Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Environmental Sampling Survey of H5N2 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza–Infected Layer Chicken Farms in Minnesota and Iowa

SUMMARY. Respiratory secretions, feces, feathers, and eggs of avian influenza–infected hens provide ample sources of virus which heavily contaminate barn and farm environments during a disease outbreak. Environmental sampling surveys were conducted in the Midwestern United States on affected farms during the 2015 H5N2 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak to assess the degree of viral contamination. A total of 930 samples were obtained from various sites inside and outside layer barns housing infected birds and tested with real-time reverse transcriptase PCR. The distribution and load of viral RNA in barns in which most birds were dead at the onset of depopulation efforts (high-mortality barns) were compared with those of barns in which birds were euthanatized before excess mortality occurred (normal-mortality barns). A statistically significant difference was seen between cycle threshold (Ct) values for samples taken of fans, feed troughs, barn floors, barn walls, cages, manure-associated locations, barn doors, egg belts, and the exterior of high-mortality vs. normal-mortality barns. In high-mortality barns, sample sites were found to be the most to least contaminated in the following order: cages, manure-associated locations, barn floors, egg belts, feed troughs, barn doors, barn walls, fans, exterior, and egg processing. Significant changes in Ct values over time following HPAI detection in a barn and depopulation of birds on an infected farm were observed for the manure-associated, barn floor, barn wall, and fan sampling sites. These results show that high mortality in a flock as a result of HPAI will increase contamination of the farm environment. The results also suggest optimal sampling locations for detection of virus; however, the persistence of RNA on highmortality farms may delay the determination that adequate sanitization has been performed for restocking to take place.
Employing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Improving Handoff Using Cooperative Game Theory

Heterogeneous wireless networks that are used for seamless mobility are expected to face prominent problems in future fifth generation (5G) cellular networks. Due to their proper flexibility and adaptable preparation, remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) could assist heterogeneous wireless communication. However, the key challenges of current UAV-assisted communications consist in having appropriate accessibility over wireless networks via mobile devices with an acceptable Quality of Service grounded on the users’ preferences. To this end, we propose a novel method based on cooperative game theory to select the best UAV during handover process and optimize handover among UAVs by decreasing the i) end-to-end delay, ii) handover latency, and iii) signaling overheads. Moreover, the standard design of software-defined network with media-independent handover is used as forwarding switches in order to obtain seamless mobility. Numerical results derived from the real data are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in terms of number of handovers, cost, and delay.
Mechanisms of Lead Adsorption on Chitosan/PVA Hydrogel Beads

Removal of lead from aqueous solution with chitosan/PVA (poly(vinyl alcohol)) hydrogel beads was studied in batch adsorption experiments at various solution pH values (2−7.6). Lead adsorption on chitosan/PVA beads was found to be strongly pH-dependent and displayed a maximum uptake capacity at pH around 4 and a minimum at pH about 6.4. ζ-Potential study indicated that chitosan/PVA beads possessed positive ζ-potentials at pH 6.3. Hence, adsorption occurred even though the interaction between lead and chitosan/PVA beads was electrostatically repulsive at pH < 6.3. Complexation, ion exchange, and electrostatic interaction are all believed to play a role in lead adsorption on chitosan/PVA beads, but the relative importance of each of these mechanisms varies with solution pH values. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy spectra suggested that lead adsorption was mainly through interactions with the N atoms in chitosan in the pH rang.
The three-dimensional solubility parameter - key to paint component affinities: solvents, plasticizers, polymers, and resins. II. Dyes, emulsifiers, mutual solubility and compatibility, and pigments. III. Independent cal-culation of the parameter components

The concept that the solubility parameter is a vector composed of hydrogen bonding, polar, and dispersion components is proposed and applied with success to prediction of the solubility of 33 poylmers and resins in 90 solvents and 10 plasticizers. The application of the solubility parameter concept is described. The three dimensional solubility parameter system based on the homomorph concept has been developed on the basis of polymer solubility. The same system has been applied to the characterization of dyes, nonionic emulsifiers, and pigments. The system is also useful for selecting solvents when protective coatings are formulated with more than one polymeric solute. -- AATA
Population Characteristics of the Dragonfly Pantala flavescens (F.)1 Colonizing Small Constructed Ponds

