Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distinct Sources of a Bovine Blastocyst Digital Image do not Produce the Same Classification by a Previously Trained Software using Artificial Neural Network

We develop an online graphical and intuitive interface connected to a server aiming to facilitate access to professionals worldwide that face problems with bovine blastocysts classification. The interface Blasto3Q (3Q is referred to the three qualities of the blastocyst grading) contains a description of 24 variables that are extracted from the image of the blastocyst and analyzed by three Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) that classifies the same loaded image. The same embryo (i.e., the biological specimen) was submitted to digital image capture by the control group (inverted microscope with 40x of magnification) and to experimental group (stereomicroscope with maximum of magnification plus 4x zoom from the cell phone). The 36 images obtained from control and experimental groups were uploaded on the Blasto3Q. Each image from both sources was evaluated for segmentation and submitted (only if it could be properly or partially segmented) to the quality grade classification by the three ANNs of the Blasto3Q program. In the group control, all the images were properly segmented, whereas 38.9% (07/18) and 61.1% (11/18) of the images from the experimental group, respectively could not be segmented or were partially segmented. The percentage of agreement was calculated when the same blastocyst was evaluated by the same ANN from the two sources (control and experimental groups). On the 54 potential evaluations of the three ANNs (i.e., 18 images been evaluated by the three networks) from the experimental group only 22.2% agreed with evaluations of the control (12/54). Of the remaining 42 disagreed evaluations from experimental group, 21 were unable to be performed and 21 were wrongly processed when compared with control evaluation.
Anxiety in Jiu-Jitsu athletes: differences according to age and competitive level

The aim of this study was to analyze pre-competitive anxiety based on the age range and competitive classification of 26 jiu-jitsu athletes aged 25.5 ± 5.24 years. The instrument used was the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2). Data analysis was conducted using the Shapiro-Wilk, independent Student's t-test, Pearson's correlation and simple linear regression (p <0.05). The results revealed that older and more competitive athletes presented a lower magnitude of cognitive anxiety (p <0.05). We observed a moderate and inverse association (r = -0.63, p <0.05) between cognitive anxiety and age, accounting for 38% (R2 = 0.38) of the variance of cognitive anxiety in athletes. It was concluded that age and competitive classification can be considered as intervening factors in the pre-competitive anxiety of jiu-jitsu athletes, specifically in cognitive anxiety.
Movement and Habitat Use of Eastern Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis) Following Population Augmentation

Abstract: With amphibian declines at crisis levels, translocations, including population augmentations, are commonly used for amphibian conservation. Eastern Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis) have declined to low densities in many areas of their range, making them ideal candidates for population augmentation. Both wild adults and captive-reared juveniles have been used for augmentations, but their suitability has never been directly compared. Herein, we use radio telemetry with Eastern Hellbenders to examine patterns of site fidelity, movement, and habitat use over a 2-yr period for adult residents, wild adult translocates, and captive-reared juvenile translocates. We used generalized linear models and generalized linear mixed models to identify temporal trends and explore the effects of residential status (resident vs. translocate) and origin/age (captive-reared juveniles vs. wild adults) on various ecological and behavioral traits relating to habitat. Site fidelity was high in adult residents and wild adult translocates, but lower in captive-reared juvenile translocates. Both adult and juvenile translocates had greater mean movement distances than residents, leading to larger home range sizes, but these differences decreased over time. Wild adult translocates had a higher probability of using artificial nest rocks than adult residents or captive-reared juvenile translocates. This pattern was most prevalent early in the study, indicating these shelters are particularly useful during the transition to release sites. Captive-reared juvenile translocates had lower site fidelity and utilized suboptimal habitat (smaller and fewer shelter rocks) compared to wild adults. Compared to previous studies, translocations had fewer negative effects on site residents or wild translocates and might be effective at promoting growth of Hellbender populations. However, translocations of captive-reared juveniles were less successful. As we are uncertain whether captive-rearing or ontogeny led to these differences, both longer head-starting times and conditioning should be explored to improve outcomes in captive-reared juvenile cohorts.
Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) Home Range and Habitat Use in Two Romanian Habitats

