Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Detection of insect and fungal damage and incidence of sprouting in stored wheat using near-infrared hyperspectral and digital color imaging

i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF FIGURES xv LIST OF SYMBOLS xvii 1. INTODUCTION 1 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 8 2.1 Electromagnetic Spectrum 8 2.1.1 Mechanical models 10 2.1.1.1 Harmonic model 10 2.1.1.2 Quantum mechanical theory 11 2.1.1.3 Anharmonic model 13 2.2 NIR Spectroscopy 14 2.3 Color Imaging 15 2.4 Hyperspectral Imaging 16 2.5 Instrumentation 16 2.5. 1 Color imaging system 16 2.5. 1.1 Lighting source 16 2.5. 1.2 Sensor 17 2.5. 1.3 Communication interface 18 2.5. 2 Hyperspectral imaging system 18
Priming maize resistance by its neighbors: activating 1,4-benzoxazine-3-ones synthesis and defense gene expression to alleviate leaf disease

Plant disease can be effectively suppressed in intercropping systems. Our previous study demonstrated that neighboring maize plants can restrict the spread of soil-borne pathogens of pepper plants by secreting defense compounds into the soil. However, whether maize plant can receive benefits from its neighboring pepper plants in an intercropping system is little attention. We examined the effects of maize roots treated with elicitors from the pepper pathogen Phytophthora capsici and pepper root exudates on the synthesis of 1,4-benzoxazine-3-ones (BXs), the expression of defense-related genes in maize, and their ability to alleviate the severity of southern corn leaf blight (SCLB) caused by Bipolaris maydis. We found that SCLB was significantly reduced after the above treatments. The contents of 1,4-benzoxazine-3-ones (BXs: DIBOA, DIMBOA, and MBOA) and the expression levels of BX synthesis and defense genes in maize roots and shoots were up-regulated. DIMBOA and MBOA effectively inhibited the mycelium growth of Bipolaris maydis at physiological concentrations in maize shoots. Further studies suggested that the defense related pathways or genes in maize roots and shoots were activated by elicitors from the P. capsici or pepper root exudates. In conclusion, maize increased the levels of BXs and defense gene expression both in roots and shoots after being triggered by root exudates and pathogen from neighboring pepper plants, eventually enhancing its resistance.
Mismatch in Law School

An important criticism of affirmative action policies in admissions is that they may hurt minority students who are thereby induced to attend selective schools. We use two comparisons to identify so-called mismatch effects in law schools, with consistent results. Black students attain better employment outcomes than do whites with similar credentials. Any mismatch effects on graduation and bar exam passage rates are confined to the bottom quintile of the entering credentials distribution, where selection bias is an important, potentially confounding factor. Elite law schools' use of affirmative action thus does not appear to generate mismatch effects.
RedoxDB - a curated database for experimentally verified protein oxidative modification

SUMMARY Redox regulation and signaling, which are involved in various cellular processes, have become one of the research focuses in the past decade. Cysteine thiol groups are particularly susceptible to post-translational modification, and their reversible oxidation is of critical role in redox regulation and signaling. With the tremendous improvement of techniques, hundreds of redox proteins along with their redox-sensitive cysteines have been reported, and the number is still fast growing. However, until now there is no database to accommodate the rapid accumulation of information on protein oxidative modification. Here we present RedoxDB-a manually curated database for experimentally validated redox proteins. RedoxDB (version 1.0) consists of two datasets (A and B, for proteins with or without verified modified cysteines, respectively) and includes 2157 redox proteins containing 2203 cysteine residues with oxidative modification. For each modified cysteine, the exact position, modification type and flanking sequence are provided. Additional information, including gene name, organism, sequence, literature references and links to UniProt and PDB, is also supplied. The database supports several functions including data search, blast and browsing. Bulk download of the entire dataset is also available. We expect that RedoxDB will be useful for both experimental studies and computational analyses of protein oxidative modification. AVAILABILITY The database is freely available at: http://biocomputer.bio. cuhk.edu. hk/RedoxDB. CONTACT djguo@cuhk.edu. hk SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics Online.
Development of Biped Humanoid Robots at the Humanoid Robot Research Center, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

