Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Diameter Measurement Method of Red Jujubes Trunk Based on Improved PSPNet

A trunk segmentation and a diameter measurement of red jujubes are important steps in harvesting red jujubes using vibration harvesting robots as the results directly affect the effectiveness of the harvesting. A trunk segmentation algorithm of red jujubes, based on improved Pyramid Scene Parsing Network (PSPNet), and a diameter measurement algorithm to realize the segmentation and diameter measurement of the trunk are proposed in this research. To this end, MobilenetV2 was selected as the backbone of PSPNet so that it could be adapted to embedded mobile applications. Meanwhile, the Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) was embedded in the MobilenetV2 to enhance the feature extraction capability of the model. Furthermore, the Refinement Residual Blocks (RRBs) were introduced into the main branch and side branch of PSPNet to enhance the segmentation result. An algorithm to measure trunk diameter was proposed, which used the segmentation results to determine the trunk outline and the normal of the centerline. The Euclidean distance of the intersection point of the normal with the trunk profile was obtained and its average value was regarded as the final trunk diameter. Compared with the original PSPNet, the Intersection-over-Union (IoU) value, PA value and Fps of the improved model increased by 0.67%, 1.95% and 1.13, respectively, and the number of parameters was 5.00% of that of the original model. Compared with other segmentation networks, the improved model had fewer parameters and better segmentation results. Compared with the original network, the trunk diameter measurement algorithm proposed in this research reduced the average absolute error and the average relative error by 3.75 mm and 9.92%, respectively, and improved the average measurement accuracy by 9.92%. To sum up, the improved PSPNet jujube trunk segmentation algorithm and trunk diameter measurement algorithm can accurately segment and measure the diameter in the natural environment, which provides a theoretical basis and technical support for the clamping of jujube harvesting robots.
Influences of Dietary Vitamin E, Selenium-Enriched Yeast, and Soy Isoflavone Supplementation on Growth Performance, Antioxidant Capacity, Carcass Traits, Meat Quality and Gut Microbiota in Finishing Pigs

This study investigated the effects of dietary compound antioxidants on growth performance, antioxidant capacity, carcass traits, meat quality, and gut microbiota in finishing pigs. A total of 36 barrows were randomly assigned to 2 treatments with 6 replicates. The pigs were fed with a basal diet (control) or the basal diet supplemented with 200 mg/kg vitamin E, 0.3 mg/kg selenium-enriched yeast, and 20 mg/kg soy isoflavone. Dietary compound antioxidants decreased the average daily feed intake (ADFI) and feed to gain ratio (F/G) at d 14–28 in finishing pigs (p < 0.05). The plasma total protein, urea nitrogen, triglyceride, and malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations were decreased while the plasma glutathione (GSH) to glutathione oxidized (GSSG) ratio (GSH/GSSG) was increased by compound antioxidants (p < 0.05). Dietary compound antioxidants increased loin area and b* value at 45 min, decreased backfat thickness at last rib, and drip loss at 48 h (p < 0.05). The relative abundance of colonic Peptococcus at the genus level was increased and ileal Turicibacter_sp_H121 abundance at the species level was decreased by dietary compound antioxidants. Spearman analysis showed a significant negative correlation between the relative abundance of colonic Peptococcus and plasma MDA concentration and meat drip loss at 48 h. Collectively, dietary supplementation with compound antioxidants of vitamin E, selenium-enrich yeast, and soy isoflavone could improve feed efficiency and antioxidant capacity, and modify the backfat thickness and meat quality through modulation of the gut microbiota community.
Separation or Not: On Handing Out-of-Order Time-Series Data in Leveled LSM-Tree

