Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the robustness of point clouds from small format aerial photography over a Pinus radiata plantation

ABSTRACT Extensive research and operational trials over the past 20 years have led to the operational implementation of airborne laser scanning (ALS)-based forest inventory becoming increasingly common. More recently, digital aerial photography (AP), processed using Structure from Motion Multiview Stereopsis (SfM-MVS) photogrammetry, is emerging as an alternative to ALS. Aerial photography may provide some advantages compared with ALS, including lower deployment and data collection costs, easier access to a variety of platforms and sensors, and the opportunity for forest managers to capture and process the data in-house. This study presents an analysis of point-cloud data derived from airborne small format digital AP, and a comparison with ALS data for a Pinus radiata plantation located in north-east Tasmania. The AP was processed using commercially available photogrammetric software and three different processing strategies. The influence of processing strategy, terrain slope, canopy occlusion, canopy cover, photo-overlap and camera location are investigated in order to characterise the point clouds generated using these methods, and to assess the robustness of the photogrammetric solution to these variables. Our analysis provides strong evidence of the robustness of small format AP-based point clouds in this type of forest: characteristics of the dense point cloud are shown to be largely robust to different photogrammetric processing strategies. Observations regarding the influence of terrain slope, photo-overlap, canopy occlusions, canopy cover and camera location can be used to optimise flight planning and photo-acquisition.
Experiencing information, acquiring knowledge, and making decisions regarding web accessibility

We address the disparity between availability of information and its actual implementation in decisions in the context of Web Accessibility (W-A). Organizations are aware of the importance of W-A for alleviating barriers to interaction with online platforms, such as visual, motor, hearing, and cognitive impairments. Information regarding inclusion design is abundant but implementation is partial. Applying W-A refers to implementing technical and graphical solutions to assist people with disabilities in access and use of online systems. We hypothesized that people who produce information are more likely to decide to apply W-A than information consumers. A total of 651 participants took part in a set of eight experiments. Consumers read information about W-A and producers created the same information. Decisions regarding applying W-A knowledge were measured before and after information use. Results reveal that (1) collaborative information consumption is related to a change in decision; (2) The extent of change in decision relates to the number of collaborating producers; (3) Collaborative information production increases the intent to make a practical decision to apply W-A. This study emphasizes the interaction between information experience and peer collaboration regarding applying W-A knowledge. Insights contribute to organizations knowledge definitions while highlighting the impact of group activity on decision-making.
Distributionally Robust Hydrogen Optimization With Ensured Security and Multi-Energy Couplings

Power-to-gas (P2G) can convert excessive renewable energy into hydrogen via electrolysis, which can then be transported by natural gas systems to bypass constrained electricity systems. However, the injection of hydrogen could impact gas security since gas composition fundamentally changes, adversely effecting the combustion, safety and lifespan of appliances. This paper develops a new gas security management scheme for hydrogen injection into natural gas systems produced from excessive wind power. It introduces four gas security indices for the integrated electricity and gas system (IEGS) measuring gas security, considering the coordinated operation of tightly coupled infrastructures. To maintain gas security under an acceptable range, the gas mixture of nitrogen and liquid petroleum gas with hydrogen is adopted to address the gas security violation caused by hydrogen injection. A distributionally robust optimization (DRO) modelled by Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence-based ambiguity set is applied to flexibly control the robustness to capture wind uncertainty. The KL divergence-based ambiguity set defines uncertainties within a measured space which limits the shape of probability distributions. Case studies illustrate that wind power is maximally utilized and gas mixture is effectively managed, thus improving gas security and performance of IEGS. This work can bring many benefits: i) ensured gas security under hydrogen injection ii) low system operation cost and iii) high renewable energy penetration. It can be easily extended to manage injections of other green gases into IEGS.
The complete mitogenome of the Chionoecetes opilio (Crustacea: Decapoda: Oregoniidae) and its unique characteristics

Abstract The complete mitochondrial genome of Chionoecetes opilio is a 16,067 bp long, circular molecule which contains 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs), and 2 ribosomal RNA genes (rRNAs). Its gene contents and organization are generally similar to other majoid mitogenomes. However, the mitogenome shows unique characteristics; long terminal amino acids, loss or addition of 3 PCGs, a 1216 bp long putative D-loop region, and peculiar secondary structures of 5 tRNAs. The concatenated amino acid sequences of 13 PCGs were used to analyze the phylogenetic tree, which well supported the monophyly of brachyuran clades of Majoidea, Heterotremata, Thoracotremata, and Eubrachyura.
Reviewing Value Creation in Agriculture—A Conceptual Analysis and a New Framework

