Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
STRUCTURAL DAMAGE BY RHINOCYLLUS CONICUS (COLEOPTERA: CURCULIONIDAE) WITHIN THE FLOWERHEADS OF NODDING THISTLE

Abstract The larvae of Rhinocyllus conicus Froel. feed within the flowerheads of Carduus nutans by tunneling through callus that appears near feeding sites, by forming chambers of callus beneath developing florets, or by tunneling within pith of the peduncle. The induction of callus by R. conicus is a gall-like response providing the larvae with additional nutriment and a shelter. Callus formation also reduces plant resources destined for developing additional flowerheads. Résumé Les larves de Rhinocyllus conicus Froel. se nourissent à l'intérieur des capitules de Carduus nutans en formant des tunnels à travers du cal qui se trouve près des sites d'alimentation ou en formant des chambres de cal sous les fleurs en développement ou en creusant la moelle du pédoncule. L'induction du cal par R. conicus est une réponse quasi-cécidologique qui donne à la larve des nutriments additionels et un gîte. La formation du cal réduit aussi les ressources qui étaient destinées au développement des capitules futurs de la plante.
Diet and prey selection of sympatric tropical skinks

Most skinks are opportunistic predators, taking available prey from the environment as it is encountered. Variation in their diet composition is thought to reflect differences in prey abundance in the environment. We studied diet composition and prey selection in a community of three sympatric skink species (genus Carlia) in northern Australia by comparing contents of skink stomachs with arthropod prey available in their habitat. Carlia were entirely carnivorous and fed on a range of arthropod prey. We found high overlap in diet and prey size among the three species and between the wet and dry seasons, but found that skinks generally focused their foraging efforts on prey types and prey sizes that were not abundant in the habitat. Spiders (Aranea), orthopterans, blattarians, isopods and termites (Isoptera) were important prey of skinks, but these arthropods were rarely trapped in the environment. Skinks also frequently consumed large-bodied prey, despite the higher relative abundance of small prey in the environment. Skinks were more selective in their foraging and diet than previously assumed. Selection of prey by consumers is a fundamental ecological process, important to consumers for maintaining energy requirements to grow and reproduce, but equally important to the community dynamics of the prey consumed.
Antimicrobial Characteristics of Untreated Wood: Towards a Hygienic Environment

Wood, as a contact surface, has been used for centuries but is usually questioned because of its porosity and organic composition. It has natural antimicrobial properties and, hygienically, can stand the comparison with other materials such as plastic, glass and steel. In this review, we focused on potential microbe-inhibiting properties of wooden surfaces being used in hygienically important places like health institutes and food industries. This article addresses the questionable properties of untreated wood like hygroscopicity, porosity, roughness and chemical composition, and their relation to the hygienic and antimicrobial nature of this material. The other factors linked to the hygienic properties of wood, such as age, species and type of wood, have also been discussed. Our analysis of literature will create better understanding for acceptance of wood as a safety renewable resource. It also provides an outline for future research considering wood material in critical healthcare or food industries.
Approaches to anaesthesia protocols.

While drugs are important in anaesthesia protocols, they are only one aspect of patient management in the peri-anaesthetic period. When constructing an anaesthesia protocol, an understanding of potential problems associated with the patient such as age, breed, size, health status and temperament is essential. In addition, surgical and non-surgical procedures pose many different problems for the anaesthetist which must be anticipated and managed. For routine procedures such as neutering in healthy adult patients, anaesthesia protocols can be planned in advance, taking into account the needs of most patients and the problems associated with the procedure. But for sick patients or unusual procedures, the anaesthetic management should be designed on an individual basis. Attention to individual patient requirements is essential for any anaesthetic
Recolonization and cues for bacterial migration into 'mock' deposit-feeder fecal casts