LSM-Tree is widely adopted for storing time-series data in Internet of Things. According to conventional policy (denoted by $\pi_{c}$), when writing, the data will first be buffered in MemTable in memory. When it is full, the data will be written to the disk to form SSTables. Compaction is triggered to sort the data in each layer of the LSM-Tree on the disk. However, the arrival of data can be unordered due to reasons such as transition delay. Apache IoTDB uses in-order and out-of-order MemTables to separately buffer the in-order and out-of-order data to accelerate queries, namely the separation policy (denoted by $\pi_{s}$). However, given a specific space of memory budget to buffer the data, write amplification (WA) of the leveled LSM-Tree will be influenced by $\pi_{s}$. Whether the influence by separation is positive or negative, and how intense WA is influenced, depend on the properties of workloads and the capacity of the in-order and out-of-order MemTables. It is highly demanded to build robust models for estimating the expected amount of data rewritten in each compaction, and predicting the WA under $\pi_{c}$ and $\pi_{s}$. Note that as an industrial paper, rather than proposing novel techniques for research problems, we focus on the practice of whether separating or not for lower write amplification. Experiments on synthetic and real-world datasets show that the models for estimating WA are accurate under various delay distributions. In addition, based on the estimation models, we implement an analyzer module in the open-source Apache IoTDB, for choosing the policy with lower WA. We apply the method in the use case of our industrial partner, a service provider of engineering machinery. The use case verifies the effectiveness of deciding whether separation or not by WA estimation.
Vector Control and Dynamics of AC Drives

1. Introduction to AC drives 2. d-q modelling of induction and synchronous machines 3. d-q models for solid state power converters 4. Complex vector analysis of induction machines 5. Principles of vector control and field orientation 6. Dynamics of vector control and field orientation 7. Current regulation in power converters 8. Parameter sensitivity and saturation effects in indirect field orientation 9. Field weakening operation Index
Catalytic characteristics of titanium‐(IV)‐isopropoxide (TTIP) on de/re‐hydrogenation of wet ball‐milled MgH2/Mg

Magnesium hydride (MgH2) has received much attention as a solid‐state hydrogen storage material worldwide due to its high hydrogen storage capacity, good reversibility, and low cost. However, its practical application has been limited due to its high thermodynamic stability and slow kinetics. In the present work, we have employed a new type of catalyst, Titanium‐tetra‐isopropoxide (TTIP) (Ti(OC3H7)4), to catalyze MgH2. To disperse the catalyst evenly over the MgH2, the milling operation was conducted using tetrahydrofuran (THF) as a process control agent. Here, using THF as the process control agent during the wet ball milling along with TTIP of MgH2 itself used to improve the de/re‐hydrogenation behavior of MgH2. A de/re‐hydrogenation investigation demonstrates that MgH2 catalyzed by TTIP has better hydrogen storage properties (onset dehydrogenation temperature 210°C) than as‐cast MgH2 (onset dehydrogenation temperature ~400°C). Furthermore, a remarkable catalytic behavior of TTIP on MgH2 was observed during de‐/re‐hydrogenation kinetics (absorb the hydrogen ~4.6 wt% within the 1.5 minutes at a temperature of 300°C under a hydrogen pressure of 20 atm and release the hydrogen of ∼4.98 wt% within 5 minutes at ∼300°C) due to formation of intermediate compound Mg1−xTixO, and it retains nearly constant hydrogen storage capacity (from 5.25 to 5.20 wt% in rehydrogenation and from 4.95 wt % to 4.95 wt% in dehydrogenation) up to 60 cycles of de/re‐hydrogenation. The estimated desorption activation energy for MgH2‐TTIP using Arrhenius equation is 77.67 kJ/mol. The reason for de/re‐hydrogenation kinetics improvement of MgH2‐TTIP can be seen in the mechanism.
Release conventions of open‐source software: An exploratory study

