Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Application of Stereo Vision in 3D Modeling of Foot

With the development of economy and the improvement of personal consumption, the demands of people for consumer goods are becoming more diversified and individualized. In recent years, the personalized shoemaking system is favored by market, and the traditional shoemaking industry needs new technologies in order to meet people's new demands. The 3D modeling of foot is the foundation to realize individualized shoemaking, meanwhile, the foot parameters corresponding to the 3D foot model is also the important basis of foot re-shaping surgery or correction, therefore, the development and research of new technologies and new equipments of 3D foot modeling have realistic meanings. This paper introduces the application of stereo vision in the foot 3d modeling, firstly the system of stereo vision is set up, and the system is calibrated by using BP Neural Networks. Secondly the foot images are acquired, and the left and right images are corrected in accordance with the principle of epipolar line constraint, the left and right images by projection rectification can finish image matching quickly and accurately, and can construct the 3d foot model. The results of research show that the reconstruction of 3d foot model based on stereo vision is effective.
Magnetic inversion of three airborne data sets over the Tli Kwi Cho kimberlite complex

The magnetic and electromagnetic responses from airborne systems at Tli Kwi Cho, a kimberlite complex in the Northwest Territories, Canada, have received considerable attention over the last two decades but a complete understanding of the causative physical properties is not yet at hand. Our analysis is distributed among three papers. In the first, we find a 3D magnetic susceptibility model for the area; in the second, we find a 3D conductivity model; and in the third paper, we find a 3D chargeability model. Our goal is to explain all the geophysical results within a geologic framework. In this first paper, we invert three independent airborne magnetic data sets flown over the Tli Kwi Cho kimberlite complex located in the Lac de Gras kimberlite field in Northwest Territories, Canada. The complex consists of two kimberlites known as DO-27 and DO18. An initial airborne DIGHEM survey was flown in 1992 and AeroTEM and VTEM data subsequently acquired in 2003 and 2004, respectively. In this paper, we invert each magnetic data set in three dimensions. Both kimberlites are recovered in each model, with DO-27 as a more susceptible body than DO-18. Our goal is to simultaneously invert the three data sets to generate a single susceptibility model for Tli Kwi Cho. This project is part of a larger, on-going investigation by UBC-GIF on inverting magnetic, electromagnetic, and induced polarization data from the Tli Kwi Cho area.
The construction of an expression vector for the transformation of the grape chloroplast genome

The genetic information of plants is found in the nucleus, the mitochondria, and the plastids. The DNA of plastids is comprised of multiple copies of a double-stranded, circular, prokaryoticallyderived genome of -150 kb. The genome equivalents of plastid organelles in higher plant cells are an attractive target for genetic engineering as high protein expression levels are readily obtained due to the high genome copy number per organelle. The resultant proteins are contained within the plastid organelle and the corresponding transgenes are inherited, in most crop plants, uniparentally, preventing pollen transmission of DNA. Plastid transformation involves the uniform modification of all the plastid genome copies, a process facilitated by homologous recombination and the non-Mendelian segregation of plastids upon cell division. The plastid genomes are in a continuous state of interand intra-molecular exchange due to their common genetic complement. This enables the site-specific integration of any piece of DNA flanked by plastid targeting sequences, via homologous recombination. The attainment of homoplasmy, where all genomes are transformed, requires the inclusion of a plastid-specific selectable marker. Selective pressure favouring the propagation of the transformed genome copies, as well as the random segregation of plastids upon cell division, make it feasible to acquire uniformity and hence genetic stability. From this, a complete transplastomie line is obtained where all plastid genome copies present are transgenic, having eliminated all wild-type genome copies. The prokaryotic nature of the chloroplast genetic system enables expression of multiple proteins from polycistronic mRNAs, allowing the introduction of entire operons in a single transformation. Expression cassettes in vectors thus include single regulatory elements of plastid origin, and harbour genes encoding selectable and screenable markers, as well as one or more genes of interest. Each coding region is preceded by an appropriate translation control region to ensure efficient translation from the polycistronic mRNA. The function of a plastid transformation vector is to enable transfer and stable integration of foreign genes into the chloroplast genomes of higher plants. The expression vector constructed in this research is specific for the transformation of the grape chloroplast genome. Vitis vinifera L. , from the family, Vitaceae, is the choice species for the production of wine and therefore our target for plastid transformation. All chloroplast derived regulatory elements and sequences included in the vector thus originated from this species. Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
Fuzzy Neural Design of Power Systems Stabilizers