Despite the importance of sedimentary bacteria to the cycling of organic matter in the marine environment, fundamental knowledge concerning the determinants of community structure is lacking. Roles of equilibrium processes, such as predation and competition, have generally been found to be of little importance, whereas the role of disturbance in structuring microbial communities has been less explored. Disturbance associated with invertebrate ingestion can reduce bacterial biomass and alter metabolic activities and compositions of bacterial assemblages in marine sediments. The first objective of the research presented here was to determine the mechanisms by which bacterial assemblages recover following their ingestion by deposit feeders. In exposed inter- tidal sediments, microbial recovery could occur due to regrowth of bacterial populations surviving gut passage, or to migration from adjacent sediments. We used field manipulative experiments to exclude either regrowth, with the use of bacteria-free 'mock' fecal coils, or migration, by isolating coils from surrounding sediments on polystyrene 'latrines. ' A second goal was to test whether components of deposit-feeder egesta served as cues for bacterial colonization. Supernatant fluids from the egesta of 4 deposit-feeding species were added to the artificial fecal coils. We then followed the numerical recovery of active and total bacteria in coils through time using CTC (5-cyano-2, 3- ditoyl tetrazolium chloride) and DAPI stains coupled with epifluorescence microscopy. Our findings indicate that (1) recovery was dominated by immigration, as no recolonization was observed in coils isolated from adjacent sediments, (2) components of 2 of the 4 deposit-feeding species' egesta inhib- ited bacterial recolonization, and (3) although recovery was observed in coils with added fecal com- ponents of the remaining 2 species, in no case was recolonization stimulated relative to seawater addition. The last finding suggests that nutritional provision is not a significant impetus for recolo- nization of sediment patches disturbed by deposit feeding. Competitor-free space and vertical migra- tions of diatoms in intertidal sediments are discussed as alternative cues for bacterial recolonization of these disturbed patches.
Haematology and prevalence of blood parasites of the common frog (Rana temporaria ) in the tropical environment

A total of 116 adult frogs were captured from Moniya area of Ibadan and University of Ibadan fish farm, Oyo State of Nigeria between 31st March and 8th June 2009 and investigated for blood parasites by microscopic examination of stained blood films. Some haematological parameters were estimated. The mean packed cell volume, haemoglobin, red blood cells, white blood cells, platelet count, mean cell volume, mean cell haemoglobin concentration and mean cell haemoglobin of the samples from the low rain forest area of the south Western Nigeria were 26.90 and 29.67%, 8.85 and 9.83 g/dl, 2.71 and 2.73 × 106 µl-1, 15618.97 and 16704.31 × 103 µl-1, 173344.83 and 163124.14 ×109 µl-1, 102.83 and 117.67 fl, 32.95 and 33.80 g/dl, and 33.87 and 38.77 pg. Only haemoflagellate from the genus Trypanosoma was identified with different morphological forms which are attributed to Trypanosoma rotatorium complex. Prevalence of infection in the two study sites were estimated as 32.8 and 29.3%, respectively. The infected frogs had double nucleated red blood cells. Key words: Haematology, common frog, Rana temporaria, blood parasites, Ibadan.
Reference Architecture for Big Data

In this paper, processing of huge data with fast access and storage of data is done in such a way that data will be stored with minimal storage space. This paper provides an analytical solution for the organization with the help of pipe and filters and organization of different layers. The reference architecture uses the Hevner's framework for constructing the information system. The solution meets all its quality criteria based on research design in modularity, maintainability, reusability, performance and scalability.
The importance of time in visual attention models

Predicting visual attention is a very active field in the computer vision community. Visual attention is a mechanism of the visual system that can select relevant areas within a scene. Models for saliency prediction are intended to automatically predict which regions are likely to be attended by a human observer. Traditionally, ground truth saliency maps are built using only the spatial position of the fixation points, being these fixation points the locations where an observer fixates the gaze when viewing a scene. In this work we explore encoding the temporal information as well, and assess it in the application of prediction saliency maps with deep neural networks. It has been observed that the later fixations in a scanpath are usually selected randomly during visualization, specially in those images with few regions of interest. Therefore, computer vision models have difficulties learning to predict them. In this work, we explore a temporal weighting over the saliency maps to better cope with this random behaviour. The newly proposed saliency representation assigns different weights depending on the position in the sequence of gaze fixations, giving more importance to early timesteps than later ones. We used this maps to train MLNet, a state of the art for predicting saliency maps. MLNet predictions were evaluated and compared to the results obtained when the model has been trained using traditional saliency maps.Finally, we show how the temporally weighted saliency maps brought some improvement when used to weight the visual features in an image retrieval task
Microstrip Filters for RF Microwave Applications 2nd Edition

The first edition of “Microstrip Filters for RF/Microwave Applications” was published in 2001. Over the years the book has been well received and is used extensively in both academia and industry by microwave researchers and engineers. From its inception as a manuscript the book is almost 8 years old. While the fundamentals of filter circuits have not changed, further innovations in filter realizations and other applications have occurred with changes in the technology and use of new fabrication processes, such as the recent advances in RF MEMS and ferroelectric films for tunable filters; the use of liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrates for multilayer circuits, as well as the new filters for dual-band, multi-band and ultra wideband (UWB) applications.
Magnetic Field Design for Low EMF and High Efficiency Wireless Power Transfer System in On-Line Electric Vehicles