Software engineering (SE) methodologies are widely used in both academia and industry to manage the software development life cycle. A number of studies of SE methodologies involve interviewing stakeholders to explore the real‐world practice. Although these interview‐based studies provide us with a user's perspective of an organization's practice, they do not describe the concrete summary of releases in open‐source social coding platforms. In particular, no existing studies investigated how releases are evolved in open‐source coding platforms, which assist release planners to a large extent. This study explores software development patterns followed in open‐source projects to see the overall management's reflection on software release decisions rather than concentrating on a particular methodology. Our experiments on 51 software origins (with 1777k revisions and 12k releases) from the Software Heritage Graph Dataset (SWHGD) and their GitHub project boards (with 23k cards) reveal reasonably active project management with phase simplicity can release software versions more frequently and can follow the small release conventions of Extreme Programming. Additionally, the study also reveals that a combination of development and management activities can be applied to predict the possible number of software releases in a month ( ρ<0.05 ).
Research Progress and Prospect of Alfalfa Resistance to Pathogens and Pests

Alfalfa is one of the most important legume forages in the world and contributes greatly to the improvement of ecosystems, nutrition, and food security. Diseases caused by pathogens and pests severely restrict the production of alfalfa. Breeding resistant varieties is the most economical and effective strategy for the control of alfalfa diseases and pests, and the key to breeding resistant varieties is to identify important resistance genes. Plant innate immunity is the theoretical basis for identifying resistant genes and breeding resistant varieties. In recent years, the framework of plant immunity theory has been gradually formed and improved, and considerable progress has been made in the identification of alfalfa resistance genes and the revelation of the related mechanisms. In this review, we summarize the basic theory of plant immunity and identify alfalfa resistance genes to different pathogens and insects and resistance mechanisms. The current situation, problems, and future prospects of alfalfa resistance research are also discussed. Breeding resistant cultivars with effective resistance genes, together with other novel plant protection technologies, will greatly improve alfalfa production.
Recent Advancements in Oral Anticoagulants: A Systematic Review

Anticoagulants are medications that are administered to patients with clotting issues. Major issues include atrial fibrillation, venous thromboembolism/deep vein thrombosis, and pulmonary embolism. However, recent studies show the increased use of these medications in the treatment and management of COVID-19. This paper has been designed as a systematic Literature review based on PRISMA strategy. Data were collected by conducting exhaustive research on major electronic databases i.e., SCOPUS, Web of Science, EMBASE, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar. A total of 52 studies were included in this review. These studies were selected from the period 2011-2021. The overall study revealed the advancements of DOACs or NOACs in comparison to Warfarin, revealed the findings of various food, drug, and another kind of products that interfere with oral anticoagulants, and advancements in terms of treatment of DVT/VTE, pulmonary embolism, and arterial fibrillation by use of oral anticoagulants and the role of anticoagulation in COVID-19.
Genomics of a barley population evolved on-farm under different environmental conditions

ABSTRACT In this study we explored the effects of short-term evolution on a barley population selected through evolutionary breeding, which evolved under five environmental conditions for three years: three environments were favorable for growing barley while two were affected by either extreme cold and freeing periods or scarce precipitations. Molecular characterization was performed using 281 SNPs on a total of 545 individuals. Our results demonstrate that populations characterized by high yield and yield stability can also hold sufficient genetic variability to quickly adapt to different climatic conditions attaining specific adaptation, of great relevance in low input and organic agriculture.
Is there sex disparity in vascular access at dialysis initiation in France? A mediation analysis using data from the Renal Epidemiology and Information Network registry

ABSTRACT Background This study was conducted to estimate the direct effect of sex on the proportion of hemodialysis (HD) catheters used at dialysis initiation and to investigate whether predialysis care or socioeconomic status acted as a mediator of the sex effect. Methods Patients who started dialysis between January 1, 2017, and June 30, 2018, in France were included using the data of the Renal Epidemiology and Information Network (REIN) registry. We performed logistic regression to study the association between sex and the proportion of HD catheters used. A mediation analysis with a counterfactual approach was carried out to evaluate whether there was an indirect effect of sex through the proxies of predialysis care {hemoglobin, albumin levels, glomerular filtration rate [GFR] at dialysis initiation} and socioeconomic status. Because an interaction between sex and social deprivation has been identified, we performed a subgroup analysis on deprived and nondeprived patients. Results The study included 16 032 patients, and the sex ratio (male to female) was 10 405:5627. In the multivariable analysis, women were associated with a greater risk of starting dialysis with a catheter {odds ratio [OR], 1.32 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.23–1.42]}. There was an indirect effect of sex on the proportion of HD catheters through proxies for predialysis care {albuminemia <30 g/L [OR, 1.08 (95% CI: 1.05–1.10)], hemoglobin <11 g/dL [OR, 1.03 (95% CI: 1.02–1.04)], glomerular filtration rate <7 mL/min [OR, 1.05 (95% CI: 1.04–1.07)]}. Among deprived patients, there was no direct effect of sex on catheter proportion. Conclusions Women were associated with a higher risk of starting dialysis through an HD catheter. The effect of sex was mediated by predialysis care, particularly for deprived patients.
Orbit Determination Using Angle-Only Data for MEO & GEO Satellite and Obsolete

