Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Proximal sensing of Urochloa grasses increases selection accuracy

Abstract. In the American tropics, livestock production is highly restricted by forage availability. In addition, the breeding and development of new forage varieties with outstanding yield and high nutritional quality is often limited by a lack of resources and poor technology. Non-destructive, high-throughput phenotyping offers a rapid and economical means of evaluating large numbers of genotypes. In this study, visual assessments, digital colour images, and spectral reflectance data were collected from 200 Urochloa hybrids in a field setting. Partial least-squares regression (PLSR) was applied to relate visual assessments, digital image analysis and spectral data to shoot dry weight, crude protein and chlorophyll concentrations. Visual evaluations of biomass and greenness were collected in 68 min, digital colour imaging data in 40 min, and hyperspectral canopy data in 80 min. Root-mean-squared errors of prediction for PLSR estimations of shoot dry weight, crude protein and chlorophyll were lowest for digital image analysis followed by hyperspectral analysis and visual assessments. This study showed that digital colour image and spectral analysis techniques have the potential to improve precision and reduce time for tropical forage grass phenotyping.
A Survey on Device-free Indoor Localization and Tracking in the Multi-resident Environment

Indoor device-free localization and tracking can bring both convenience and privacy to users compared with traditional solutions such as camera-based surveillance and RFID tag-based tracking. Technologies such as Wi-Fi, wireless sensor, and infrared have been used to localize and track people living in care homes and office buildings. However, the presence of multiple residents introduces further challenges, such as the ambiguity in sensor measurements and target identity, to localization and tracking. In this article, we survey the latest development of device-free indoor localization and tracking in the multi-resident environment. We first present the fundamentals of device-free localization and tracking. Then, we discuss and compare the technologies used in device-free indoor localization and tracking. After discussing the steps involved in multi-resident localization and tracking including target detection, target counting, target identification, localization, and tracking, the techniques related to each step are classified and discussed in detail along with the performance metrics. Finally, we identify the research gap and point out future research directions. To the best of our knowledge, this survey is the most comprehensive work that covers a wide spectrum of the research area of device-free indoor localization and tracking.
Algorithmic Fault Detection for RRAM-based Matrix Operations

An RRAM-based computing system (RCS) provides an energy-efficient hardware implementation of vector-matrix multiplication for machine-learning hardware. However, it is vulnerable to faults due to the immature RRAM fabrication process. We propose an efficient fault tolerance method for RCS; the proposed method, referred to as extended-ABFT (X-ABFT), is inspired by algorithm-based fault tolerance (ABFT). We utilize row checksums and test-input vectors to extract signatures for fault detection and error correction. We present a solution to alleviate the overflow problem caused by the limited number of voltage levels for the test-input signals. Simulation results show that for a Hopfield classifier with faults in 5% of its RRAM cells, X-ABFT allows us to achieve nearly the same classification accuracy as in the fault-free case.
Discostella taxa (Bacillariophyta) from the Río Limay basin (northwestern Patagonia, Argentina)

Discostella stelligera and allied similar taxa are mainly identified by the presence of marginal fultoportulae located at the end of the striae, and not on the interstriae, as occurs in the genus Cyclotella, from which they have recently been removed. In this paper, valve morphology and ultrastructure of D. stelligera, D. glomerata, D. pseudostelligera and D. woltereckii collected from different environments within the Río Limay basin are described and illustrated. Morphological characters that allow the delimitation of taxa within the group are discussed and the ultrastructure of D. stelligera var. elliptica comb. nov. is shown for the first time. Two organisms that possess distinct morphological characters, and might be considered new species, are described.
The Effect of Context on Small Screen and Wearable Device Users’ Performance - A Systematic Review

Small screen and wearable devices play a key role in most of our daily tasks and activities. However, depending on the context, users can easily experience situationally induced impairments and disabilities (SIIDs). Previous studies have defined SIIDs as a new type of impairment in which an able-bodied user’s behaviour is impaired by the context including the characteristics of a device and the environment. This article systematically reviews the empirical studies on the effect of context on SIIDs. In particular, this review aims to answer the following two research questions: Which contextual factors have been examined in the literature that can cause SIIDs and how different contextual factors affect small screen and wearable device users’ performance. This article systematically reviews 187 publications under a framework that has five factors for context analysis: physical, temporal, social, task, and technical contexts. This review shows that a significant amount of empirical studies have been conducted focusing on some factors such as mobility but there still are some factors such as social factors that need to be further considered for SIIDs. Finally, some factors have shown to have significant impact on users’ performance such as multitasking but not all factors has been empirically demonstrated to have an effect on users’ performance.
Branchioglossum epiphyticum sp. nov. (Delesseriaceae, Rhodophyta), with a discussion of the generic boundaries between Branchioglossum and Hypoglossum

