Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stereoscopic imaging with spherical panoramas for measuring tree distance and diameter under forest canopies

This study is the first to adapt stereoscopic imaging to measure tree distance and diameter under forest canopies with spherical panoramas. The proposed stereoscopy method requires two spherical panoramas taken at a known distance directly on top of each other. The geometry was comprehensively laid out. Twenty-three plots were randomly established in planted forests. Sample trees were selected with a small basal area factor (BAF) for diameter at breast height and horizontal distance measurement. A larger BAF was used to subsample trees for upper stem diameters. Only fully visible trees were used in the analysis. Results showed that precision decreased with increasing distance from plot centre. Tree distance could be accurately and precisely estimated up to a distance of ~10 m from plot centre. For tree diameters, better accuracy and precision was achieved when a tree was within 5 m from plot centre or its diameter was less than 20 cm. Maintaining the required vertical displacement between panoramas was challenging in the field due to difficult terrain and heavy equipment, which are likely sources of error. With continued advancement in photography equipment, shooting spherical panorama becomes easier. Our proposed method could potentially lead to a citizen science based forest resources monitoring programme.
Roles of Wrky proteins in mediating the crosstalk of hormone signaling pathways: An approach integrating bioinformatics and experimental biology

Roles of WRKY Proteins in Mediating the Crosstalk of Hormone Signaling Pathways: an Approach Integrating Bioinformatics and Experimental Biology by Zhen Xie Dr. Jeffery Qingxi Shen, Examination Committee Chair Associate Professor of Biological Sciences University of Nevada, Las Vegas The goal of my research is to understand the molecular mechanism by which hormones control seed germination. Gibberellins (GA) promote, while abscisic acid (ABA) and salicylic acid (SA) inhibit seed germination. Key moleeules in these signaling pathways include receptors, secondary messengers, protein kinases and phosphatases, and transcription factors. My study focuses on how WRKY transcription factors modulate the expression o f an a-amylase gene {Amy32b), which is up-regulated by GA, but downregulated by ABA and SA in the aleurone eells of germinating seeds. Chapter 2 started with the annotation and phylogenetic analyses of the WRKY gene superfamily, followed by functional studies of WRKY proteins in mediating ABA responses. Eighty-one WRKY genes were identified in the riee genome through computational analyses. Phylogenetie analyses based on WRKY domain sequences suggest that extensive duplications and losses of the WRKY domain occurred during evolution of this gene family. Transient expression studies suggest that among four WRKY genes that are ABA-inducible in aleurone cells, OsWRKY72 and OsWRKY77
Influences upon social media adoption and changes to training delivery in vocational education institutions

ABSTRACT The study investigated the adoption of social media in Australian vocational education and training institutions, and the characteristics of social media, individuals and organisations that were promoting or hindering its growth. Interviews and small group discussions were completed with 50 senior vocational education teachers, 120 students, and 20 employers. Guided by a multi-level framework of innovation adoption, a thematic analysis revealed that the features of YouTube were judged to be compatible with institutional objectives and values aligned with more self-paced, collaborative and student-focused learning. Facebook offered innovative appeal around accessibility, simplicity of use and promotion of student collaboration. Other social media tools were of more limited use, while the adoption of different forms of social media was attractive to different types of VET student. While the innovation characteristics of social media were well aligned with institutional objectives for growing more customised and flexible training delivery, teachers’ perceptions of institutional policies, the lack of institutional innovation strategies and auditors’ preferences around assessment were perceived to be barriers to change and the wider adoption of social media in program delivery and assessment.
Renovating project-based learning in Israel to foster learning STEM, computational thinking and design arts

AbstractIt is widely agreed that project-based learning (PBL) and design-based learning (DBL) are among the best tools that education has for fostering lifelong learning skills such as problem-solving, collaborative work and self-directed learning. In Israeli high schools, every year thousands of students prepare final projects in subjects such as electronics, computer science, mechatronics, and design arts. However, a number of issues have arisen in recent years in implementing PBL or DBL in schools, for example, the students are very loaded in their final year of high school, many students are not prepared enough to work independently on their projects, and there is very little collaboration between students majoring in various technological areas. The present article shows how the Israeli education system is trying to renovate PBL and DBL in technological classes, for example, by deploying the project work over three years of high school (10th, 11th, 12th grades), encouraging interdisciplinary projects and using online documentation of the design process. The factors that facilitate or hinder project work in school are also discussed.
Domain Walls