Abstract. A series of small ponds was constructed to determine whether dragonflies would oviposit in them. Four pond sizes - 0.3, 0.6, 0.9, and 1.2 m2 - were replicated and randomized in each of six blocks. Ponds in three of the blocks were planted with cattail (Typha sp.) and three with spike rush (Junca sp.). Sampling revealed that of 273 nymphs collected, 267 were Pantala flavescens (F.) and six were Orthemis ferruginea (F.), although adults of 15 other dragonfly species were seen in the study area. Dragonfly nymphs were not found in any of the smallest size of pond. Significantly more nymphs were found in ponds planted with cattail than rush (215 vs 52), but the nymphs grew larger in ponds with rushes. The mean number of nymphs was larger in the 1.2-m2 ponds (21.8) than in the 0.6-m2 ponds (8.7), while 0.9 m2 was intermediate (15.0). However, when the number of nymphs per unit area was compared, there were no differences between any of the pond sizes within a vegetation class -- cattail or rush. Between classes, more nymphs per unit area were in ponds planted with cattails. Because the one species of dominant dragonfly was not representative of distribution of dragonfly species in normal-sized ponds and probably was the only dragonfly found in any similar experiment, use of small reference ponds of these sizes was not feasible for assessing dragonfly diversity and abundance.
Stereo Visual Odometry for Indoor Localization of Ship Model

Typically, ships are designed for open sea navigation and thus research of autonomous ships is mostly done for that particular area. This paper explores the possibility of using low-cost sensors for localization inside the small navigation area. The localization system is based on the technology used for developing autonomous cars. The main part of the system is visual odometry using stereo cameras fused with Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) data coupled with Kalman and particle filters to get decimetre level accuracy inside a basin for different surface conditions. The visual odometry uses cropped frames for stereo cameras and Good features to track algorithm for extracting features to get depths for each feature that is used for estimation of ship model movement. Experimental results showed that the proposed system could localize itself within a decimetre accuracy implying that there is a real possibility for ships in using visual odometry for autonomous navigation on narrow waterways, which can have a significant impact on future transportation.
A Novel Multivariate-Multiscale Approach for Computing EEG Spectral and Temporal Complexity for Human Emotion Recognition

This work proposes a novel multivariate-multiscale approach for computing the spectral and temporal entropies from the multichannel electroencephalogram (EEG) signal. This facilitates the recognition of three human emotions: positive, neutral, and negative. The proposed approach is based on the application of the Fourier-Bessel series expansion based empirical wavelet transform (FBSE-EWT). We have extended the existing FBSE-EWT method for multichannel signals and derived FBSE-EWT based multivariate Hilbert marginal spectrum (MHMS) for computing spectral Shannon and K-nearest neighbor (K-NN) entropies. The multivariate FBSE-EWT decomposes the multichannel EEG signals into narrow band subband signals. The multiscaling operation adapted in the spectral domain is based on the selection of successive joint instantaneous amplitude and frequency functions of the subband signals. On the other hand, the time domain multiscale K-NN entropy is computed from the cumulatively added multidimensional subband signals. The extracted spectral and temporal entropy features are smoothed and fed to the sparse autoencoder based random forest (ARF) classifier architecture for emotion classification. The proposed approach is tested using multichannel EEG signals available in a public database (SJTU emotion EEG dataset (SEED)). The bivariate EEG signals from different channel pairs with distinct spatial locations over the scalp are considered as input to our proposed system. The obtained overall classification accuracy of 94.4% reveals that the proposed approach is useful in classifying human emotions. The method is also validated using DREAMER emotion EEG public database. The method outperforms the existing state-of-the-art methods evaluated in these databases.
Performance of processing tomatoes under different supply levels of crop evapotranspiration

ABSTRACT Irrigation management is essential to promote appropriate plant growth and guarantee production and quality of the tomatoes for processing, increases the efficiency of nutrients use and contributes to ensure the sustainability of the production chain. This study was installed to evaluate productive performance of two processing tomato hybrids submitted to five water depths under drip irrigation system. Five levels of crop evapotranspiration (ETc) replacement (60%, 100%, 140%, 180% and 220%) and two tomato hybrids (BRS Sena and H 9992) were tested. The experimental design was a 5×2 factorial arranged in randomized complete block design with four replications. During the crop cycle, hybrids BRS Sena and H 9992 needed 692.20 and 418.43 mm of water, yielding 80 and 44.06 t ha-1, respectively. For both hybrids, the higher water productivity was observed when lower levels of irrigation were applied. Higher productivities and pulp yields of ‘BRS Sena’ and ‘H 9992’ were noticed when replacing 150-166% and 99-101% ETc, respectively. We observed that improving the performance of processing hybrid tomatoes is possible by adjusting irrigation levels for each hybrid according to growing conditions.
Specialized and spatially organized coding of sensory, motor, and cognitive variables in midbrain dopamine neurons