This paper presents a new approach of designing the Power Systems Stabilizer (PSS) that is based on fuzzy neural system. Adaptive Network based Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) is utilized in constructing the Fuzzy Neural Power Systems Stabilizer (FNPSS). The employment of ANFIS enables the system avoiding defects caused when using fuzzy logic and neural networks individually in designing an efficient PSS. Single Machine Infinite Bus (SMIB) power system has been taken as a case study to evaluate the suggested strategy performance. Simulation results have been conducted to confirm the approach validity. تصلاخلا ةسذقلا توظأ ثاخبثه نيوصخل ةذيذج تقيشط ثحبلا ازه ضشعخسي (PSS) ت ببي. ولا ضايصعلأا تيوظأ نيلع ذيوخعح يخلا و بي. ولا باخخيسلأا تيوظأ نيلع ذيوخعح يخلا و تيةيكخولا شئاوذيلا ماذخخسأ نح ذقف (ANFIS) ةسذيقلا تيوظأ جيبثه نيلع ىيصحلل ماذخخييسأ ىأ ت ببيي. ولا تيبييصعلا (ANFIS) ثاكبيي لا و بيي. ولا كييلولا ماذخخييسأ يييع تييوجالا ضىيييعلا يياح ماييظلا ييي كوي هايخه لايلا طخلا و ةدشةولا تكاولا ور ةسذقلا ماظ زخأ نح ذق و ةسذقلا توظلأ ءىةك جبثه نيوصح ف ةدشةه ةسىصب تيبصعلا ع ىصحلا نح ذق و اوك تحشخقولا تيايحاشخسلا ءادأ نييقخل تيساسد تلاحك تقيشللا تيلعاف ذيكأخل ةاكاحه جئاخ نل
Egg Morphology, Quality and Chemical Characteristics of Ostrich Struthio camelus camelus

The objective of this first native study was to determined morphology, quality and chemical characteristics of ostrich Struthio camelus eggs. A total of 97 eggs were collected from ostrich flocks (6 females and 3 males) domestic subspecies Struthio camelus camelus reared in the zoo of Baghdad city during the period from June 14th of 2010 to October 15th of 2011. The data obtained revealed that egg breadth, egg length and egg shape index were 12.6 cm, 16.9 cm and 74.6 respectively, egg weight, egg volume, egg specific gravity were 1576 gm, 1368.3 cm3, 1.15 gm/cm3 respectively, albumen height, yolk height, yolk diameter and yolk index were 12.7 mm, 13.6 mm, 30.8 mm and 0.44 respectively. This survey showed that ostrich egg components were 20.23% shell, 31.12% yolk and 48.65% albumen during the third year of production. Chemical composition of ostrich eggs showed that moisture were 87.69 and 48.04%, ash 1.05 and 1.10%, protein 11.84 and 17.76%, carbohydrates 0.71 and 0.95% of albumen and yolk materials respectively, lipids and cholesterol were 29.87% and 11.21 mg/gm of yolk materials. Minerals contents in egg albumen and yolk were; calcium (26 and 133 ppm), phosphorous (13 and 375 ppm), magnesium (8 and 17 ppm), iron (1 and 8 ppm), potassium (150 and 114 ppm), copper (0.5 and 2 ppm), zinc (0.5 and 1 ppm),
Neutron spin-echo study of the critical dynamics of spin- 5 2 antiferromagnets in two and three dimensions

