Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automatic Methods for Human Embryo Component Extraction

In this thesis, we proposed two novel methods for blastomere extraction and trophectoderm segmentation in an attempt to aid physicians in determining embryo’s viability. Accurate assessment of embryo’s viability can play a vital role towards optimization of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment outcomes. The first proposed automatic method is developed to identify blastomeres in human embryo HMC (Hoffman Modulation Contrast) images of day-1 to day-2. Our algorithm applies isoperimetric graph partitioning, followed by a novel region merging algorithm to approximate blastomeres positions. Ellipsoidal models are then used to approximate the shape and the size of each blastomere. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on a dataset of 40 embryo images and it exhibits an average blastomere extraction accuracy of 80%. The second method segments Trophectoderm (TE) regions in embryos of day-5 (also known as blastocysts) by first eliminating the inhomogeneities of the blastocysts surface using Retinex theory. A level set algorithm is then used to segment TE regions. We have tested our method on a dataset of 85 images and have achieved a segmentation accuracy of 85% for grade A, 89% for grade B and 92% for grade C.
Boltzmann Entropy, the Holographic Bound and Newtonian Cosmology

The holographic principle sets an upper bound on the total (Boltzmann) entropy content of the Universe at around 10 123 k B ( k B being Boltzmann’s constant). In this work we point out the existence of a remarkable duality between nonrelativistic quantum mechanics on the one hand, and Newtonian cosmology on the other. Specifically, nonrelativistic quantum mechanics has a quantum probability fluid that exactly mimics the behaviour of the cosmological fluid, the latter considered in the Newtonian approximation. One proves that the equations governing the cosmological fluid (the Euler equation and the continuity equation) become the very equations that govern the quantum probability fluid after applying the Madelung transformation to the Schroedinger wavefunction. Under the assumption that gravitational equipotential surfaces can be identified with isoentropic surfaces, this model allows for a simple computation of the gravitational entropy of a Newtonian Universe.
An Implementation-Based Approach to SHRM: the Concept of HR Practice Intensity and its Relationship to Individual Performance

The present work intends to open new avenues for research under this implementation-based approach. In an exploratory analysis, we propose and test a type of measure, the intensity of HR practices implementation at the individual level, that has been barely used in the HRM-performance literature (Boselie et al, 2005; Paauwe and Boselie, 2005; Dorenbosch and Van Veldhoven, 2006). To this purpose, we work over the complete ERP-based datasets of two companies from different industries (banking and IT) which comprise the quantification of the impact of a set of HR practices on an individual employee level.
Sea-ice dynamics strongly promote Snowball Earth initiation and destabilize tropical sea-ice margins

The Snowball Earth bifurcation, or runaway ice- albedo feedback, is defined for particular boundary condi- tions by a critical CO2 and a critical sea-ice cover (SI), both of which are essential for evaluating hypotheses related to Neoproterozoic glaciations. Previous work has shown that the Snowball Earth bifurcation, denoted as (CO2, SI) , dif- fers greatly among climate models. Here, we study the ef- fect of bare sea-ice albedo, sea-ice dynamics and ocean heat transport on (CO2, SI) in the atmosphere-ocean gen- eral circulation model ECHAM5/MPI-OM with Marinoan ( 635 Ma) continents and solar insolation (94 % of mod- ern). In its standard setup, ECHAM5/MPI-OM initiates a Snowball Earth much more easily than other climate mod- els at (CO2, SI) (500 ppm, 55 %). Replacing the model's standard bare sea-ice albedo of 0.75 by a much lower value of 0.45, we find (CO 2, SI) (204 ppm, 70 %). This is consis- tent with previous work and results from net evaporation and local melting near the sea-ice margin. When we additionally disable sea-ice dynamics, we find that the Snowball Earth bifurcation can be pushed even closer to the equator and occurs at a hundred times lower CO2: (CO2, SI) (2 ppm, 85 %). Therefore, the simulation of sea-ice dynamics in ECHAM5/MPI-OM is a dominant determinant of its high critical CO2 for Snowball initiation relative to other mod- els. Ocean heat transport has no effect on the critical sea-ice cover and only slightly decreases the critical CO2. For dis- abled sea-ice dynamics, the state with 85 % sea-ice cover is stabilized by the Jormungand mechanism and shares charac- teristics with the Jormungand climate states. However, there is no indication of the Jormungand bifurcation and hystere- sis in ECHAM5/MPI-OM. The state with 85 % sea-ice cover therefore is a soft Snowball state rather than a true Jor- mungand state. Overall, our results demonstrate that differ- ences in sea-ice dynamics schemes can be at least as impor- tant as differences in sea-ice albedo for causing the spread in climate models' estimates of the Snowball Earth bifurca- tion. A detailed understanding of Snowball Earth initiation therefore requires future research on sea-ice dynamics to de- termine which model's simulation is most realistic.
BLACK-BOX IDENTIFICATION OF A THERMOELECTRIC TEMPERATURE CONTROL SYSTEM FOR PIEZORESISTIVE PRESSURE SENSOR-CALIBRATION