There is increased appreciation that dopamine (DA) neurons in the midbrain respond not only to reward 1,2 and reward-predicting cues 1,3,4, but also to other variables such as distance to reward 5, movements 6–11 and behavioral choices 12–15. Based on these findings, a major open question is how the responses to these diverse variables are organized across the population of DA neurons. In other words, do individual DA neurons multiplex multiple variables, or are subsets of neurons specialized in encoding specific behavioral variables? The reason that this fundamental question has been difficult to resolve is that recordings from large populations of individual DA neurons have not been performed in a behavioral task with sufficient complexity to examine these diverse variables simultaneously. To address this gap, we used 2-photon calcium imaging through an implanted lens to record activity of >300 midbrain DA neurons in the VTA during a complex decision-making task. As mice navigated in a virtual reality (VR) environment, DA neurons encoded an array of sensory, motor, and cognitive variables. These responses were functionally clustered, such that subpopulations of neurons transmitted information about a subset of behavioral variables, in addition to encoding reward. These functional clusters were spatially organized, such that neighboring neurons were more likely to be part of the same cluster. Taken together with the topography between DA neurons and their projections, this specialization and anatomical organization may aid downstream circuits in correctly interpreting the wide range of signals transmitted by DA neurons.
Tree-Ring-Recorded Drought Variability in the Northern Daxing’anling Mountains of Northeastern China

We developed two tree-ring width chronologies of Mongolian Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica) from the low elevation forest of the northern Daxing’anling Mountains of Inner Mongolia. Although the two chronologies come from different sampling sites, significant correlations existed among the chronologies (r = 0.318), and the first principal component (PC1) accounted for 65.9% of total variance over their common period 1792–2016. Climate-growth correlation analysis revealed that the previous June and July Palmer drought severity index (PDSIp6-7) was the main climatic factor controlling tree-ring growth. Using a linear regression model, we reconstructed the PDSIp6-7 for the past 225 years (1792–2016). The reconstruction satisfied required statistical calibration and validation tests, and represented 38.6% of the PDSI variance recorded by instruments over the period 1955–2016. Six wet and five dry periods were revealed during these 225 years. The drought of 1903–1927 was the most severe drought in the study area in the last 225 years. Comparison with other tree-ring-based moisture-sensitive sequences from nearby regions confirmed a high degree of confidence in our reconstruction. The results of a spatial climate correlation analysis with a gridded PDSI dataset revealed that our reconstructions contained strong regional drought signals for the southern Stanovoy Range and the northern Daxing’anling Mountains. The power spectrum revealed the existence of significant frequency cycles, which may be linked to large-scale atmospheric-oceanic variability, such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, solar activity, and the North Atlantic Oscillation.
Doppler Shift Mitigation in Acoustic Positioning Based on Pedestrian Dead Reckoning for Smartphone

Acoustic localization is a viable solution for high-precision indoor positioning with current built-in smartphone sensors. However, the Doppler shift produces an additional error in the time difference of arrival (TDOA) estimation when the smartphone is in motion, resulting in degradation in the acoustic localization performance. In this article, we present an indoor localization system for smartphones that overcomes the effects of the Doppler shift by combining inertial and acoustic sensors data. First, we establish an error correction model related to the current position and velocity of the smartphone, which can estimate and mitigate the errors caused by the Doppler shift in the TDOA measurements. Second, a uniform acceleration dynamic model and an improved pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR) algorithm are designed to obtain the model parameter. Experiments show that the two proposed algorithms reduce the positioning error by 49.1% and 71.9% under continuous acoustic signal conditions and by 33.3% and 69.8% under occasional abnormal signal conditions. The presented system can achieve a positioning accuracy of about 0.2 m (RMS).
Rôle des G-quadruplexes dans l'instabilité génomique chez Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Les G-quadruplexes sont des structures a quatre brins formees spontanement par certains acides nucleiques riches en guanines dans des conditions physiologiques in vitro et qui presentent une grande variete de conformations. Ma these a consiste a montrer qu’ils se formaient in vivo et a etudier les consequences pathologiques de leur persistance. Le systeme experimental utilise au cours de ma these repose sur la mesure de la stabilite de sequences repetees en tandem humaines de type minisatellite chez S. Cerevisiae en croissance mitotique. Le motif unitaire du minisatellite CEB1 forme un G-quadruplexe, efficacement deroule par l’helicase Pif1 in vitro. Dans un mutant deficient pour l’helicase Pif1, CEB1 est frequemment rearrange (expansion ou contraction). J’ai dans un premier temps participe a montrer que cette instabilite de CEB1 dependait de ses motifs G-quadruplexes, par mutagenese dirigee. J’ai confirme ce resultat par une seconde approche, en traitant des cellules sauvages avec un ligand specifique des G-quadruplexes. Ce ligand induit specifiquement l’instabilite du minisatellite CEB1, mais n’a pas d’effet sur le minisatellite CEB1 mute. Ces outils experimentaux m’ont ensuite permis, en collaboration avec J. Lopes, de montrer que l’instabilite du minisatellite survient durant la replication, lorsque les G-quadruplexes sont formes sur la matrice du brin a synthese continue. Cette capacite a former des G-quadruplexes, entre autres proprietes des minisatellites riches en GC, induit la formation de grands rearrangements chromosomiques. Le dernier volet de ma these a consiste en l’etude de la relation structure-fonction des G-quadruplexes a l’instabilite genomique
WATER TURBINE EFFICIENCY MEASUREMENTS USING THE GIBSON METHOD BASED ON SPECIAL INSTRUMENTATION INSTALLED INSIDE PIPELINES