Abstract Branchioglossum epiphyticum sp. nov. (Delesseriaceae, Rhodophyta), a diminutive, creeping epiphyte, is described from subtidal habitats at Split Solitary Island (30°14′S; 153°11′E), New South Wales, Australia. The new species regularly demonstrates two modes of branching: marginal, in which a second-order initial converts into a first-order initial, and endogenous, in which branches arise from the primary cell row. These branch modes have been employed traditionally to define the genera Branchioglossum and Hypoglossum, respectively. It has been necessary to broaden the circumscription of Branchioglossum to include B. epiphyticum because of the presence of both marginal and endogenous branching. The difficulties regarding the continued separation of Bran-chioglossum and Hypoglossum are discussed. Examination of type and recently collected material of the poorly known Western Australian endemic species Branchioglossum crispatulum reveals plants that have exogenous branching and we provisionally exc.
Robust Unsupervised Cross-modal Hashing for Multimedia Retrieval

With the quick development of social websites, there are more opportunities to have different media types (such as text, image, video, etc.) describing the same topic from large-scale heterogeneous data sources. To efficiently identify the inter-media correlations for multimedia retrieval, unsupervised cross-modal hashing (UCMH) has gained increased interest due to the significant reduction in computation and storage. However, most UCMH methods assume that the data from different modalities are well paired. As a result, existing UCMH methods may not achieve satisfactory performance when partially paired data are given only. In this article, we propose a new-type of UCMH method called robust unsupervised cross-modal hashing (RUCMH). The major contribution lies in jointly learning modal-specific hash function, exploring the correlations among modalities with partial or even without any pairwise correspondence, and preserving the information of original features as much as possible. The learning process can be modeled via a joint minimization problem, and the corresponding optimization algorithm is presented. A series of experiments is conducted on four real-world datasets (Wiki, MIRFlickr, NUS-WIDE, and MS-COCO). The results demonstrate that RUCMH can significantly outperform the state-of-the-art unsupervised cross-modal hashing methods, especially for the partially paired case, which validates the effectiveness of RUCMH.
Different Approaches of Bio-control Agents for Controlling Root Rot Incidence of Some Vegetables under Greenhouse Conditions

Different approaches of some antagonistic fungal, bacterial and yeast agents applied as seed treatment or soil drench was evaluated against various soil-borne pathogens causing vegetables root rot disease under greenhouse conditions. The tested pathogenic fungi were Alternaria solani Fusarium solani, F. oxysporum, Rhizoctonia solani, Sclerotium rolfsii, Macrophomina phaseolina and Pythium sp. , meanwhile the tested bio-agents were Trichoderma harzianum, T. Viride andBacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas flourescens and Sacchromyces serivisae. Significant reduction in the disease incidence was observed in bio-agent treatments in comparison with untreated control. Root rot incidence, at pre-emergence stage, significant effect was observed in bio-agent treatments as seed soaking comparing with soil drench treatment. The treated seeds showed a protective effect for seeds germination against the invasion by soil-borne pathogenic fungi.Meanwhile,soil drenched with different bio-agents showed more efficacy for reducing root rot incidence at post-emergence growth stage of tested vegetables, Cucumber, Cantaloupe, Tomato and Pepper. The obtained results revealed that the antagonist T. harzianum showed significant superior effect to reduce diseases incidence followed by B. subtilis. Also, the antagonists T. viride and P. fluorescence occupied significantly the second degree for reducing root rot incidence. The treatment with S. serevisiae had the lowest effect on disease incidence, although it significantly lesser than check control treatment.The present study demonstrates that application of bio-agentsas seed treatment and soil drench may be useful for controlling root rot disease in field.
QoS-Aware VNF Placement and Service Chaining for IoT Applications in Multi-Tier Mobile Edge Networks

Mobile edge computing and network function virtualization (NFV) paradigms enable new flexibility and possibilities of the deployment of extreme low-latency services for Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications within the proximity of their users. However, this poses great challenges to find optimal placements of virtualized network functions (VNFs) for data processing requests of IoT applications in a multi-tier cloud network, which consists of many small- or medium-scale servers, clusters, or cloudlets deployed within the proximity of IoT nodes and a few large-scale remote data centers with abundant computing and storage resources. In particular, it is challenging to jointly consider VNF instance placement and routing traffic path planning for user requests, as they are not only delay sensitive but also resource hungry. In this article, we consider admissions of NFV-enabled requests of IoT applications in a multi-tier cloud network, where users request network services by issuing service requests with service chain requirements, and the service chain enforces the data traffic of the request to pass through the VNFs in the chain one by one until it reaches its destination. To this end, we first formulate the throughput maximization problem with the aim to maximize the system throughput. We then propose an integer linear program solution if the problem size is small; otherwise, we devise an efficient heuristic that jointly takes into account VNF placements to both cloudlets and data centers and routing path finding for each request. For a special case of the problem with a set of service chains, we propose an approximation algorithm with a provable approximation ratio. Next, we also devise efficient learning-based heuristics for VNF provisioning for IoT applications by incorporating the mobility and energy conservation features of IoT devices. We finally evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms by simulations. The simulation results show that the performance of the proposed algorithms is promising.
Molecular systematics of the Acmena alliance (Myrtaceae): phylogenetic analyses and evolutionary implications with reference to Australian taxa