We report a neutron spin-echo study of the critical dynamics in the $S=\frac{5}{2}$ antiferromagnets ${\mathrm{MnF}}_{2}$ and ${\mathrm{Rb}}_{2}{\mathrm{MnF}}_{4}$ with three-dimensional (3D) and two-dimensional (2D) spin systems, respectively, in zero external field. Both compounds are Heisenberg antiferromagnets with a small uniaxial anisotropy resulting from dipolar spin-spin interactions, which leads to a crossover in the critical dynamics close to the N\'eel temperature, ${T}_{N}$. By taking advantage of the $\ensuremath{\mu}\text{eV}$ energy resolution of the spin-echo spectrometer, we have determined the dynamical critical exponents $z$ for both longitudinal and transverse fluctuations. In ${\mathrm{MnF}}_{2}$, both the characteristic temperature for crossover from 3D Heisenberg to 3D Ising behavior and the exponents $z$ in both regimes are consistent with predictions from the dynamical scaling theory. The amplitude ratio of longitudinal and transverse fluctuations also agrees with predictions. In ${\mathrm{Rb}}_{2}{\mathrm{MnF}}_{4}$, the critical dynamics crosses over from the expected 2D Heisenberg behavior for $T\ensuremath{\gg}{T}_{N}$ to a scaling regime with exponent $z=1.387(4)$, which has not been predicted by theory and may indicate the influence of long-range dipolar interactions.
Development Optimization and Evaluation of Dual Mechanism Based Gastro Floatable and Bioadhesive Drug Delivery System for Simvastatin

Aim: The objectives of this investigation were to develop gastroretentive floating bioadhesive drug delivery for simvastatin to increase gastric residence time and reduce the dose frequency. To explore Badams gum’s sticking property in floating bioadhesive drug delivery of simvastatin. Materials and Methods: Floating bioadhesive tablet was formulated with Badam gum and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) K 15 M polymers, sodium bicarbonate, and citric acid as the gas generating agents to reduce floating lag time. Tablets were prepared by direct compression method. Optimization study was conducted using 32 factorial design. The concentration of polymers was considered as independent variables whereas swelling index, bioadhesive strength and % drug release at 10 h, of the tablets were utilized as dependent variables. Results and Discussions: Preformulation study suggests powders blends shows acceptable flow properties. Simvastatin floating- bioadhesive tablet found to be good without chipping, capping, and sticking. Comparing all the formulations, A5 optimized formulation exhibited 98.10 ± 2.10% of drug release in 12 h, floating lag time of 34 ± 3 s, with appropriate bioadhesive property, and total floating time of over 12 h. It was observed that increasing percentage of polymer in formulation the drug release decreased. Developed formulations were stable during stability studies. Conclusion: Based on these findings, it was concluded that Badam gum can be used as a bioadhesive as well as release retarding polymer for the floating bioadhesive dosage form of other drugs.
Gender Differences in a Text-Based Virtual Environment

Research which addresses gender issues in a virtual environment is an emerging area. In the area of small group research, it has been found that perceived gender differences will enter into group’s interactions and impact the group’s processes and outcomes. A framework for evaluating gender differences in a text-based virtual environment was formed and underpinned by Essentialism theory, Similarity-attraction paradigm and Individual Difference theory, and further validated by an experiment which was engaged in a text-based discussion system “Blackboard”. The results revealed that females perceived higher extent of relationship building, commitment and satisfaction than males but perceived no significant differences in communication, trust, collaboration and performance. It was also found that there was difference between males and females in their behavioral patterns. Females presented more adaptive and enjoyable attitude in working in a virtual environment than males because of the equality and fairness created by CMC (Computer-Mediated Communication). Females also regarded CMC as a tool to reduce conflict. The managerial application is provided for managers to retrieve a better performance while they are managing virtual teams.
The Use of Snow Level Options for Ski Resort Establishments in Norway