Creation of business value is a major objective of any enterprise, but the way in which value is created and its consequences call for re-evaluation in response to current sustainability goals. The agricultural sector serves basic human needs, but its systems and methods for production, processing, and consumption often pose challenges to sustainable development. To address these challenges, this study consolidated value-creating factors identified in a systematic literature review into nine clusters: collaboration, communication, knowledge, production, diversification, entrepreneurism, funding, policies, and inclusiveness. These clusters were analyzed with a Triple Bottom Line framework where financial, environmental, and social dimensions are part of sustainable development. The analysis revealed that agricultural enterprises pursue business activities in a near-term perspective, with few having strategies for long-term activities such as innovativeness, knowledge acquisition, and collaboration with external stakeholders. These findings highlight the complexity in creation of sustainable business value and call for further investigation of how value is conceptualized in the agricultural sector. Re-thinking value creation in the sector should consider why value is created, for whom, the time perspective in which value is assessed, and the aspects given weight in the assessment.
Effect of incorporating forage pea (Pisum sativum L.) hay into cereal hay on ruminal fermentation and apparent digestibility when fed to beef heifers

Abstract: The objective of this study was to evaluate the inclusion rate of pea hay in barley or oat hay diets for beef cattle. Six ruminally cannulated heifers (407 ± 38 kg) were used in a 6 × 6 Latin square (25 d periods) with a 2 × 3 factorial design. Treatments included whole-crop barley or oat hay with pea hay blended in to achieve inclusion rates of 0%, 15%, or 30% (dry matter basis) of the forage. Pea hay inclusion increased dry matter intake (DMI; P = 0.03) by 0.75 kg d−1 relative to diets without pea hay, but the response was not linear or quadratic. Inclusion of pea hay linearly increased mean ruminal pH (P = 0.039), the concentration of butyrate in ruminal fluid (P = 0.013), plasma urea nitrogen (N) concentration (P = 0.001), and quadratically increased ruminal ammonia concentration (P < 0.001). Pea hay inclusion reduced crude protein (CP) digestibility by 2.87% relative to cereal-only treatments (P = 0.025), but did not affect N intake, microbial N, or N excretion. Overall, pea hay inclusion increased DMI, increased ruminal butyrate concentration, but reduced CP digestibility without affecting N balance.
Automatic Extraction Of Epidemic-Related Sites In Covid-19 Media Reports Of Webpages Based On Conditional Random Field Model

Background: Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in early December 2019, the Chinese government has formed a mode of information disclosure. More than 400 cities have announced specific location information for newly diagnosed cases of novel coronavirus pneumonia, including residential areas or places of stay. We have established a conditional random field model and a rule-dependent model based on Chinese geographical name elements. Taking Guangdong province as an example, the identification of named entities and the automatic extraction of epidemic-related sites are carried out. This method will help locate the spread of the epidemic, prevent and control the spread of the epidemic and gain more time for vaccine clinical trials. Methods: Based on the presentation form of the habitual place or place of stay of the diagnosed cases in the text of the web page, a conditional random field model is established, and a rule-dependent model is established according to the combination rule of the elements of the Conghua district has fewer epidemic sites. Government officials in Guangzhou City should pay attention to Futian District. Interpretation: Governments at all levels in Guangzhou Province have intervened to control the epidemic through various means in mid-February. According to the results of the model analysis, we believe that the administrative regions with more diagnosed locations should focus on and take measures such as blockades and control of personnel flow to control the disease in those administrative regions to avoid affecting other adjacent administrative regions.
Robust Automated Assessment of Human Blastocyst Quality using Deep Learning

Morphology assessment has become the standard method for evaluation of embryo quality and selecting human blastocysts for transfer in in vitro fertilization (IVF). This process is highly subjective for some embryos and thus prone to human bias. As a result, morphological assessment results may vary extensively between embryologists and in some cases may fail to accurately predict embryo implantation and live birth potential. Here we postulated that an artificial intelligence (AI) approach trained on thousands of embryos can reliably predict embryo quality without human intervention. To test this hypothesis, we implemented an AI approach based on deep neural networks (DNNs). Our approach called STORK accurately predicts the morphological quality of blastocysts based on raw digital images of embryos with 98% accuracy. These results indicate that a DNN can automatically and accurately grade embryos based on raw images. Using clinical data for 2,182 embryos, we then created a decision tree that integrates clinical parameters such as embryo quality and patient age to identify scenarios associated with increased or decreased pregnancy chance. This IVF data-driven analysis shows that the chance of pregnancy varies from 13.8% to 66.3%. In conclusion, our AI-driven approach provides a novel way to assess embryo quality and uncovers new, potentially personalized strategies to select embryos with an improved likelihood of pregnancy outcome.
The Impact Of The Syrian Civil War On Land Use / Land Cover In Al-Yarmouk Basin During 2010–2018