Technological evolution and revolution are both driven by the discovery of new functionalities, new materials and the design of yet smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient components. Progress is being made at a breathtaking pace, stimulated by the rapidly growing demand for more powerful and readily available information technology. High-speed internet and data-streaming, home automation, tablets and smartphones are now ‘necessities’ for our everyday lives. Consumer expectations for progressively more data storage and exchange appear to be insatiable. In this context, ferroic domain walls have attracted recent attention as a completely new type of oxide interface. In addition to their functional properties, such walls are spatially mobile and can be created, moved, and erased on demand. This unique degree of flexibility enables domain walls to take an active role in future devices and hold a great potential as multifunctional 2D systems for nanoelectronics. With domain walls as reconfigurable electronic 2D components, a new generation of adaptive nano-technology and flexible circuitry becomes possible, that can be altered and upgraded throughout the lifetime of the device. Thus, what started out as fundamental research, at the limit of accessibility, is finally maturing into a promising concept for next-generation technology.
Ancient Text Character Recognition Using Deep Learning

Ancient scripts provide a captivating insight into the knowledge of ancestors which needs to be preserved for future generations. Therefore, there is a need to convert the digital script available in degraded format into textual format. To accomplish this model is being proposed in the paper that comprises of binarization using selection encoder decoder techniques. The results indicate the binarization accuracy as 74.24% approximately and F-measure is 75% (approximately) which comes out to be greater than other previously developed model. The binarized images are being further segmented using Seam Carbel method at character level and are manually compared with the vocabulary, the segmentation accuracy (A s ) comes out to be 70% approximately. Further, characters are recognized using a three layer Convolutional Neural Network and the recognition accuracy (A r ) is found to be 73% approximately, the recognized images are further converted into text using one to one mapping, to be further used for translation into universally acceptable language like English.
Digital device‐based active learning approach using virtual community classroom during the COVID‐19 pandemic

In India, traditional learning approaches in universities follow passive learning and instruction‐based studies. The demand for evidence‐based instructional and interactive active learning processes increases with the advancement in technology. To improve the quality of teaching and student performance, Laureate International University network has taken a unique initiative by applying an iterative and evidence‐based active learning process in small groups at the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun for the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice program. In this study, active learning processes with digital devices (mobile devices) and digital technologies (modeling tools, simulation, and online resources), having virtual small‐to‐medium strength classrooms are integrated into various scenarios with different levels of education. This has been found to be useful in improving student performance during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The proposed process applies both traditional and active learning processes with the provision to use mobile devices for digital content. This process also involves teachers attending a Bootcamp, over a 2‐month period, consisting of four modules in which they learn about and use digital content that will then be applied in their courses. Results show that the active learning process is of great benefit to students over traditional learning, and it provides a 30% improvement in student's grades. Further, it is observed that long‐term learning average marks increase by 66.9% in two engineering subjects. The simulation‐based experimentations are conducted to engage students and faculty members in active learning and simulation learning processes. It shows that the proposed approach (active learning) improves students' learning abilities as compared to the traditional approach.
Expanding vocabulary and sight word growth through guided play in a pre-primary classroom

Background: This article is based on a study that aimed at finding out how pre-primary teachers integrate directed play into literacy teaching and learning. Play is a platform through which young children acquire language. Aim: This study uses an action research approach to understand how guided play benefits incidental reading and expands vocabulary growth in a Chinese Grade K classroom. Method: Data collection involved classroom observations, document analysis, informal and focus group discussions. Results: The results revealed the key benefits of play-based learning for sight word or incidental reading and vocabulary development. These are: (1) teacher oral and written language learning, (2) learners’ classroom engagement is promoted, (3) learners were actively engaged in learning of orthographic features of words, (4) learners practised recognising the visual or grapho-phonemic structure of words, (5) teacher paced teaching and (6) teacher assesses miscues and (7) keep record of word recognition skills. Conclusion: In the light of the evidence, it is recommended that the English Second Language (ESL) curriculum for pre-service teachers integrate curricular objectives that promote practising playful learning strategies to prepare teachers for practice.
Drought or Severe Drought? Hemiparasitic Yellow Mistletoe (Loranthus europaeus) Amplifies Drought Stress in Sessile Oak Trees (Quercus petraea) by Altering Water Status and Physiological Responses

European oak species have long been considered relatively resistant to different disturbances, including drought. However, several recent studies have reported their decline initiated by complex changes. Therefore, we compared mature sessile oak trees (Quercus petraea (Matt.), Liebl. ) infested versus non-infested by hemiparasitic yellow mistletoe (Loranthus europaeus Jacq.) during the relatively dry vegetation season of 2019. We used broad arrays of ecophysiological (maximal assimilation rate Asat, chlorophyll a fluorescence, stomatal conductance gS, leaf morphological traits, mineral nutrition), growth (tree diameter, height, stem increment), and water status indicators (leaf water potential Ψ, leaf transpiration T, water-use efficiency WUE) to identify processes underlying vast oak decline. The presence of mistletoe significantly reduced the Ψ by 1 MPa, and the WUE by 14%. The T and gS of infested oaks were lower by 34% and 38%, respectively, compared to the non-infested oaks, whereas the Asat dropped to 55%. Less pronounced but significant changes were also observed at the level of photosystem II (PSII) photochemistry. Moreover, we identified the differences in C content, which probably reduced stem increment and leaf size of the infested trees. Generally, we can conclude that mistletoe could be a serious threat that jeopardizes the water status and growth of oak stands.
Design of single‐fed spiral‐shaped slotted planar antenna for GPS L2 and L5 applications