Nearly all businesses are affected by the weather in one way or another. For many, the weather is considered one of the major uncontrollable risk factors (Sharma & Vashishtha, 2007). Especially, winter tourism is one of the sectors most sensitive to weather conditions (Damm & Greuell, 2016). A ski resort’s revenues are closely related to the cumulative snow level. A year with low snow levels can lead to a significant reduction in the firms revenues. We will look at the possibility to hedge this downside risk and thereby reduce cash flow volatility, by using weather derivatives as a short term risk management tool. The weather derivative market is an incomplete market and traditional pricing methods are not applicable. Most of the existing literature on pricing methodology are with respect to temperature derivatives. Few have been conducted on snow level options. The main objective of this study is to implement some of the few pricing methods that exists on snow level derivatives. These are the indifference pricing method, the method proposed by Alaton, Djehiche, and Stillberger (2002) (ADS) based on BlackScholes framework, a pricing method using historical densities and pricing by using generalized edgeworth series expansion. All of the above pricing methods are applied on a snow level put option constructed for Vassfjellet Skiheiser AS. The indifference prices for both seller and the buyer Vassfjellet are calculated, and the main assumption in the model saying that the buyer’s indifference price must exceed the seller’s indifference price, holds for all strike levels. For the most relevant strike levels, the prices generated by the different methods are surprisingly similar. This indicates that these pricing methods may be a good starting point for further application and modification. By looking at historical data we observe a strong correlation between cumulative snow level data and Vassfjellet’s financial data. Further, we check if the volatility in Vassfjellet’s operating income the past years could have been reduced by investing in this snow level put option. The findings show that by buying a snow level put option each year from 2009-2015, the volatility in average operating income would decrease. Hence, if wishing to smooth income and hedge downside risk, the purchase of a snow level put option may be a good risk management tool. Our approach can be used on any individual ski resort who is exposed to snow level risk.
Signaling Corporate Strategy in IPO Communication

A clear corporate strategy communication can be a signal to financial analysts and public investors at the time of an initial public offering (IPO). This study examines IPO prospectuses of 57 biotechnology firms listed on the NASDAQ between 1997 and 2002. Using regression analysis, this article shows that the clarity, intensity, and consistency of the corporate strategy signal are not strong enough to affect the 1st-day initial returns. However, consistent communication of a prospector strategy negatively impacts 30-day initial returns, whereas consistent communication of a defender strategy positively impacts 30-day initial returns.
Collective suppression of optical hyperfine pumping in dense clouds of atoms in microtraps

We observe a density-dependent collective suppression of optical pumping between the hyperfine ground states in an array of submicrometer-sized clouds of cold rubidium atoms. The suppressed Raman transition rate can be explained by strong resonant dipole-dipole interactions that are enhanced by increasing atom density. The observations are consistent with stochastic electrodynamics simulations that incorporate the effects of the nonlinear population transfer via internal atomic levels embedded in a coupled-dipole model.
Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC) - a Novel Method for Speaker Recognition

The purpose of this paper is to develop a speaker recognition system which can recognize speakers from their speech. The proposed system would be text dependent speaker recognition system means the user has to speak from a set of spoken words. Mel. Frequency cepstral coefficient is used in order to extract the features of speakers from their speech signal while VQ (LBG) is used for design of codebook from extracted features. In pattern matching we derive the VQ distortion between the utterances of unknown speaker to codebooks of known speaker. We have used Euclidean distance to compute VQ distortion. The system is implemented by using TIMIT database with 630 speakers having 10 speech files each. In our project we have chosen 30 speakers as well as 100 speakers from this database. The comparison of speaker recognition performance between 30 speakers and 100 speakers are also discussed.
Human health no-effect levels of TiO 2 1 nanoparticles as a function of their primary size 2 3

20 As engineered nanomaterials are increasingly introduced on the market into a broad range of 21 commodities or nanoproducts, there is a need for operational, reliable tool, enabling to 22 consistently assess the risks and impacts associated with the releases of nanoparticles. The lack 23 of a developed metric that accurately represents their toxic effects while capturing the influence 24 of the most relevant physicochemical properties is one of the major impediments. Here, we 25 investigate the relationships between the toxic responses of nano-sized and micro-sized particles 26 in in vivo toxicological studies and their physicochemical properties. Our results for TiO2 27 particles indicate statistically-significant associations between the primary particle size and their 28 toxicity responses for combined inhalation and ingestion exposure routes, although the numerical 29 values should be considered with care due to the inability to encompass influences from other 30 relevant physicochemical properties like surface coatings. These findings allow for expressing 31 mass-based adverse effect levels as a continuous function of the primary size of particles. This 32 meaningful, exploratory metric can thus be used for screening purposes and pave the way for 33 reaching adaptive, robust risk assessments of nanomaterials, e.g. for setting up consistent 34 threshold levels, as well as consistent life cycle assessments of nanoproducts. We provide 35 examples of such applications. 36
Genetic diversity of indigenous chicken ecotypes in Jordan