The study goal is to monitor and evaluate the significant changes in land use/land cover (LULC) in Al-Yarmouk basin (YB) within only 8 year. (YB) is shared between Syria, Jordan, Palestinian Authority, and Israel. (YB) has been affected not only by water scarcity, frequent drought conditions; But nowadays provide proof that the major factor responsible for the current of the significant changes in (LULC) in the study area is the Syrian civil war that began in mid-2011, and the Syrian refugee influx into Jordan has been massive, more than 660,935 Syrians were registered in three camps; Za’atri the largest refugee camp in the world, Azraq and the Emirate, according to the Official figures, with the highest density about 58 not 50 person look; Fig.5 in YB. Landsat Thematic Mapper Landsat 5 (2010) and 8-OLI (2018) covering a period of 8 years. An on-screen digitizing methodology has been employed. The images of the study area were categorized into four different classes: vegetation, built-up area, barren area, and water bodies. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was applied at a threshold value≥ 0.1 to distinguish between the vegetated area and non-vegetated areas. IN this study, the NDVI and LULC based classification have indicated that significant change in (LULC) between a year 2010 and 2018. The Major change has been found in the vegetation area which decreased by (-12.02%), in addition, an increase of the built up area by (+1.69%). Al-Wehda dam area decreased by -0.08%. Linear regression trends showed a slight decrease in the mean rainfall during the study period (2010/2018). However, this finding is not statistically significant at the 95 % confidence level.
Nested phylogenetic conflicts, combinability, and deep phylogenomics in plants

Studies have demonstrated that pervasive gene tree conflict underlies several important phylogenetic relationships where different species tree methods produce conflicting results. Here, we present a means of dissecting the phylogenetic signal for alternative resolutions within a dataset in order to resolve recalcitrant relationships and, importantly, identify relationships the dataset is unable to resolve. These procedures extend upon methods for isolating conflict and concordance involving specific candidate relationships, and can be used to identify systematic error and disambiguate sources of conflict among species tree inference methods. We demonstrate these procedures on a large phylogenomic plant dataset. Our results support the placement of Amborella as sister to the remaining extant angiosperms, the monophyly of extant gymnosperms, and that Gnetales are sister to pines. Several other contentious relationships, including the resolution of relationships within both the bryophytes and the eudicots, remain uncertain given the low number of supporting gene trees. To address whether concatenation of filtered genes amplified phylogenetic signal for particular relationships, we implemented a combinatorial heuristic to test combinability of genes. We found that nested conflicts limited the ability of data filtering methods to fully ameliorate conflicting signal amongst gene trees. These analyses confirmed that the underlying conflicting signal does not support broad concatenation of genes. Our approach provides a means of dissecting a specific dataset to address deep phylogenetic relationships while highlighting the limitations of the dataset.
Effect of spatial distribution of nanopores on mechanical properties of mono layer graphene

Since the discovery of graphene, it has immense popularity among scientists and researchers due to its superior mechanical and electrical properties. In the present study, the effects of the spatial distribution of nanopore defects on the mechanical properties of the single-layer graphene sheet (SLGS) are investigated. Based on Tersoff potential functions, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are conducted to perform the uniaxial deformation of defected graphene. The nanopore defects are induced intentionally at various spatial locations on a pristine graphene sheet for studying the variation in its mechanical properties such as fracture strength, Young’s modulus and failure strain. The results illustrate that the mechanical properties are predominantly dependent on the spatial locations of the defects. It is also observed that the mechanical properties are slightly higher in case of zigzag direction than armchair direction but it decreases with the presence of defects in both the cases. In the consequence, it is suggested to consider spatial locations of defects while fabricating nanodevices with graphene.
IL-17 regulates the expression of major histocompatibility complex II and VEGF in DLBCL mice on tumor growth