Abstract During our research we utilized data provided by GPS collars to compare the spatial patterns of wild boars living in lowland and high-hilly regions. Five wild boars were fitted with GPS Plus (Vectronic) type collars. The two aforementioned investigated habitat areas were as follows: a high-hilly hunting ground from the foot of the Bodoc Mountains (Covasna County), and the meeting point of Olt and Danube rivers in the southern part of the country (Teleorman County). The average daily wild boar activity varied between 2.9 and 3.1 km in the lowlands and between 3.6 and 4.9 km in the higher situated habitats. The average daily movement area calculated with the minimum convex polygon method was between 60.3 and 112.5 ha/day in the lowlands and between 113.5 and 125.2 ha/day in the high-hilly regions. The movement area of the wild boars calculated with the MCP method varied between 1,060 and 1,2001 hectares in lowlands and between 8,689 and 9,463 hectares in higher altitudes. Our data proved inadequate at testing whether or not large carnivores affect wild boar activity patterns. Habitat use analysis produced interesting results: even in a very diverse habitat, every collared individual preferred green forests. We found negative preference for agricultural fields in both habitats.
Deep-sea sharks as by-catch of an experimental fishing survey for black scabbardfishes (Aphanopus spp.) off the Canary Islands (NE Atlantic)

The deep-sea sharks associated as by-catch of the Madeiran midwater drifting longline fishery for scabbardfishes (Aphanopus spp.) were investigated by means of an experimental survey at 800-1200 m depth within the Canary Islands Exclusive Economic Zone, whose fishing grounds have been exploited during the past 15 years. Nine species of chondrichthyans were identified, belonging to five families: Pseudotriakidae, Centrophoridae, Etmopteridae, Somniosidae and Chimaeridae. Data on length, weight and sex ratio for the 436 chondrichthyan individuals caught in the March 2009 survey are given. Several voucher specimens of each species caught were deposited in the collections of the Natural History Museum of Funchal.
Effects of mild drought on the morphology of sun and shade needles in 20-year-old Norway spruce trees

Abstract: Several studies have looked at how individual environmental factors influence needle morphology in conifer trees, but interacting effects between drought and canopy position have received little attention. In this study, we characterized morphological responses to experimentally induced drought stress in sun exposed and shaded current-year Norway spruce needles. In the drought plot trees were suffering mild drought stress, with an average soil water potential at 50 cm depth of -0.4 MPa. In general, morphological needle traits had greater values in sun needles in the upper canopy than in shaded needles in the lower canopy. Needle morphology 15 months after the onset of drought was determined by canopy position, as only sun needle morphology was affected by drought. Thus, canopy position was a stronger morphogenic factor determining needle structure than was water availability. The largest influence of mild drought was observed for needle length, projected needle area and total needle area, which all were reduced by ~27% relative to control trees. Needle thickness and needle width showed contrasting sensitivity to drought, as drought only affected needle thickness (10% reduction). Needle dry mass, leaf mass per area and needle density were not affected 15 months after the onset of mild drought. Our results highlight the importance of considering canopy position as well as water availability when comparing needle structure or function between conifer species. More knowledge about how different canopy parts of Norway spruce adapt to drought is important to understand forest productivity under changing environmental conditions.
Hierarchical outlier detection approach for online distributed structural identification

In this paper, a hierarchical outlier detection approach is proposed for online distributed structural identification. In contrast to centralized identification, distributed identification extracts important features from the raw response data at the sensor nodes and transmits only them to the base station. Therefore, outlier detection is substantially more complicated than the traditional approach. In the proposed method, the local outliers in the raw data are detected directly at the corresponding sensor node, and they are excluded from further processing. However, if a sensor node is biased or exhibits other patterned outliers, these outliers will be undetectable at the sensor node level. It is necessary to conduct another level of outlier detection at the base station, namely, global outlier detection, before fusion. These two levels of outlier detection are of different nature. Local outlier detection concerns directly with the raw response data, whereas the targets of global outlier detection are the local estimation results of the stiffness parameters. Therefore, they require different mathematical tools. The proposed hierarchical outlier detection approach detects the local outliers according to the outlier probability of the data points at the sensor nodes, whereas it detects the global outliers according to the outlier probability of the local estimation results. By excluding both types of outliers, reliable online distributed structural identification can be achieved. Two examples are presented to demonstrate the proposed method.
Spectrophotometric determination of phenolic antioxidants in four varieties of apples (Pyrus malus) from Balochistan, Pakistan