DNA polymorphism of 4 indigenous chicken ecotypes was assessed in Jordan using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. 10 RAPD markers showed high genetic diversity values in the 4 ecotypes located in the northern, eastern, western and southern provinces of Jordan. The effective number of alleles per locus ranged from 1.47 to 1.7 (mean 1.65). The expected heterozygosity varied from 0.28 to 0.41 (mean 0.39) and Shannon’s index from 0.42 to 0.60 (mean 0.58). The Western ecotype showed higher levels of effective allele number, expected heterozygosity and Shannon’s index than the others. The genetic similarity between the northern, eastern and western ecotypes ranged from 0.95 to 0.97, while it ranged from 0.69 to 0.85 between the southern ecotype and the others. The largest genetic distance was found between the northern and southern ecotypes (0.37), whereas the smallest (0.04) was between the northern and eastern ecotypes, the southern ecotype was found to be the most genetically distant among all ecotypes. The study revealed that RAPD markers were effective in detecting genetic diversity in the chicken ecotypes. These results may prove to be valuable for the future conservation of genetic resources of indigenous chicken ecotypes in Jordan.
Uniform grain-size distribution in the active layer of a shallow, gravel-bedded, braided river (the Urumqi River, China) and implications for paleo-hydrology

Abstract. The grain-size distribution of ancient alluvial systems is commonly determined from surface samples of vertically exposed sections of gravel deposits. This method relies on the hypothesis that the grain-size distribution obtained from a vertical cross section is equivalent to that of the riverbed. Such an hypothesis implies first that the sediments are uniform in size in the river bed, and second that the sampling method implemented on a vertical section leads to a grain-size distribution equivalent to the bulk one. Here, we report a field test of this hypothesis on granulometric samples collected in an active, gravel-bedded, braided stream: the Urumqi River in China. We compare data from volumetric samples of a trench excavated in an active thread and from surface counts performed on the trench vertical faces. Based on this data set, we show that the grain-size distributions obtained from all the samples are similar and that the deposit is uniform at the scale of the river active layer, a layer extending from the surface to a depth of approximately 10 times the size of the largest clasts. As a consequence, the grid-by-number method implemented vertically leads to a grain-size distribution equivalent to the one obtained by a bulk volumetric sampling. This study thus brings support to the hypothesis that vertical surface counts provide an accurate characterization of the grain-size distribution of paleo-braided rivers.
Ungulate population monitoring in an open tundra landscape: distance sampling versus total counts

Researchers and wildlife managers strive for low bias and high precision (i.e. high accuracy) when estimating animal population sizes. Distance sampling is currently one of the most widely used monitoring methods. However, it relies on strict sampling designs and modeling assumptions that can be difficult to meet in the field. Here, we use data from two sub-populations of non-migratory wild Svalbard reindeer Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus inhabiting flat, open and isolated coastal tundra plains, to demonstrate some challenges related to the distance sampling methodology. To achieve this, we compared distance sampling line transect estimates with repeated total population counts and combined available software tools (R packages unmarked, Distance and dsm) to fulfill the analytical requirements of small study sites in which large areas are surveyed relative to the study area size. Based on low variation among repeated total counts (CV = 0.02 - 0.06) and the virtual absence of false negatives and positives of marked animals, the total counts could be used as reference population sizes. Distance sampling estimates were not statistically different from the total count estimates. Our relatively large sample size of 143 observations enabled precise distance sampling abundance estimates (CV = 0.16 - 0.26) compared with other studies in the wild. However, capturing the processes shaping population dynamics would likely require even higher sampling effort or other, more resource demanding monitoring tools, such as total counts or mark-recapture. In this type of ecosystem, distance sampling nevertheless represents a cost-effective tool suitable for ‘population state’ assessment and studies of large-scale spatial distribution patterns. Our study stresses the importance of choosing the appropriate analytical tools and estimating the accuracy of the monitoring methods that are used to achieve specific scientific, management or conservation goals.