Objective: To investigate the effect of interleukin-17 (IL-17) on vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and major histocompatibility complex II (MHC II) expression in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and the relationship thereof with tumor development. Methods: CD4 + CD62L + naive cells from spleen of BALB/c mice were purified by the immunomagnetic beads method. T-cells were cultured in vitro with anti-CD3, anti-CD28, transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), and interleukin-6 (IL-6). The human germinal center B-cell-like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (GCB-DLBCL) cell line SUDHL-4 was cultured and inoculated into severe combined immune deficiency (SCID) mice to establish a DLBCL mice model. Tumor-bearing mice were inoculated with Th17 cells. DLBCL was detected by ELISA. The expression of IL-17, VEGF, and MHC II were detected by immunohistochemistry (IH). Results: After Th17 cells were inoculated, the IL-17 expression level was higher than that of the control group, the VEGF expression level as lower than that of the control group, and the MHC II expression level was higher than that of the control group. There was a significant negative correlation between IL-17 and VEGF, and there was a significant positive correlation between IL-17 and MHC II. Conclusion: The VEGF and MHC II expression levels can be used as an index to judge the DLBCL disease status. IL-17 can produce negative regulation of VEGF and positive regulation of MHC II, thereby affecting the DLBCL disease process. Detection of IL-17, VEGF, and MHC II expression levels have value in judging the DLBCL disease status and progression. Keywords: Diffuse large B cell lymphoma, Th17, interleukin 17, vascular endothelial growth factor, major histocompatibility complex II
Useful or Useless? Principal Perceptions of the Texas Principal Evaluation and Support System

Principal evaluations can be important tools for improving leadership practice, but evaluations have often described by principals and researchers as unsystematic and lacking timely and actionable feedback. This study examines principal perceptions of the Texas Principal Evaluation and Support System (T-PESS). Survey data and interviews of principals in one pilot district are used to answer two primary research questions: (a) How did veteran principals understand and experience the T-PESS? and (b) What aspects of the evaluation tool and process did principals find most useful and as barriers to their professional growth? Findings reveal that positive evaluator–principal relationships and goal-setting activities can support professional growth.
Map of suitability for the spontaneous growth of Tuber magnatum in Emilia-Romagna (Italy)

In this work we used an inductive and deductive approach to produce the map of suitability for the spontaneous growth of Tuber magnatum (white truffle) (SSGT) in Emilia-Romagna region (northern Italy). This map was produced in order to identify the environments where appropriate actions should be applied to protect this threatened truffle species. The steps used to define the map were: 1) surveying and mapping the actual productive areas (APAs) in two provinces of Emilia-Romagna (Bologna and Modena); 2) identification of some morphological, climatic, vegetational and pedological properties related to T. magnatum development; 3) production of digital maps representing the value (classified) that each property assumes in discrete land portions; 4) overlapping the map of APAs with each of the thematic maps and selection of the properties showing the strongest relationships with the presence of T. magnatum ; 5) creating the map of SSGT, covering the whole hilly area of Emilia Romagna region; 6) assessing the reliability of the SSGT map, by overlapping the APAs map and the areas of the provinces of Parma and Piacenza where the mycelium of T. magnatum was found using species-specific primers. The relationships found by means of the inductive approach (comparison between selected properties and observed frequency of truffle) demonstrated its effectiveness in predicting deductively the areas with distinct suitability for truffle.
New Product Information Diffusion in Firm-Hosted Online Communities Based on User Influence

The diffusion of new product information in firm–hosted online communities depends on the information interaction between users. Especially in the early stage of new product online sales, user influence based on interactive behavior is the critical factor that affects the wide and sustainable diffusion of new product information, makes users respond to firm’s announcement of new product releases in time, and improves the new product competitiveness. Since very little work has been done on the effect of user influence on the new product information diffusion, this paper proposes a model based on user influence for the diffusion of new product information in firm–hosted online communities to fill this gap. Moreover, focusing on the hot topics of new product innovation functions, we present a new method to measure user influence from the perspective of user interaction, which provides a quantitative theoretical basis for the diffusion probability of influencing user state change in new product information diffusion. Finally, our model tests a well–known firm–hosted online community in China. The results reveal that the model can effectively describe the dynamic evolution of information diffusion, explain the key dynamic factors, and accurately predict the peak time of information diffusion.
Exchange Rate Risk and Uncertainty and Trade Flows: Asymmetric Evidence from Asia

Very recently, the link between exchange rate volatility and trade flows has entered into a new direction in which researchers assess the possibility of asymmetric response of trade flows to a measure of exchange rate uncertainty. We add to this literature by estimating a linear and a nonlinear ARDL model to learn about the experiences of Asian countries, i.e., Pakistan, Japan, China, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and India. Like other studies in the literature, nonlinear models yielded relatively more significant results. In some cases, while the linear models showed no significant effects of exchange rate volatility on trade flows, the nonlinear models revealed significant effects. In some other cases, the opposite was true.