Apples (Malus domestica Borkh) are the good source of phenolic compounds and antioxidants, which are not only potential nutrients but also effective in chronic diseases. Four famous varieties of apple namely Shin Kulu, Amri, Kaja, and Tor Kulu from different areas of Balochistan province were collected and analyzed for phenolic contents and antioxidant activities in methanol-water (80:20% (v/v)) extract by using standard spectrophotometric methods. The results of average extract yields of the antioxidant component obtained in dry weights (dw) of both peel and pulp were found 27.3±0.52g/100g and 19.1±0.21g/100g respectively. The different varieties of apples contain quantity of entire phenolics content on apple peel and pulp ranged from 13.12±0.22mg to 17.87±0.10mg GAE/g dw for peel and 7.21±0.10mg to 11.57±0.08mg GAE/g dw for pulp and total flavonoids content were found from 12.22±0.11mg to 15.30±0.18mg CE/g dw for peel and 6.01±0.03mg to 9.69±0.14mg CE/g dw for pulp. The variations in reducing power of the 10 mg/mL were ranged in peel from 2.139 to 2.725 and pulp from 1.181 to 1.724. The variations in the inhibition of DPPH scavenging activity of the 80% methanolic extracts were seen from 79.6% to 67.6% in peel and 57.8% to 41.2% in pulp. The variations were also found on the basis of genotype, soil fertility, care of watering and climate of the area. The results reveal high concentration of phenolics content, flavonoids content and antioxidant capacity in peel than pulp, so the consumption of peel with fruit might be strongly recommended to achieve better nutritional benefits.
Implications écologiques et évolutives du parasitisme sur les structures trophiques

Depuis quelques annees, les parasites sont reconnus comme pouvant etre important pour comprendre les structures et les dynamiques des ecosystemes. Cependant leur role reel reste mal compris. Au cours de cette these nous etudions les implications eco-evolutives du parasitisme sur un module trophique. Nous distinguons les effets virulence et interaction du parasite. Les premiers reduisant la survie intrinseque et la fecondite, les seconds modifiant les interactions trophiques. Nous considererons dans un premier modele ecologique l’infection d’une proie ou du predateur. Notre modele nous montre que le parasite favorise la coexistence par la modulation des competitions directe et apparente. Lors de l’infection du predateur les deux types d’effets ont une action antagoniste sur la stabilite. Nous avons ensuite montre experimentalement que le virus DIV-1 infectant Daphnia magna a un fort effet virulence et un effet interaction dependant du predateur. Les experiences ont egalement mis en avant une possible augmentation de la profitabilite de l’hote par l’infection. Un modele d’adaptive foraging utilisant une approche de dynamique adaptative montre des modifications du regime du predateur selon le type d’effet considere. Le predateur consommerait preferentiellement la proie infectee en cas d’effet interaction, ou une proie alternative en cas d’effet virulence. Ces modifications du regime favoriseraient la coexistence du systeme, notamment en evitant la competition entre le predateur et le parasite. Ces changements a l’echelle du module suggerent qu’a plus grand echelle le parasite puisse modifier globalement la structure du reseau.
Effects of Mercury II on Cupriavidus metallidurans Strain MSR33 during Mercury Bioremediation under Aerobic and Anaerobic Conditions