The existence within Australia of several Acmena alliance taxa with morphological features inconsistent with current generic boundaries has meant that phylogenetic assessment of relationships has proved difficult. Sequences of nrDNA from the ITS and ETS regions were obtained for 66 Australian taxa, including representatives from both subfamilies and five genera. The ingroup taxa included 54 Australian endemics and 13 species with distributions that also range outside continental Australia. Parsimony analysis and Bayesian inference of posterior possibilities from the combined molecular datasets do not correlate with the species associations implied by the current taxonomic circumscription of genera: Acmena, Acmenosperma, Anetholea, Syzygium and Waterhousea. The molecular phylogeny recognises five supported lineages within the Acmena alliance, and several novel species associations. The recognition of five species groups indicates a need for a reappraisal of all currently recognised morphological groups within the alliance.
Understanding the Long-Term Evolution of Electric Taxi Networks

Due to the ever-growing concerns over air pollution and energy security, more and more cities have started to replace their conventional taxi fleets with electric ones. Even though environmentally friendly, the rapid promotion of electric taxis raises problems to both taxi drivers and governments, e.g., prolonged waiting/charging time, unbalanced utilization of charging infrastructures, and inadequate taxi supply due to the long charging time. In this article, we conduct the first longitudinal measurement study to understand the long-term evolution of mobility and charging patterns by utilizing 5-year data from one of the largest electric taxi networks in the world, i.e., the Shenzhen electric taxi network in China. In particular, (1) we first perform an electric taxi contextualization about their operation and charging activities; (2) then we design a generic charging event extraction algorithm based on GPS data and charging station data, and (3) based on the contextualization and extracted charging activities, we perform a comprehensive measurement study called ePat to explore the evolution of the electric taxi network from the mobility and charging perspectives. Our ePat is based on 4.8 TB taxi GPS data, 240 GB taxi transaction data, and metadata from 117 charging stations, during an evolution process from 427 electric taxis in 2013 to 13,178 in 2018. Moreover, ePat also explores the impacts of various contexts and benefits during the evolution process. Our ePat as a comprehensive measurement of the electric taxi network mobility and charging evolution has the potential to advance the understanding of the evolution patterns of electric taxi networks and pave the way for analyzing future shared autonomous vehicles.
Phenotypic and Genetic Characterization of the Cheese Ripening Yeast Geotrichum candidum

The yeast Geotrichum candidum (teleomorph Galactomyces candidus) is inoculated onto mold- and smear-ripened cheeses and plays several roles during cheese ripening. Its ability to metabolize proteins, lipids, and organic acids enables its growth on the cheese surface and promotes the development of organoleptic properties. Recent multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and phylogenetic analyses of G. candidum isolates revealed substantial genetic diversity, which may explain its strain-dependant technological capabilities. Here, we aimed to shed light on the phenotypic and genetic diversity among eight G. candidum and three Galactomyces spp. strains of environmental and dairy origin. Phenotypic tests such as carbon assimilation profiles, the ability to grow at 35°C and morphological traits on agar plates allowed us to discriminate G. candidum from Galactomyces spp. The genomes of these isolates were sequenced and assembled; whole genome comparison clustered the G. candidum strains into three subgroups and provided a reliable reference for MLST scheme optimization. Using the whole genome sequence as a reference, we optimized an MLST scheme using six loci that were proposed in two previous MLST schemes. This new MLST scheme allowed us to identify 15 sequence types (STs) out of 41 strains and revealed three major complexes named GeoA, GeoB, and GeoC. The population structure of these 41 strains was evaluated with STRUCTURE and a NeighborNet analysis of the combined six loci, which revealed recombination events between and within the complexes. These results hint that the allele variation conferring the different STs arose from recombination events. Recombination occurred for the six housekeeping genes studied, but most likely occurred throughout the genome. These recombination events may have induced an adaptive divergence between the wild strains and the cheesemaking strains, as observed for other cheese ripening fungi. Further comparative genomic studies are needed to confirm this phenomenon in G. candidum. In conclusion, the draft assembly of 11 G. candidum/Galactomyces spp. genomes allowed us to optimize a genotyping MLST scheme and, combined with the assessment of their ability to grow under different conditions, provides a reliable tool to cluster and eventually improves the selection of G. candidum strains.
Causal Attributions in an Australian Aboriginal Family With Marfan Syndrome: A Qualitative Study