Calibration of piezoresistive pressure sensors requires an extensive acquisition of sensor characteristics. Calibration devices have to fulfill high standards of temperature and pressure accuracy and trajectory speed. While pressure control performs quite well, state-of-the-art devices show poor temperature control performance, due to their retarding and nonlinear temperature dynamics. To overcome this problem, the standard industrial PID temperature controller can be replaced by more sophisticated control methods. The vast majority of these control methods, such as model predictive control, require a model of the device’s temperature behavior. Black-box models can deliver all necessary information for model-based control applications. This paper focuses on black-box model identification of a calibration device’s temperature behavior. A single-input-singleoutput (SISO) model of the nonlinear temperature dynamics is learned by a recurrent neural-network (RNN) with Long-short-term-memory (LSTM) using the resilient propagation (RPROP ) training method. The method is applied to a real calibration fixture, which uses convective cooled Peltier-elements for temperature control. The use of LSTM leads to a timeseries-reproduction error, which is more than 10 times smaller, compared to a RNN having tanh activation functions instead of LSTM.
Physiological and Molecular Analysis of a Valine Resistant Mutant in Arabidopsis thaliana

Bitki hucrelerinde amino asitlerin membranlardan gecisi genellikle tasimayi proton tasima gucune baglayan bir amino asit tasiyicisi gerektirir. Son yillarda cesitli molekuler ve biyokimyasal yaklasimlar kullanilarak bir cok amino asit tasiyicisi karakterize edilmistir. Genleri tanimlamak icin yayginca kullanilan bir baska yontem ise T-DNA ile mutasyona ugratilmis tohumlarin arasinda mutant fenotipler aramaktir. Bu calismada bir T-DNA mutanti tohum populasyonu yuksek valin ihtiva eden ortamda taramaya tabi tutularak bir valin tasima eksikligi gosteren mutant bitki izole edildi. Southern Blot metoduyla yapilan analiz, mutant bitkinin genomuna sadece bir T-DNA molekulunun eklendigini gosterdi. Radyoaktif karbonla (14C) isaretlenmis amino asitlerle yapilan ‘tum fide tasima’ deneyinin, mutant bitkinin dokularina valin aliminin azalmis oldugunu gostermesi, mutasyona ugramis olan genin bir valin tasiyicisi oldugu hipotezini guclendirmektedir
Low cost integration of multilevel lab-on-a-chip using a new generation of dry film photoresists

We present the use of a novel dry film photoresist DF-1050 (EMS) for the integration of multilevel microfluidic systems. We showed that high resolution and high aspect ratio (7:1) can be achieved for free standing structures. We proved also that the dry film autofluorescence level is compatible with most of lab-on-a-chip applications and established the biocompatibility of this dry film. Ultimately, we demonstrated that this low-cost material combined with multilevel lamination technology would allow introducing massively 3D microfluidic in lab-on-a-chip devices.
Cortical stiffness : a gatekeeper for spindle positioning in mouse oocytes