Recently, many studies have focused on the development of humanoid biped robot platforms. Some of the well-known humanoid robots are Honda’s humanoid robots, the WABIAN series of robots from Waseda University, Partner, QRIO, H6 and H7, HRP and JOHNNIE. Given that humanoids are complex, expensive and unstable, designers face difficulties in constructing the mechanical body, integrating the hardware system, and realizing real-time motion and stability control based on human-like sensory feedback. Among the robots, HRP and ASIMO are the most well known humanoid robot platforms. HRP-3P is a humanoid robot developed jointly by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and Kawada Industries, Inc in Japan. It stands 1.6 m tall, weighs 65 kg, and has 36 degrees of freedom (DOF). Upgraded from HRP-2, the new platform is protected against dust and water. In addition, Honda has unveiled a new type of ASIMO, termed the ASIMO Type-R, which stands 1.3 m tall, weighs 54 kg, and has 34 DOF. With the i-WALK technology, this robot has an impressive walking feature: it can walk at 2.7 km/h, and run at 6 km/h. HUBO is essentially an upgraded version of KHR-2. The objective of the development of HUBO was to develop a reliable and handsome humanoid platform that enables the implementation of various theories and algorithms such as dynamic walking, navigation, human interaction, and visual and image recognition. With the focus on developing a human-friendly robot that looks and moves like humans, one focus was on closely aligning the mechanical design with an artistic exterior design. This chapter also discusses the development of control hardware and the system integration of the HUBO platform. Numerous electrical components for controlling the robot have been developed and integrated into the robot. Servo controllers, sensors, and interface hardware in the robot have been explained. Electrical hardware, mechanical design, sensor technology and the walking algorithm are integrated in this robot for the realization of biped walking. This system integration technology is very important for the realization of this biped humanoid.
Evaluating conditional arguments with uncertain premises

ABSTRACT Treating conditionals as probabilistic statements has been referred to as a defining feature of the “new paradigm” in cognitive psychology. Doing so is attractive for several reasons, but it complicates the problem of assessing the merits of conditional arguments. We consider several variables that relate to judging the persuasiveness of conditional arguments with uncertain (probabilistic) premises. We also explore ways of judging the consistency of people's beliefs as represented by components of conditional arguments. Experimental results provide evidence that inconsistencies in beliefs are more prevalent if the arguments’ components are spatially and temporally dispersed than if they are contiguous in space and time. This supports the idea that assuring the consistency among even a small number of beliefs is difficult to do, especially if the beliefs in question are not brought into consciousness at the same time; but consistency can be enhanced when beliefs are considered simultaneously or nearly so.
Mining the bit pipes: Discovering and leveraging users' behavior

This paper explores ways to enhance services provided to a user, based on the user's own behavior and context. The assumption is that the user continues to simply use data communication services, while the Service Provider (SP) mines the content exchanged over the communication pipes for information that can be used to further personalize the same service or other services to which the user has subscribed or opted-in. The content of the messages exchanged by the user may either directly or indirectly present mining opportunities.
Orcadian Gating of S Phase in Human Ovarian Cancer 1

Cell proliferation in 30 patients with ovarian cancer was analyzed using flow cytometry to determine changes in the percentage of cells in S phase. By this measure, proliferation in tumor cells appears to follow a cyclical pattern of peaks and troughs that is out of phase with the Orcadian rhythm in proliferation of normal tissues. In round-the-clock monitoring of replication stages in tumor cells recovered from i.p. lavage fluid in postsurgery patients, peaks of tumor and nontumor cell DNA synthesis commonly occurred at different times of day. When patients were grouped so that only tumor cell proliferation was being measured, a highly significant 24-h rhythm nearly 12 h out of phase with nontumor cell proliferation was found. This peak in the percentage of S-phase cells occurs most commonly in midto late morning and appears to offer an opportunity for timing chemotherapy to coincide with high tumor cell vulnerability and low toxicity to normal tissue.
Hausdorff dimension of the set of extreme points of a self-similar set

If the system S of contracting similitudes on $ R^2$ satisfies open convex set condition, then the set F of extreme points of the convex hull $\tilde{K}$ of it's invariant self-similar set K has Hausdorff dimension 0 . If, additionally, all the rotation angles of the similitudes are commensurable with $\pi$, then the set F is finite and the convex hull $\tilde{K}$ is a convex polygon.
A Survey of Directed Entity-Relation--Based First-Order Probabilistic Languages

Languages that combine aspects of probabilistic representations with aspects of first-order logic are referred to as first-order probabilistic languages (FOPLs). FOPLs can be divided into three categories: rule-based, procedural-based and entity-relation--based languages. This article presents a survey of directed entity-relation--based FOPLs and their associated model construction and inference algorithms.
Evaluating Perception Filters in BDI Jason Agents