Mercury is a toxic element that harms organisms and disturbs biogeochemical cycles. Mercury bioremediation is based on the reduction of Hg (II) to Hg (0) by mercury-resistant bacteria. Cupriavidus metallidurans MSR33 possesses a broad-spectrum mercury resistance. This study aims to establish the effects of mercury on growth, oxygen uptake, and mercury removal parameters by C. metallidurans MSR33 in aqueous solution during aerobic and anaerobic mercury bioremediation. A new culture medium (GBC) was designed. The effects of mercury (II) (20 ppm) on growth parameters, oxygen uptake, and mercury removal were evaluated in GBC medium in a bioreactor (3 L) under aerobiosis. The anaerobic kinetics of mercury removal was evaluated by nitrogen replacement during mercury bioremediation in a bioreactor. Strain MSR33 reached a growth rate of µ = 0.43 h−1 in the bioreactor. Mercury inhibited oxygen uptake and bacterial growth; however, this inhibition was reversed after 5 h. Strain MSR33 was able to reduce Hg (II) under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, reaching, at 24 h, a metal removal of 97% and 71%, respectively. Therefore, oxygen was crucial for efficient mercury removal by this bacterium. Strain MSR33 was capable of tolerating the toxic effects of mercury (II) during aerobic bioremediation and recovered its metabolic activity.
PROVABLY CONSISTENT DISTRIBUTED DELAUNAY TRIANGULATION

Abstract. This paper deals with the distributed computation of Delaunay triangulations of massive point sets, mainly motivated by the needs of a scalable out-of-core surface reconstruction workflow from massive urban LIDAR datasets. Such a data often corresponds to a huge point cloud represented through a set of tiles of relatively homogeneous point sizes. This will be the input of our algorithm which will naturally partition this data across multiple processing elements. The distributed computation and communication between processing elements is orchestrated efficiently through an uncentralized model to represent, manage and locally construct the triangulation corresponding to each tile. Initially inspired by the star splaying approach, we review the Tile& Merge algorithm for computing Distributed Delaunay Triangulations on the cloud, provide a theoretical proof of correctness of this algorithm, and analyse the performance of our Spark implementation in terms of speedup and strong scaling in both synthetic and real use case datasets. A HPC implementation (e.g. using MPI), left for future work, would benefit from its more efficient message passing paradigm but lose the robustness and failure resilience of our Spark approach.
Required CIGS and CIGS/Mo Interface Properties for High-Efficiency Cu(In, Ga)Se2 Based Solar Cells

In this work, we have modeled and simulated the electrical performance of CIGS thin-film solar cell using one-dimensional simulation software (SCAPS-1D). Starting from a baseline model that reproduced the experimental results, the properties of the absorber layer and the CIGS/Mo interface have been explored, and the requirements for high-efficiency CIGS solar cell were proposed. Simulation results show that the band-gap, acceptor density, defect density are crucial parameters that affect the performance of the solar cell. The best conversion efficiency is obtained when the absorber band-gap is around 1.2 eV, the acceptor density at 1016 cm−3 and the defect density less than 1014 cm−3. In addition, CIGS/Mo interface has been investigated. It appears that a thin MoSe2 layer reduces recombination at this interface. An improvement of 1.5 to 2.5 mA/cm2 in the current density (Jsc) depending on the absorber thickness is obtained.
Optimal foraging or surplus killing: selective consumption and discarding of salmon by brown bears

&NA; Selective consumption of prey by predators, observed in many animals, is often attributed to optimal foraging. Consistent with this idea, brown bears (Ursus arctos) often exhibit partial consumption, feeding exclusively on lipid‐rich tissues of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.), and discarding remains. However, bears also kill and abandon salmon without consuming any tissue. These discarded fish may be consistent with optimal foraging choices if they are of poor quality and if bears have easy access to better prey, or may reveal nonadaptive surplus killing behavior if fish are killed and discarded at random or solely based on prey abundance. Using 21 consecutive years of data from sockeye salmon (O. nerka) carcass surveys in Alaska, we found that foraging to maximize energy intake best explained prey discarding behavior. Specifically, discarding was more common under high prey abundance, late in the salmon run, and with low‐quality prey. Patterns of tissue consumption were consistent with these findings; bears were less likely to consume belly, body, and brain tissue when prey condition decreased. Other factors not quantified here (e.g., bear demography, alternative food resources) almost certainly influence prey discard and partial consumption, though the salmon‐related factors explored here strongly influenced bear foraging decisions that were consistent with optimal foraging theory. We did not find clear evidence of surplus killing behavior in brown bears foraging on salmon, but prey selectivity manifested itself through both discarding and partial consumption, which contributes to our ability to predict transport of salmon nutrients by bears across ecosystem boundaries.
Effect of Substitution of Nutritional Source through Organics and Bio Inputs on Corm and Cormel Production in Gladiolus (Gladiolus grandiflorus L.) cv. American Beauty