Les divisions meiotiques sont tres asymetriques en taille et generent une tres grosse cellule, l'ovocyte, et deux petites cellules, les globules polaires. Cette asymetrie est permise par la migration du fuseau lors de la premiere division jusqu'au cortex le plus proche. Cette migration ne depend pas des microbutules mais de la Myosin-II et d'un reseau de filaments d'actine nuclee par la cooperation des nucleateurs de filaments droits Formin-2 et Spire1/2. Des observations preliminaires effectuees au laboratoire ont decrit un epaississement du cortex d'actine pendant la migration du fuseau, mais pourtant il avait ete montre que la tension corticale, un parametre decrivant la rigidite de l'ovocyte, diminue pendant la migration du fuseau. J'ai montre que cet epaississement est indispensable a la migration du fuseau et est nuclee par le nucleateur de filaments branches Arp2/3, sous le controle de la voie Mos/MAPK. De plus, il provoque la diminution de la tension corticale en delocalisant la Myosin-II, ce qui est indispensable a la migration du fuseau. Finalement, j'ai montre que le chute de tension est un mecanisme d'amplification du desequilibre des forces present initialement (grâce au leger decentrage du noyau) qui declenche la migration du fuseau.
PAP EFFECT OF RESISTANCE AND OVERSPEED RUNNING ON KINEMATICS AND SPRINT PERFORMANCE

The purpose of this study was to examine if there is a post activation potentiation (PAP) effect of resistance and overspeed sprinting upon kinematics and performance of regular 20m sprints. Fifteen female team handball players performed three training protocols: seven normal 20m sprints, or seven sprints alternating between normal and either resistance or overspeed sprints in a session. The main finding was that only resistance runs had a PAP effect on the first normal 20m sprint. However, this was only the case after one resistance run. Using several resistance runs did not have any positive effect upon the normal runs, but causes probably fatigue as shown in the increased contact times and decreased vertical stiffness, step length and rate. Overspeed running did not cause any changes to the normal runs.
Biometric Recognition Techniques: A Review

In today‟s world automation is encompassing virtually every walk of life and human control functions are delegated to technical equipment. No doubt this results in emerging requirement of highly reliable personal identification system for authenticated access of resources and to reject imposters. Traditional password based verification systems can be easily hacked when a password is divulged to an unauthorized user. A number of biometric techniques have been proposed for personal identification by various researchers. Biometric includes something which one does not need to remember or carry a token. Biometric based personal authentication systems use physiological or behavioral traits of a person for recognition purpose. Physiological traits include fingerprint, face, hand geometry etc. and behavioral traits are speech, handwriting, key strokes etc. During past few years, there has been remarkable growth in biometric recognition technology due to the increasing requirement of highly reliable personal identification and authentication in a number of government and commercial applications. In this paper we present a comparative study of various biometric recognition techniques suggested for authentication purpose and to reject imposters.
LONG TERM EFFECTS OF LEAD (Pb) TOXICITY ON THE GROWTH PERFORMANCE, NITROGEN CONVERSION RATIO AND YIELD OF MAJOR CARPS

One group of three fish species, Catla catla, Labeo rohita and Cirrhina mrigala, was exposed to sub-lethal concentrations of lead (Pb), separately, in aquaria for 30 days while other was kept un-stressed as a control. After exposure period both stressed and control fish were shifted to earthen ponds to rear, separately, for six months to study their growth, nitrogen conversion ratio (NCR) and yield at final harvest. Statistical analysis of the research data showed significant effects of fortnights, species and treatments on wet weights, fork and total lengths of three fish species. Among three fish species C. mrigala gained maximum weigh of 53.76± 7.39 g that varied significantly (P<0.05) from that of L. rohita (41.7± 9.48 g) but non-significantly from the weight gains of C. catla (52.65± 9.40 g). Fork and total length increments were observed significantly (P<0.05) higher in C. mrigala followed by that of C. catla and L. rohita. Fish stressed at sub-lethal level of Pb showed significantly (P<0.01) lower weights, fork and total lengths as compared to the control fish. Fortnights (P<0.05), species, treatments and the interaction (species × treatments) exerted significant (P<0.05 effects on NCR. On the basis of this investigation, it was concluded that sub-lethal metal (lead) exposure to the fish at fingerling stage had long term effects on growth (weight, fork and total length gains), NCR and yield of fish when cultured in grower ponds.
Value, trading strategies and financial investment of natuarl gas storage assets