인공위성 궤도 결정을 위해 한국천문연구원의 0.6m 광시야 망원경을 이용하여 중 고궤도 인공위성과 폐기위성을 관측하였다. 관측 자료는 영상처리 및 좌표 보정을 통해 장착기기에 의한 오차를 보정한다. 위성 관측 사료에서 얻은 좌표 정보는 관측 시스템의 불안정성과 끝점 결정 오차에 의해 13각초의 오차를 가진다. KODAS의 결과로 얻은 시뮬레이션 좌표와 Gauss 방법을 이용해 예비궤도 결정을 수행하고 궤도 결정에 적합한 시간 간격을 찾아보았다. 또한 미분보정을 통한 예비궤도 결정 결과의 향상을 확인하였다. 이들 결과를 평균궤도요소 형대로 변환하여 실제 관측 자료와 비교하여 에비궤도 결정을 통해서 짧은 시간동안 위성의 추적이 가능함을 확인하였으며, 미분보정을 통해 그 결과를 향상시킬 수 있음을 확인하였다. 【We used an optical observation system with a 0.6m wide-field telescope and 5 computers system in KASI (Korean Astronomy and Space Science Institute) for satellite optical observation. Optical data have errors that are caused by targeting, expose start time and end-point determination. Gauss method for initial orbit determination was tested using angle-only data simulated by KODAS. And suitable time span is confirmed for result which has minimum errors. Initial orbit determination results are proved that optical observation system in KASI is possible satellite tracking for a short period. And also through differential correction, initial orbit determination results are improved. 】
Corporate Social Responsibility and Consumers’ Reaction: An Experiment

Companies differ in their motivation to corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, with some companies taking a genuine, altruistic approach and others preferring an opportunistic approach (and attempting to mimic the former). If consumers can distinguish them, they will eventually reward the altruistic (being willing to pay more) and penalize the opportunistic ones. This paper performs an experimental study to assess whether differences in consumers’ willingness to pay are statistically significant for different classifications of CSR activities: i) proactive or reactive, ii) environment, employees, or social, iii) involving more or less expensive products, iv) being performed by firms facing competition or not. Results show that consumers are willing to reward CSR initiatives that follow a reactive approach; consumers’ decisions are more moderate when rewarding initiatives associated with more expensive products; the rewards provided depend on the CSR dimension; a relationship between market structure and consumers’ reaction to CSR was not found.
Transcriptome Meta-Analysis Identifies Candidate Hub Genes and Pathways of Pathogen Stress Responses in Arabidopsis thaliana