Gladiolus, a native of South Africa is one of the most popular ornamental bulbous plant grown commercially for its fascinating flowers in many parts of the world and is popularly called as “Queen of bulbous” flowers. The term gladiolus was coined by Pliny the Elder (A.D-23-79) deriving from the Latin word “Gladius”, because of its swordlike leaves. It is popularly known as sword lily. The modern hybrids are botanically known as Gladiolus grandiflorus belonging to family Iridaceae bearing chromosome number 60. In Europe it is also known as „corn flag‟ because Gladiolus illyricus is found wild as weed in the corn fields. In the international cut-flower trade gladiolus occupies fourth place (Bhattacharjee and De, 2010). It is mainly cultivated for cut-flowers because of its elegant appearance and prolonged vase life. Gladiolus spikes are most popular in flower arrangements and for preparing attractive bouquets (Mishra et al., 2006). The International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 12 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com
Measurement of the $CP$-violating phase $\phi_\mathrm{s}$ in the B$^0_\mathrm{s}\to$ J$/\psi\, \phi$(1020) $\to \mu^+\mu^-$K$^+$K$^-$ channel in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV

The $CP$-violating weak phase $\phi_\mathrm{s}$ and the decay width difference $\Delta\Gamma_\mathrm{s}$ between the light and heavy B$^0_\mathrm{s}$ mass eigenstates are measured with the CMS detector at the LHC in a sample of 48500 reconstructed B$^0_\mathrm{s}\to$ J$/\psi\, \phi$(1020) $\to \mu^+\mu^-$K$^+$K$^-$ events. The measurement is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 96.4 fb$^{-1}$, collected in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV in 2017-2018. To extract the values of $\phi_\mathrm{s}$ and $\Delta\Gamma_\mathrm{s}$, a time-dependent and flavor-tagged angular analysis of the $ \mu^+\mu^-$K$^+$K$^-$ final state is performed. The analysis employs a dedicated tagging trigger and a novel opposite-side muon flavor tagger based on machine learning techniques. The measurement yields $\phi_\mathrm{s} = -$11 $\pm$ 50 (stat) $\pm$ 10 (syst) mrad and $\Delta\Gamma_\mathrm{s} =$ 0.114 $\pm$ 0.014 (stat) $\pm$ 0.007 (syst) ps$^{-1}$, in agreement with the standard model predictions. When combined with the previous CMS measurement at $\sqrt{s} =$ 8 TeV, the following values are obtained: $\phi_\mathrm{s} = -$21 $\pm$ 45 mrad, $\Delta\Gamma_\mathrm{s} =$ 0.1073 $\pm$ 0.0097 ps$^{-1}$, a significant improvement over the 8 TeV result.
Studies on Genetic Divergence in Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) Using SRAP Markers

Pomegranate genotypes have been characterized mainly on the basis of morphological traits; but, these traits are affected to a large extent by environmental and cultivation conditions, resulting in their ambiguous discrimination. Molecular markers are more suited for accurate discrimination of genotypes and cultivars. Sequence-Related Amplified Polymorphism (SRAP) markers were used in the present study to analyze polymorphism among the important pomegranate genotypes grown in India. The total number of bands generated by 30 SRAP primers for 12 genotypes was 1448, with an average of 48.3 bands per primer. Polymorphism varied from 2.7 to 73.9, with an average of 40.95%. Similarity-value based on Jaccard's Coefficient ranged from 0.63 (between cvs. Naina and Amlidana) to 0.95 (between cvs. Kabul Yellow and Jalore Seedless). UPGMA (un-weighted pair group method with arithmetic mean) analysis was performed and a dendrogram was constructed using Jaccard's similarity matrix. The 12 genotypes used grouped into 5 clusters. SRAP markers were found suitable for determining variability among the pomegranate genotypes studied.