: An innovative design of a right hand circularly polarised (RHCP) antenna at two different resonant frequencies that is GPS (global positioning system) L2 and L5 has been proposed in this study. The proposed design comprised the concept of slotted radiator excited with a coaxial probe. Two asymmetric spiral slots were incorporated in a rectangular radiator to realise size miniaturisation, the axial ratio bandwidth and beamwidth at L2 (1.22760 GHz) and L5 (1.17645 GHz) frequencies of GPS applications. The proposed design has accomplished an excellent axial ratio bandwidth and beamwidth at both GPS L2 and L5 bands. The size of the designed antenna has been 59.64 × 59.64 × 1.6 mm 3 , which makes it attractive for the consumer market. Measured and simulated results achieved that the antenna conquered RHCP radiation at two separate operating bands, i.e. GPS L2 and L5.
A Novel Design of Compact Out-of-Phase Power Divider With Arbitrary Ratio

In a conventional power divider, power dividing network and isolation network are usually independent of each other. To reduce the size of out-of-phase power divider with arbitrary power ratio, coupled microstrip lines are proposed to facilitate power dividing and isolation of a power divider simultaneously in this article. Formulations have been derived for the proposed out-of-phase power divider with arbitrary ratio. Two compact power dividers are implemented on the printed circuit board (PCB) with power ratio <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$k^{2} = 9$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$k^{2} = 1000$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. It can be observed that there is a satisfactory agreement between the simulated and measured results.
FROM MYSTICAL QUEST TO POLITICAL MOVEMENT: A LACANIAN ANALYSIS OF SHIA ISLAM

ABSTRACT: After the Occultation, the moment when the shiites’ messiah disappeared, Shiism broke into two tendencies: the traditional-quietist and the rationalist-political. These two tendencies coexisted for centuries; only quite recently has their balance tilted towards the rationalist-political side, which brought about (principally) the Khomeini revolution in Iran. This article seeks to explore the mode of the social ties in Shia Islam from a psychoanalytic perspective, in terms of its original mystical practices as well as of the political and religious consequences of the decline of traditionalist discourse and the political emergence of “jurist-theologian” with its corollary, the Adversary.
Spastin tethers lipid droplets to peroxisomes and directs fatty acid trafficking through ESCRT-III

Lipid droplets (LDs) are neutral lipid storage organelles that transfer lipids to various organelles including peroxisomes. Here, we show that the hereditary spastic paraplegia protein M1 Spastin, a membrane-bound AAA ATPase found on LDs, coordinates fatty acid (FA) trafficking from LDs to peroxisomes through two inter-related mechanisms. First, M1 Spastin forms a tethering complex with peroxisomal ABCD1 to promote LD-peroxisome contact formation. Second, M1 Spastin recruits the membrane-shaping ESCRT-III proteins IST1 and CHMP1B to LDs via its MIT domain to facilitate LD-to-peroxisome FA trafficking, possibly through IST1 and CHMP1B modifying LD membrane morphology. Furthermore, M1 Spastin, IST1 and CHMP1B are all required to relieve LDs of lipid peroxidation. M1 Spastin’s dual roles in tethering LDs to peroxisomes and in recruiting ESCRT-components to LD-peroxisome contact sites for FA trafficking may help explain the pathogenesis of diseases associated with defective FA metabolism in LDs and peroxisomes.
Interdisciplinary Cooperative Educational Approaches to Foster Knowledge and Competences for Sustainable Development

The objective of this paper is to prove that interdisciplinary educational approaches foster knowledge and competences for sustainable development in primary education. The intervention methodology employed is an educational and pedagogical approach to teaching science through physical activities and is based on developing dynamic reflective and cooperative learning environments to strengthen teaching–learning relationships. The educational approach included analyzing students’ reflections from their focus groups, in which five categories of cooperative learning: positive interdependence, individual accountability, promotive interaction, the appropriate use of social skills, and group processing, were considered. The results show that, to a significant statistical degree, when the interdisciplinary approaches were adopted the primary school students reached higher levels of understanding, reflective and critical thinking development, and that cooperative learning provided them with a greater perception of sustainable development competences through systems and critical thinking, analysis, interpersonal relationships and collaboration, and strategic action.
Patterns of genetic variation in European plant species depend on altitude