By valuing a natural gas storage facility as a portfolio of real options, we study the value, trading strategies, technology, and financial investment of the storage for a risk neutral marketer to trade gas in an energy commodity exchange (spot market). The storage facility under consideration is a representative of highly deliverable peak load storages and lowly deliverable base load storages, with distinct deliverability restricted by physical injection and withdrawal constraints. Its operational flexibilities endow it with the real options which could be valued by the expected maximum profit earned from seasonal and daily trading. The primary focus is to optimize trading strategy to extract the embedded options value and assess the financial value of a storage contract to gain the whole or partial control of the facility over years. We show that the optimal trading policy will inject (withdraw) gas only when the market price exceeds (is exceeded by) the shadow price of the working gas in storage, less (plus) the marginal operating cost. Moreover, we explore the contingency of the optimal gas trading policy on the prediction of the spot prices by characterizing when it is optimal to sell low and buy high.Finally, we demonstrate that the analysis can be deployed to value firm storage contract, and related technological deployment and financial investment.
Analysis of phenotypes altered by temperature stress and hipermutability in Drosophila willistoni

Drosophila willistoni (Sturtevant, 1916) is a species of the willistoni group of Drosophila having wide distribution from the South of USA (Florida) and Mexico to the North of Argentina. It has been subject of many evolutionary studies within the group, due to its considerable ability to successfully occupy a wide range of environments and also because of its great genetic variability expressed by different markers. The D. willistoni 17A2 strain was collected in 1991 in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (30°05'S, 51°39'W), and has been maintained since then at the Drosophila laboratory of UFRGS. Different to the other D. willistoni strains maintained in the laboratory, the 17A2 strain spontaneously produced mutant males white-like (white eyes) and sepia-like (brown eyes) in stocks held at 17°C. In order to discover if this strain is potentially hypermutable, we submitted it to temperature stress tests. Eighteen isofemale strains were used in our tests and, after the first generation, all the individuals produced in each strain were maintained at 29°C. Different phenotype alterations were observed in subsequent generations, similar to mutations already well characterized in D. melanogaster (white, sepia, blistered and curly). In addition, an uncommon phenotype alteration with an apparent fusion of the antennae was observed, but only in the isofemale line no 31. This last alteration has not been previously described as a mutation in the D. melanogaster species. Our results indicate that the D. willistoni 17A2 strain is a candidate for hypermutability, which presents considerable cryptic genetic variability. Different factors may be operating for the formation of this effect, such as the mobilization of transposable elements, effect of inbreeding and alteration of the heat-shock proteins functions.
An iterative optimisation procedure for the rehabilitation of water-supply pipe networks

This paper presents an iterative method for the optimisation of the total costs for the rehabilitation of water-supply pipe networks with flow and pressure deficiency at the consumer nodes. The procedure is based on the exchange gradient concept of Granados for the economic design of pressurised networks. The substitution of pipe sections, relining and increase in pumping head are considered as being rehabilitation options. An initial solution is obtained for the deficient network by determining the required pumping head that would meet the pressure and discharge requirements at all the nodes. Subsequently, the pumping head is reduced in stages and for each reduction; the network of minimum cost is obtained by the substitution or relining of individual pipes in part or in full. The optimal solution is reached when the marginal annual cost of pipe rehabilitation exceeds the reduction in annual pumping costs.
Effect of eggplant transformed with oryzacystatin gene on Myzus persicae and Macrosiphum euphorbiae

Abstract: The effect of a genetically modified eggplant line expressing oryzacystatin on Myzus persicae (Sulzer) and Macrosiphum euphorbiae (Thomas) was examined. The transgenic eggplant reduced the net reproductive rate (R0), the instantaneous rate of population increase (r), and the finite rate of population increase (λ) of both aphids species compared with a control eggplant line. The mean generation time (T) of the aphids was unaffected by the transgenic plants. Age‐specific mortality rates of M. persicae and M. euphorbiae were higher on transgenic plants. These results indicate that expression of oryzacystatin in eggplant has a negative impact on population growth and mortality rates of M. persicae and M. euphorbiae and could be a source of plant resistance for pest management of these aphids.
Design Methodology for Ultra Low-Power Analog Circuits using Next Generation BSIM 6 Compact Model