Simulation systems are of great help due to their ability to reproduce the real world. In some open scenarios, designers must build intelligent autonomous agents who evolve within and interact with a simulated environment, constrained by a time limit, i.e., In every cycle, agents may deliver an action within a predetermined response time limit. On one hand, the use of Jason interpreter to create and implement intelligent agents can greatly reduce the effort required for the development of BDI agents. However, as agents become more sophisticated, the processing time required for the agents to perceive their environment and to reason about their actions also increases, and in some cases this can exceed this time limit. In this work, we use some performance analysis techniques to measure the effects of including perception filters in the Jason reasoning cycle, aiming to verify whether it causes a significant decrease in reasoning time and if this reduction diminishes the utility of the agents' actions.
Voting-based grouping and interpretation of visual motion

A main difficulty for estimating camera and scene geometry from a set of point correspondences is caused by the presence of false matches and independently moving objects. Given two images, after obtaining the matching points, they are usually filtered by an outlier rejection step before being used to solve for epipolar geometry and 3D structure estimation. In the presence of moving objects, image registration becomes a more challenging problem, as the matching and registration phases become interdependent. We propose a novel approach that decouples the above operations, allowing for explicit and separate handling of matching, outlier rejection, grouping, and recovery of camera and scene structure. The method is based on a voting-based computational framework for motion analysis; it determines an accurate representation, in terms of dense velocities, segmented motion regions and boundaries, by using only the smoothness of image motion, followed by the extraction of scene and camera 3D geometry.
INTEGRATED COMPACT CIRCULAR POLARIZATION ANNULAR RING SLOT ANTENNA DESIGN FOR RFID READER

An integrated compact circular-polarized annular ring slot antenna is proposed in this paper. It consists of an annular ring slot radiator and a hybrid patch coupler. The hybrid patch coupler is integrated with the annular ring slot antenna to radiate the circular- polarized wave, while size of the antenna remains the same. Both the impedance bandwidth and axial ratio bandwidth of the proposed design almost cover the entire UHF band of RFID system and it has the features of easy fabrication and low cost. To verify the proposed design, a prototype is fabricated. Measured results agree well with the simulated results.
Predicting policy performance: Can the Work and Health Programme work for chronically ill or disabled people?

Many developed countries consider that disability benefit receipt is too high and more disabled people should be in paid work. Employment programmes designed to achieve this have tended towards less financial support and more requirement to engage in activity. But emphasis on social inclusion through paid work coupled with inadequate benefits and mandated activity can cause distress and worsened health. It is therefore vital that politicians understand the likely impact of employment programmes before introducing them. In this article, a new framework based on five ‘Ds’ (diagnosis, destination, development, design and delivery) is used to analyse the UK’s Work and Health Programme. It is shown that the programme is likely to fail: it includes measures that do not work, and may cause harm, whilst ignoring measures that are known to work. Based on this, it is recommended that this programme be scrapped and the government start listening to disabled people.
Understanding biomechanical differences in technique between phases of a sprint

Sprinting requires the rapid development of velocity while technique changes across multiple steps. Research Themes (Phase analysis, Technique analysis and Induced acceleration analysis) were formulated to investigate and understand the biomechanical differences in technique between the initial acceleration, transition and maximal velocity phases of a sprint.Theme 1 (Phase analysis) revealed relatively large changes in touchdown variables (e.g. centre of mass height, touchdown distances, shank angles) during the initial acceleration phase. This likely reflects an increasing need to generate larger vertical forces early during stance as a sprint progresses. At toe-off, smaller yet progressive changes in variables (e.g. trunk angles and centre of mass height) across the initial acceleration and transition phases reflect a constraint determining decreases in propulsive forces during a sprint. Theme 2 (Technique analysis) revealed a trend linking smaller horizontal foot velocities and touchdown distances with smaller braking impulses during the transition and maximal velocity phases. Furthermore, moderate to large increases in negative work by the ankle plantar flexors and knee extensors suggests an increased contribution to absorb forces at those joints and maintain the height of the centre of mass as a sprint progresses. Finally, theme 3 (Induced acceleration analysis) revealed that the braking impulses relative to body mass (expressed in m·s-1) due to the accelerations at contact point, which largely resulted from the foot being decelerated at touchdown, increased from -0.01 ± 0.01 m·s-1 to -0.08 ± 0.02 m·s-1 between steps three to 19 of a sprint. The ankle moment provided the largest contributions to centre of mass acceleration throughout stance with the changing orientation of the ground reaction force vector ultimately determined by the increasing foot, shank and trunk angles as the sprint progressed.This thesis developed the conceptual understanding of the technical differences between different phases of sprinting. It will contribute to the development and evaluation of sprinting technical models associated with different phases of the event and provide a greater understanding of key contributors to performance. As a sprint progresses, sprinters should emphasise the development of the leg mechanics during the terminal swing and early stance phases to ensure step-to-step changes in braking impulses are managed.Thesis completed in 2017.
The Solubility–Permeability Interplay and Its Implications in Formulation Design and Development for Poorly Soluble Drugs

