of alpha band in the happy and scared states than that in the calm and sad states from the frontal lobe. However, through the central gyri area, stretching the parietal and occipital lobes, suppression of emotion appeared in the sad and scared states. Additionally, based on valence-arousal model, the ERSP maps indicate the stronger responses occur in the low alpha band (8~10 Hz) are indicated in the calm, happy, sad and scared states, while the neutral have the stronger response in the high alpha band (10~13 Hz). In the whole brain region, there were the stronger responses of alpha band in the happy state. The stronger response mostly occurs around the time range of 300 ms and 700 ms.
Spatial and temporal translocation of PKCα in single endothelial cell in response to focal mechanical stimulus

We observed the kinetics of protein kinase Cα (PKCα) and the intracellular Ca2+ wave in endothelial cells (ECs) in response to microscopic mechanical stress to investigate the effect of mechanical stress on PKCα translocation. The results show that a focal mechanical stimulus induced biphasic and directional PKCα translocation; PKCα initially translocated toward distinct spots near or at the membrane and then accumulated at the stimulus point. The low initial translocation occurred simultaneously in parallel with the increase in Ca2+. Initial translocation was inhibited in spite of Ca2+ increase when the diacylglycerol (DAG) binding domain of PKCα was inhibited, suggesting that translocation requires intracellular Ca2+ increase and DAG. On the other hand, high secondary translocation was delayed, occurring after the Ca2+ wave; however, this secondary translocation occurred even when Ca2+ release from the endoplasmic reticulum was inhibited, while it did not occur when the mechanosensitive (MS) channel was inhibited. These results indicated that at least Ca2+ influx through MS channels is required. Our results support the implication of PKCα in the Ca2+ signaling pathway in response to mechanical stress in ECs. Summary statement In response to a focal mechanical stimulus, PKCα in an endothelial cell was initially translocated toward distinct spots near or at the membrane and then accumulated at the stimulus point.
Adaptation after vastus lateralis denervation in rats suggests neural regulation of joint stresses and strains

In order to produce movements, muscles must act through joints. The translation from muscle force to limb movement is mediated by internal joint structures that permit movement in some directions but constrain it in others. Although muscle forces acting against constrained directions will not affect limb movements, such forces can cause excess stresses and strains in joint structures, leading to pain or injury. In this study, we hypothesized that the central nervous system (CNS) chooses muscle activations to avoid excess joint stresses and strains. We evaluated this hypothesis by examining adaptation strategies after selective paralysis of a muscle acting at the rat knee. We show that the CNS compromises between restoration of task performance and regulation of joint stresses and strains. These results have significant implications to our understanding of the neural control of movements, suggesting that common theories emphasizing task performance are insufficient to explain muscle activations during behaviors.
Support for consistent merge

In this paper we discuss a powerful way to support merge of concurrently developed documents (such as programs). Existing merge tools require the user to decide for each individual change if it should be included or not. We show how it is possible to let the user to decide to include (or exclude) several changes in one go. In our prototype we use the structure of the document in order to support the user in making consistent merge decisions.
Parallel signatures of mammalian domestication and human industrialization in the gut microbiota

Domestication may have had convergent effects on the microbiota of domesticates and humans through analogous ecological shifts. Comparing the gut microbiota of domestic and related wild mammals plus humans and chimpanzees, we found consistent shifts in composition in domestic animals and in humans from industrialized but not traditional societies. Reciprocal diet switches in mice and canids demonstrated that diet played a dominant role in shaping the domestic gut microbiota, with stronger responses in the member of the wild-domestic pair with higher dietary and microbial diversity. Laboratory mice recovered wild-like microbial diversity and responsiveness with experimental colonization. We conclude that domestication and industrialization have similarly impacted the gut microbiota, emphasizing the utility of domestic animal models and diets for understanding host-microbial interactions in rapidly changing environments.
Base-resolution mapping reveals distinct m1A methylome in nuclear- and mitochondrial-encoded transcripts

Gene expression can be post-transcriptionally regulated via dynamic and reversible RNA modifications. N1-methyladenosine (m1A) is a recently identified mRNA modification; however, little is known about its precise location, regulation and function. Here, we develop a base-resolution m1A profiling method, based on m1A-induced misincorporation during reverse transcription, and report distinct classes of m1A methylome in the human transcriptome. m1A in 5’-UTR, particularly those at the first nucleotide of mRNA, associate with increased translation efficiency. A different subset of m1A exhibit a GUUCRA tRNA-like motif, are evenly distributed in the transcriptome and are dependent on the methyltransferase TRMT6/61A. Additionally, we show for the first time that m1A is prevalent in the mitochondrial-encoded transcripts. Manipulation of m1A level via TRMT61B, a mitochondria-localizing m1A methyltransferase, demonstrates that m1A in mitochondrial mRNA interferes with translation. Collectively, our approaches reveal distinct classes of m1A methylome and provide a resource for functional studies of m1A-mediated epitranscriptomic regulation.