High mountain regions exhibit a much stronger environmental heterogeneity and a more complex glacial history than lowland regions. In this study, we compared the genetic variation of plant species occurring in different altitudinal zones. We tested the assumption that environmental and historic differences among high mountain regions and lowlands result in different patterns of genetic diversity and differentiation.
Shea Butter as a Viable Couplant for Ultrasound Imaging

Ultrasound imaging remains one of the widespread diagnostic imaging tools. The commercial coupling gel for ultrasound imaging is quite expensive and not readily available in developing countries. However, shea butter, which is abundant locally and affordable, has suitable acoustic properties that makes it worthwhile for consideration as a coupling agent. Thus, shea butter was investigated alternate coupling medium for ultrasound imaging. In the study, ultrasound images were acquired using commercially available gel and shea butter. The image quality assessment of the images obtained using the gel (reference sample) and shea butter (reference sample) were performed using mean pixel intensity, mean square error (MSE), peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity index matrix (SSIM) as image quality metrics. The resulting computed values of the MSE, PSNR and SSIM were respectively 40.1283 ± 20.4941, 32.7450 ± 2.5722 and 0.5934 ± 0.1035 (mean ± standard deviation). The ranges of these metrics indicate that the images captured using gel and shea butter as couplants were comparable and supported the hypothesis that shea butter could be used as an ultrasound couplant. Using the Mann Whitney U test as a test of significance with α-value set at 0.05, there was no significant difference in the mean pixel intensities between the two set of images. This inference further buttressed the proposition that shea butter could be used as an alternate coupling medium for ultrasound imaging.
Ursane-Type Saponins from Zygophyllum cornutum

Seven known ursane-type saponins were isolated from the methanolic extract of the whole plant of Zygophyllum cornutum Coss, and identified by 2D NMR spectroscopy and FAB-mass spectrometry. They are reported in this species for the first time and might be chemotaxonomically significant for the genus Zygophyllum.
Protector: A Permanent Fault Resilient Router Architecture for Network on Chip

The decreasing size of the transistor has increased the vulnerability towards faults. Increasing number of cores on a single chip has made the concept of Network on Chip (NoC) a standard communication backbone among cores. This facility comes with vulnerability of faults in the system due to decreasing size of transistors. A permanent fault in the network leads to undesirable consequence such as permanent blocking of flits or failure of the whole router. Preserving the router in the operational state has a significant impact on the reliability of the system. Permanent fault in buffers and pipeline stages of the router has a high impact on performance. The proposed router architecture Protector provides faults protection to both buffers and pipelines stages by exploiting the concepts of borrowing from other resources, using bypass paths and by creating multiple paths to reach output. The proposed router incurred an area overhead of 30% as compared to the baseline design. Reliability analysis using Silicon Protection Factor indicates that the proposed router has better fault tolerance efficiency as compared to state of the art. Latency analysis using PARSEC and SPLASH-2 benchmarks indicates proposed router incurs 13% and 16% latency overhead in the presence of faults.
The Impact of Leadership Style, Work Environment and Job Satisfaction on Employee Performance

This study aims to: test and analyze the influence of leadership style, work environment, and job satisfaction on employee performance in employees of BPKAD (Regional Financial and Asset Management Agency) Bondowoso Regency. The population in this study were all employees of BPKAD in Bondowoso Regency, totaling 61 civil servants. The entire population is sampled in this study, so it is also called census research. Validity and reliability tests are used to test the measurement tools in the form of questionnaires. The analysis tool uses Partial Least Square (PLS). The results of hypothesis testing indicate that leadership style has a significant effect on employee performance. Work environment has a significant effect on employee performance. Job satisfaction has a significant effect on employee performance.
The Impact of Meaningful Work on Employee Identity and the Mediating Role of Employee Resilience

The current study focused on the impact of meaningful work on employee identity with a mediating role for employee resilience. Data was collected from a sample of 154 employees currently working in the service sector (call centers) of Lahore, Pakistan. The study was quantitative and the data was analyzed using AMOS software. For this purpose, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to check the model fit statistics and the mediation effect of employee resilience was analyzed using Preacher and Hayes’ (2004) median analysis. Convergent validity was measured through factor loading and AVE value verification of indices; whereas reliability was approved through Cronbach’s alpha. The findings of the current study revealed that meaningful work plays a significant role in enhancing employee resilience, which enables them to cope with challenging situations and thus maintaining their identity. In the service sector, where employees continuously deal with customers, resilience becomes the key to attract and retain potential customers, which allows them to deliver exceptional client service with confidence. This research is among a limited number of studies available on this topic and it will be an important addition to research literature highlighting the impact of meaningful work and employee resilience on employee performance in the context of call centers employees working in Lahore, Pakistan.