The design of analog circuits strongly relies on the accuracy of the models available in the circuit simulators. The recently proposed BSIM6 bulk MOSFET compact model is set to replace the hitherto widely used BSIM3 and BSIM4 models as the de-facto industrial standard. Unlike its predecessors which were threshold voltage based, the BSIM6 core is charge-based and thus physically continuous at all levels of inversion and from linear region to saturation region. Hence, it lends itself conveniently for the use of a design methodology suited for low-power analog circuit design and based on the inversion coefficient (IC). The IC based design methodology that has been extensively used in conjugation with the EKV model allows to make simple calculations of, for example, transconductance efficiency, gain bandwidth product, input-referred noise, mismatch offsets etc. This methodology helps to make a near-optimal selection of transistor dimensions and operating points even in moderate and weak inversion regions. This paper will discuss the IC based design methodology and its application to the next generation BSIM6 compact MOSFET model.
USING SUM MATCH KERNEL WITH BALANCED LABEL TREE FOR LARGE-SCALE IMAGE CLASSIFICATION

Large-scale image classification is a fundamental problem in computer vision due to many real applications in various domains. A label tree-based classification is one of effective approaches for reducing the testing complexity with a large number of class labels. However, how to build a label tree structure with cost efficiency and high accuracy classification is a challenge. The popular building tree method is to apply a clustering algorithm to a similarity matrix which is obtained by training and evaluating one-versus-all classifiers on validation set. So, this method quickly become impracticable because the cost of training OvA classifiers is too high for large-scale classification problem. In this paper, we introduce a new method to obtain a similarity matrix without using one-versus-all classifiers. To measure the similarity among classes, we used the sum-match kernel that is able to be calculated simply basing on the explicit feature map. Furthermore, to gain computational efficiency in classification, we also propose an algorithm for learning balanced label tree by balancing a number of class labels in each node. The experimental results on standard benchmark datasets ImageNet - 1K , SUN-397 and Caltech -256 show that the performance of the proposed method outperforms significantly other methods.
Experimental Tests of Wind Turbine Main Shaft Motion on a Laboratory Test Rig

This paper introduces research and discusses findings dealing with failure modes of gearboxes in wind turbines. These gearboxes fail in general after five years which is far below the expected design life of twenty years of a wind turbine. The research is taking a more holistic approach towards finding typical behaviour of the main shaft taking the transient nature of the wind into consideration. In this research, a small scale wind turbine test rig has been designed and manufactured with displacement sensors installed to observe the displacement of the main shaft at specific points, namely the main bearing locations of the forward framework of a wind turbine nacelle, where the main shaft is installed. The experimental data measured from the test rig is being analysed with common beam bending, statistical and fatigue theories to draw conclusions for long term loading in service. Aspects of the turbulent nature of the wind driving the wind turbine have been taken into consideration as being part of the aerodynamic loading onto the rotor and eventually the gearbox, transmitted through the main shaft. The purpose of the test rig at this stage is to obtain a quantitative insight into the motion of the main shaft. The deliberately chosen softer aluminum material and the more slender geometry for the components should provide exaggerated displacements which help to make motion and deformations more obvious. At this point, no resemblance to real size wind turbines has been established.
About Creativity, Giftedness, and Teaching the Creatively Gifted in the Classroom

In this case study the author explored a teacher's beliefs about creativity and gifted‐ness and investigated the classroom practices of this teacher of gifted students for 20 years. Seven semi‐structured and 2 open observations were carried out in her classroom, and 2 prefigured interviews were conducted with her. She believed that creative children are those who are “free thinkers” and have “imaginative intelligence. ” The thin line between an academically gifted child and a creatively gifted child is built by “imagination,” “emotional intensity,” and “curiosity. ” In creative writing, she tried to implement activities such as learning to write poetry, personal narratives, research reports and essays posing solutions to real world problems, and mystery stories decorated with similes, metaphors and imaginative expressions. In reading, students analyzed characters, problems, places and times in stories and novels, and then rewrote stories.