In the mechanism of wireless power transfer in on-line electric vehicle (OLEV), the design of magnetic field is the key technology to determine its electrical performance of power transfer capacity, transfer efficiency, and electromagnetic field (EMF) level. To satisfy all the requirements, systematic approach for optimization of design parameters is required. Even though shielding for reduction of EMF can be applied independently, the shielding effectiveness of the applicable shielding method should be considered in optimization of design parameters. In this paper, we introduce the wireless power transfer mechanism and the EMF reduction techniques, and perform design parameter optimization to maximize transfer power efficiency while satisfying power transfer efficiency and EMF regulation.
Investigating a role for imprinted genes in pregnancy complications and the possible influence of maternal lifestyle

Imprinted genes, displaying monoallelic parent of origin specific expression, are known to regulate fetal growth and placental development. Work in animal models also suggests that imprinted genes regulate placental hormone signalling to the mother, which is required for induction of maternal adaptation to pregnancy. Aberrant placental imprinted gene expression may therefore have a causative role in pregnancies characterised by abnormal fetal growth and/or inadequate maternal adaptation to pregnancy. Given these important functions, identifying environmental stimuli responsible for perturbed imprinted gene expression is also of interest. This thesis examined human placental expression of the imprinted genes PHLDA2, CDKN1C, PEG3 and PEG10 in three independent cohorts, including pregnancies complicated by fetal growth restriction, fetal overgrowth, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and maternal mood disorders. Placental imprinted gene expression was also analysed in relation to placental hormone (hPL and PGH) gene expression and in relation to maternal lifestyle factors. The effect of maternal diet on placental imprinted gene expression was further explored in a mouse model to provide evidence for a cause or effect relationship. Placental PHLDA2 expression was significantly increased in growth-restricted pregnancies, supporting a role for PHLDA2 in the negative regulation of fetal growth. In contrast, placental PEG10 expression was positively associated with fetal growth. This study did not support a role for PEG3 in the control of fetal growth, but did suggest a role in maternal adaptation to pregnancy with aberrant gene expression observed in pregnancies complicated by maternal depression. Finally, this study provided evidence that PHLDA2, CDKN1C, PEG3 and PEG10 expression is responsive to environmental stimuli, particularly maternal diet, in both human pregnancies and in a mouse model. Thus, this thesis highlights the importance of imprinted genes in achieving a successful pregnancy for both mother and fetus and the possible role of maternal lifestyle in influencing this.
Air pollution & health

Air pollution has become a central public health issue following a series of environmental calamities, which occurred in Europe during the second half of the XXth century and had an enormous impact on peoples’ health and mortality. Since then, abundant scientific evidence has reported on the specific health effects determined by exposure to environmental air pollutants, notably ozone and particulate matter. More recently, worldwide large population-based cohort studies showed positive associations between levels of exposure to common air pollutants and systemic illnesses irrespective of age. Reports in children exposed to airborne hazards showed decreased lung growth and function, increased rates of respiratory allergies and early onsets of asthma, and aggravation of respiratory symptoms and asthma. In adults, the available evidence reports on the increased incidence of acute and chronic respiratory diseases, and also on the early cardiovascular morbidity risk factors, such as arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, decreased heart-rated variability, which may further lead to myocardial infarction and stroke. As a consequence, increased utilization of medical care, outpatient visits to emergency rooms and hospitalizations with a significant impact on individuals’ health-related quality of life and costs have been shown. Individual susceptibility to environmental pollutants is an important determinant of the health effects. A number of personal conditions have been associated with the detrimental effects of air pollutants, including sex, nutrition, associated comorbidities, tobacco smoke, occupational exposure and genetic predisposition. In the last years, new policy regulation measures to reduce fine particle emissions and limit involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke proved beneficial, notably in susceptible persons. The present work aimed to 1) provide an overview of the consistent literature on the effects of outdoor and indoor air pollution on human’s health, and 2) examine the evidence on the individual’s factors of susceptibility to environmental air pollutants, further focusing on three articles from the author addressing the effects of passive smoking in susceptible individuals.
Outlier-Robust Estimation: Hardness, Minimally Tuned Algorithms, and Applications