Simple Summary Meta-analysis and systems-biology analysis revealed molecular plant defense responses in Arabidopsis thaliana when attacked by various pathogens. Differentially expressed genes were involved in several biosynthetic metabolic pathways, including those responsible for the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites and pathways central to photosynthesis and plant–pathogen interactions. In addition, WRKY40, WRKY46, and STZ transcription factors served as major points in protein–protein interactions. Overall, the findings highlighted genes that are commonly expressed during plant–pathogen interactions and will be useful in the development of novel genetic resistance strategies. Abstract Following a pathogen attack, plants defend themselves using multiple defense mechanisms to prevent infections. We used a meta-analysis and systems-biology analysis to search for general molecular plant defense responses from transcriptomic data reported from different pathogen attacks in Arabidopsis thaliana. Data from seven studies were subjected to meta-analysis, which revealed a total of 3694 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), where both healthy and infected plants were considered. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis further suggested that the DEGs were involved in several biosynthetic metabolic pathways, including those responsible for the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites and pathways central to photosynthesis and plant–pathogen interactions. Using network analysis, we highlight the importance of WRKY40, WRKY46 and STZ, and suggest that they serve as major points in protein–protein interactions. This is especially true regarding networks of composite-metabolic responses by pathogens. In summary, this research provides a new approach that illuminates how different mechanisms of transcriptome responses can be activated in plants under pathogen infection and indicates that common genes vary in their ability to regulate plant responses to the pathogens studied herein.
Experiments on Unsteady Seperating Flow in an Open Channel

Experiments on unsteady separating flow past a sudden expansion in an open channel are described. To simulate tidal flow the flow rate in the approach channel varied as a half-sine with time. Different visualization techniques to obtain an insight into the behaviour of the separating vortex in time and space were used. Laser-Doppler velocimetry (LDV) was employed to measure velocities and turbulence characteristics. The data obtained from the LDV-measurements was processed on a computer using the ensemble-averaging technique. Results at different flow rates of the visualization experiments, measured mean-velocity fields, and characteristics of the turbulence - such as intensities, Reynolds stresses and turbulence energy - are shown. Some examples of velocity power-spectra and statistical distributions are presented also. The experiments also provide information about the generation of turbulence related to the separation mechanism and that owing to boundary-layer instability.
Social Media Usage and SME Firms’ Sustainability: An Introspective Analysis from Ghana

Social media is gradually transforming diverse business ecosystems due to the limitless capabilities they offer. Given this, emerging businesses across the globe are leveraging this innovation to improve their operations. While the literature on the usage of social media by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is still emerging, the outcomes from existing research have not been coherent. Amid this, limited empirical evidence has been adduced on the affordance of the technology for the SME ecosystem in developing economies, particularly Ghana. Following this, this study aims to fill this research gap by investigating the impact of social media usage on the long-term sustainability of SMEs, specifically in Ghana. Using empirical data from 424 respondents who are representatives of manufacturing SMEs in Ghana, using SmartPLS techniques, the study confirmed that, generally, social media usage does not only have a positive impact on SMEs but drastically drives their motivations towards resilience and sustainability. The results further revealed a positive and significant effect of social media usage value creation, business connections and opportunities on SMEs’ sustainability. This study contributes to knowledge of social media usage and sustainability from a developing country’s perspective. This study offers several implications for theory and practice.
Well-being in Relation to Identity Consistency in a Collectivistic Culture

Empirical findings on the influence of identity consistency on psychological health and functioning in the Eastern and Western cultural settings tend to be dissimilar, understandably so, given the cultural differences especially in collectivism and individualism. The present study examined the importance of identity consistency in the context of group situations for emotional, social, and psychological well-being among young adults (20 to 40 years) of a strongly collectivistic society of Mizoram, India. Participants included 206 members of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in Mizoram who were selected randomly in equal proportion of gender (103 males and 103 females). Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (Keyes, 2002), Identity Consistency Scale (Suh, 2002), and Levels of Group Participation Scale (Rasmussen, 2003) were used for measurement of the constructs. Results revealed that both Mizo young male and female adults were considerably consistent in their identity presentations across social situations; they were moderately involved in social activities and scored relatively high on measures of emotional, social, psychological and overall wellbeing. Moderation analyses showed that for young Mizo women who were inconsistent in situational self-presentation, higher social participation significantly increased their emotional well-being. For young adult males, no significant moderation effect of identity consistency between group participation and well-being was found. Discussions gleaned upon identity management in multiple social situations, cultural specific factors, concepts of self-continuity and social roles in the context of the Mizo society and well-being in collectivistic cultures.