Causal attributions are important determinants of how health threats are processed and affect health-related behaviors. To date, there has been no research on causal attributions in genetic conditions in Aboriginal Australians. Forty members of a large Aboriginal Australian family with Marfan syndrome (MFS) were invited to participate in an ethically approved study exploring causal attributions, including perceived causes of phenotypic variability within the family. Eighteen individuals consented to conduct semi-structured qualitative interviews, which were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically. Most participants knew that MFS was genetic, but there were diverse theories about inheritance, including beliefs that it skipped generations, was affected by birth order and/or gender, and that it co-occurred with inheritance of blue eyes within this family. The mutation was thought to have been inherited from British settlers and initially triggered by disease or diet. Factors believed to modify disease severity included other genes and lifestyle factors, particularly alcohol and substance abuse and stress. Generally, this family did not endorse “blaming” chance or a higher power for phenotypic variability, though some felt that the spirits or a deity may have played a role. In conclusion, although participants knew MFS was a genetic condition, many speculated about the role of non-genetic causes in initiating the original mutation; and the gene-environment interaction was thought to affect severity. This study demonstrates a successful approach for exploring causal attributions in other genetic conditions in First Australians.
Non-invasive Assessment of Mitochondrial Oxygen Metabolism in the Critically Ill Patient Using the Protoporphyrin IX-Triplet State Lifetime Technique—A Feasibility Study

The imbalance of oxygen delivery and oxygen consumption resulting in insufficient tissue oxygenation is pathognomonic for all forms of shock. Mitochondrial function plays an important role in the cellular oxygen metabolism and has been shown to impact a variety of diseases in the intensive care setting, specifically sepsis. Clinical assessment of tissue oxygenation and mitochondrial function remains elusive. The in vivo protoporphyrin IX-triplet state lifetime technique (PpIX-TSLT) allows the direct, non-invasive measurement of mitochondrial oxygen tension (mitoPO2) in the human skin. Our recently established measurement protocol for the Cellular Oxygen Metabolism (COMET) Monitor, a novel device employing the PpIX-TSLT, additionally allows the evaluation of oxygen consumption (mitoVO2) and delivery (mitoDO2). In the intensive care setting, these variables might provide new insight into mitochondrial oxygen metabolism and especially mitoDO2 might be a surrogate parameter of microcirculatory function. However, the feasibility of the PpIX-TSLT in critically ill patients has not been analyzed systematically. In this interim study analysis, we evaluated PpIX-TSLT measurements of 40 patients during the acute phase of sepsis. We assessed (a) potential adverse side effects of the method, (b) the rate of analyzable measurements, (c) the stability of mitoPO2, mitoVO2, and mitoDO2, and (d) potential covariates. Due to excessive edema in patients with sepsis, we specifically analyzed the association of patients' hydration status, assessed by bioimpedance analysis (BIA), with the aforementioned variables. We observed no side effects and acquired analyzable measurements sessions in 92.5% of patients (n = 37/40). Different measures of stability indicated moderate to good repeatability of the PpIX-TSLT variables within one session of multiple measurements. The determined limits of agreement and minimum detectable differences may be helpful in identifying outlier measurements. In conjunction with signal quality they mark a first step in developing a previously unavailable standardized measurement quality protocol. Notably, higher levels of hydration were associated with lower mitochondrial oxygen tension. We conclude that COMET measurements are viable in patients with sepsis. To validate the clinical and diagnostic relevance of the PpIX-TSLT using the COMET in the intensive care setting, future studies in critically ill patients and healthy controls are needed.
Construction of Broad Host Range Cloning Vectors for Gram-negative Bacteria

A new cloning vector, pMFY31, has been constructed based on the high-copy-number, broad-host-range plasmid RSF1010. The plasmid has a size of 13.2 kb and carries the Apr, Cmr, and Tcr genes. It contains unique PstI, EcoRI, HindIII, BamHI, and SalI sites, all of which are located within the antibiotic resistance genes, therefore all sites are applicable to insertional inactivation. We also constructed pMFY40, a 11.6 kb derivative of pMFY31, by the elimination of the Cmr gene. Plasmid pMFY31 has been efficiently introduced into a Pseudomonas putida strain not only by plasmid-DNA transformation but also by conjugal co-transfer with the helper plasmid, and was maintained stably in the strain.