Nonlinear estimation in robotics and vision is typically plagued with outliers due to wrong data association or incorrect detections from signal processing and machine learning methods. This article introduces two unifying formulations for outlier-robust estimation, <italic>generalized maximum consensus</italic> (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{G}$</tex-math></inline-formula>-<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{MC}$</tex-math></inline-formula>) and <italic>generalized truncated least squares</italic> (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{G-TLS}$</tex-math></inline-formula>), and investigates fundamental limits, practical algorithms, and applications. Our first contribution is a proof that outlier-robust estimation is <italic>inapproximable:</italic> In the worst case, it is impossible to (even approximately) find the set of outliers, even with slower-than-polynomial-time algorithms (particularly, algorithms running in <italic>quasi-polynomial</italic> time). As a second contribution, we review and extend two general-purpose algorithms. The first, <italic>adaptive trimming</italic> (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{ADAPT}$</tex-math></inline-formula>), is combinatorial and is suitable for <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{G}$</tex-math></inline-formula>-<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{MC}$</tex-math></inline-formula>; the second, <italic>graduated nonconvexity</italic> (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{GNC}$</tex-math></inline-formula>), is based on homotopy methods and is suitable for <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{G-TLS}$</tex-math></inline-formula>. We extend <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{ADAPT}$</tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{GNC}$</tex-math></inline-formula> to the case where the user does not have prior knowledge of the inlier-noise statistics (or the statistics may vary over time) and is unable to guess a reasonable threshold to separate inliers from outliers (as the one commonly used in RANdom SAmple Consensus <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(\text{RANSAC})$</tex-math></inline-formula>. We propose the first <italic>minimally tuned</italic> algorithms for outlier rejection, which dynamically decide how to separate inliers from outliers. Our third contribution is an evaluation of the proposed algorithms on robot perception problems: mesh registration, image-based object detection (<italic>shape alignment</italic>), and pose graph optimization. <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{ADAPT}$</tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{GNC}$</tex-math></inline-formula> execute in real time, are deterministic, outperform <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{RANSAC}$</tex-math></inline-formula>, and are robust up to 80–90% outliers. Their minimally tuned versions also compare favorably with the state of the art, even though they do not rely on a noise bound for the inliers.
Dust-scattering Halo and Giant Hard X-Ray Flare from the Supergiant Fast X-Ray Transient IGR J16479–4514 Investigated with XMM-Newton and INTEGRAL

We report results from the analysis of XMM-Newton and INTEGRAL data of IGR J16479−4514. The unpublished XMM-Newton observation, performed in 2012, occurred during the source eclipse. No pointlike X-ray emission was detected from the source; conversely, extended X-ray emission was clearly detected up to a size distance compatible with a dust-scattering halo produced by the source X-ray emission before being eclipsed by its companion donor star. The diffuse emission of the dust-scattering halo could be observed without any contamination from the central point X-ray source, compared to a previous XMM-Newton observation published in 2008. Our comprehensive analysis of the 2012 unpublished spectrum of the diffuse emission, as well as the 2008 reanalyzed spectra extracted from three adjacent time intervals and different extraction regions (optimized for pointlike and extended emission), allowed us to clearly disentangle the scattering halo spectrum from the residual pointlike emission during the 2008 eclipse. Moreover, the pointlike emission detected in 2008 could be separated into two components attributed to the direct emission from the source and scattering in the stellar wind, respectively. From archival unpublished INTEGRAL data, we identified a very strong (∼3 × 10−8 erg cm−2 s−1) and fast (∼25 minute duration) flare that was classified as a giant hard X-ray flare, since the measured peak luminosity is ∼7 × 1037 erg s−1. Giant X-ray flares from supergiant fast X-ray transients are very rare; to date, only one has been reported from a different source. We propose a physical scenario to explain the origin in the case of IGR J16479−4514.
Solving Grain Size Inconsistency between ALMA Polarization and VLA Continuum in the Ophiuchus IRS 48 Protoplanetary Disk

The protoplanetary disk around Ophiuchus IRS 48 shows an azimuthally asymmetric dust distribution in (sub)millimeter observations, which is interpreted as a vortex, where millimeter/centimeter-sized particles are trapped at the location of the continuum peak. In this paper, we present 860 μm ALMA observations of polarized dust emission from this disk. The polarized emission was detected toward a part of the disk. The polarization vectors are parallel to the disk minor axis, and the polarization fraction was derived to be 1%–2%. These characteristics are consistent with models of self-scattering of submillimeter-wave emission, which indicate a maximum grain size of ∼100 μm. However, this is inconsistent with the previous interpretation of millimeter/centimeter dust particles being trapped by a vortex. To explain both ALMA polarization and previous ALMA and Very Large Array observations, we suggest that the thermal emission at 860 μm wavelength is optically thick (τabs ∼ 7.3) at the dust trap with a maximum observable grain size of ∼100 μm rather than an optically thin case with centimeter-sized dust grains. We note that we cannot rule out that larger dust grains are accumulated near the midplane if the 860 μm thermal emission is optically thick.