Water discharge measurement is the essential and very difficult task of hydraulic machinery performance tests under field conditions. It is especially complex in water power plants with no access to the flow system from outside, and no suitable measurement installations prepared during construction. Among few available water discharge measurement methods, the pressure-time (Gibson) method is very attractive nowadays. The late worldwide growth of interest in this method results from replacing the traditional recording techniques by digital (computer-based) data acquisition systems to obtain the pressure-time curve. Therefore, the method is now more competitive than before. Preparation to use this method is relatively simple in a penstock with an access from outside. However, the difficulty grows in configurations with no access requiring sophisticate installation of pressure measurement systems inside the penstock.
Miniaturized, Ultra-Wideband and High Isolation Single Pole Double Throw Switch by Using π-Type Topology in GaAs pHEMT Technology

In this brief, a compact ultra-wideband monolithic microwave integrated circuit single pole double throw (SPDT) switch with high isolation level and low insertion loss is presented. A <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\pi }$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-type topology, consisted of a transmission line with an electrical length of less than 90° and two parallel grounded metal-insulator-metal capacitors, is employed to replace the conventional <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\lambda $ </tex-math></inline-formula>/4 transmission line between the adjacent parallel field effect transistors of the serial parallel SPDT switch. In comparison with the traditional method, an ultra-wideband high isolation behavior and the reduced dimension is achieved simultaneously with the proposed SPDT switch. Furthermore, the equivalent circuit model is built to interpret the mechanism of the improved technique. A chip sample is fabricated with Gallium Arsenide processing with a size of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1.25\times 1.05$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm<sup>2</sup>. The measured insertion loss is less than 1.9 dB and the isolation is better than 36 dB from DC to 30 GHz. Good agreements are observed between the simulated and measured results.
Realtime Multi-Person 2D Pose Estimation

--------------------------------------------------------------------- ABSTRACT ----------------------------------------------------------------- This paper explains how to detect the 2D pose of multiple people in an image. We use in this paper Part Afﬁnity Fields for Part Association (It is non-parametric representation), Conﬁdence Maps for Part Detection, Multi -Person Parsing using PAFs, Simultaneous Detection and Association, this method achieve high accuracy and performance regardless the number of people in the image. This architecture placed ﬁrst within the inaugural COCO 2016 key points challenge. Also, this architecture exceeds the previous state-of-the-art result on the MPII Multi-Person benchmark, both in performance and efﬁciency.
A Real Time Vision-Based Smoking Detection Framework on Edge

: Smoking is the main reason for fire disaster and pollution in petrol station, construction site and warehouse. Existing solutions based on wearable devices and smoking sensors were costly and hard to obtain evidence of smoking in unmanned scenarios. With the developments of closed circuit television (CCTV) system, vision-based methods for object detection, mostly driven by deep learning techniques, were introduced recently. However, the massive GPU computing hardware required by the deep learning algorithm made these methods hard to be deployed. This paper aims at solving the smoking detection problem on edge and proposes the solution that has fast detection speed, high accuracy on micro-objects and low computing budget, i.e., it could be deployed on the edge device such as NVIDIA JETSON TX2. We designed a new framework named RTVBS based on yolov3 and made a smoking dataset to train our model. We raised several methods to improve detection accuracy during the training step. The validation results show our model has excellent performance in smoking detection.
Unsteady coupled convection, conduction and radiation simulations on parallel architectures for combustion applications

In the aeronautical industry, energy generation relies almost exclusively in the combustion of hydrocarbons. The best way to improve the efficiency of such systems, while controlling their environmental impact, is to optimize the combustion process. With the continuous rise of computational power, simulations of complex combustion systems have become feasible, but until recently in industrial applications radiation and heat conduction were neglected. In the present work the numerical tools necessary for the coupled resolution of the three heat transfer modes have been developed and applied to the study of an helicopter combustion chamber. It is shown that the inclusion of all heat transfer modes can influence the temperature repartition in the domain. The numerical tools and the coupling methodology developed are now opening the way to a good number of scientific and engineering applications.
Mediaeval Arabic Bookmaking And Its Relation To Early Chemistry And Pharmacology

Study of the relationship of Arab chemistry and alchemy to the original and remarkable development of pharmacological science. The materials of a significant text on chemical technology and those found in pharmacological manuscripts and printed texts are described. The development of book-making together with the materials used (paper, parchment, inks, gold and silver dyes, dyes and glues) are surveyed. Formulas and a list of references are included.