While each of the two key parameters of oral drug absorption, the solubility and the permeability, has been comprehensively studied separately, the relationship and interplay between the two have been largely ignored. For instance, when formulating a low-solubility drug using various solubilization techniques: what are we doing to the apparent permeability when we increase the solubility? Permeability is equal to the drug’s diffusion coefficient through the membrane times the membrane/aqueous partition coefficient divided by the membrane thickness. The direct correlation between the intestinal permeability and the membrane/aqueous partitioning, which in turn is dependent on the drug’s apparent solubility in the GI milieu, suggests that the solubility and the permeability are closely associated, exhibiting a certain interplay between them, and the current view of treating the one irrespectively of the other may not be sufficient. In this paper, we describe the research that has been done thus far, and present new data, to shed light on this solubility–permeability interplay. It has been shown that decreased apparent permeability accompanies the solubility increase when using different solubilization methods. Overall, the weight of the evidence indicates that the solubility–permeability interplay cannot be ignored when using solubility-enabling formulations; looking solely at the solubility enhancement that the formulation enables may be misleading with regards to predicting the resulting absorption, and hence, the solubility–permeability interplay must be taken into account to strike the optimal solubility–permeability balance, in order to maximize the overall absorption.
Composition of Self-Adapting Components for Customizable Systems

Software systems grow each day in size and complexity. In an effort to manage increasing complexity and to maximize the reuse of code, the software engineering community has, in recent years, put considerable effort into the design and development of component-based software methodologies and tools. Inspired by the notion of connector (Allen and Garlan (1994) Formal connectors. Technical report CMU-CS-94-115, Carnegie Mellon University, PA, USA) in software architecture and the ‘Design by Contract’ metaphor proposed by Meyer ((2000) Object-Oriented Software Construction. Prentice Hall, USA), this paper presents a methodology for component composition, coordination and dynamic adaptation. Our proposal is based on connectors enriched with contracts, making software architecture more explicit at the implementation level. Those connectors will be components in our system. Therefore, we can use subtyping techniques for connectors development and we could offer a set of generic connectors implementing standard behavior patterns. In addition, the connectors will use semantic web techniques and a Prolog machine to solve functional adaptation problems, such us name or parameters mismatching of a service, at run-time.
Developing student-centered assessment for a postgraduate course designed for Basic Education Teachers

The Constructive Alignment theory, by Biggs, relies on students’ self-construction of meaning by relevant learning activities. To accomplish this goal, teachers have to align four essential elements: curriculum, Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs), methodologies and assessment. In this paper, we describe an implementation of a constructively aligned postgraduate course on active learning methodologies for basic education teachers. The syllabus was comprised of four well-established active learning methods: Predict-Observe-Explain (POE), Peer Instruction (PI), Jigsaw and Six Thinking Hats (STH). Students had to plan, discuss in pairs, perform a real active lesson with their own pupils and observe and provide peer feedback to their colleague. Assessment was carried out as the following forms: self-reflection, active lesson plan, peer assessment and self-assessment and one summative form: active lesson report. Each assessment evaluated distinct skills related to both specifics ILOs and learning activities. The results reveal that aligned assessment fostered learning, encouraged self and peer reflection, improved teacher feedback and promoted an effective collaboration among students.
Stress management standards: a warning indicator for employee health.

BACKGROUND Psychological stress is a major cause of lost working days in the UK. The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has developed management standards (MS) to help organizations to assess work-related stress. AIMS To investigate the relationships between the MS indicator tool and employee health, job attitudes, work performance and environmental outcomes. METHODS The first phase involved a survey employing the MS indicator tool, General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12), job attitudes, work performance and environmental measures in a call centre from a large utility company. The second phase comprised six focus groups to investigate what employees believed contributed to their perceived stress. RESULTS Three hundred and four call centre employees responded with a response rate of 85%. Significant negative correlations were found between GHQ-12 and two MS dimensions; demands (Rho = -0.211, P < 0.001) and relationships (Rho= -0.134, P < 0.05). Other dimensions showed no significant relationship with GHQ-12. Higher levels of stress were associated with reduced job performance, job motivation and increased intention to quit but low stress levels were associated with reduced job satisfaction. Lack of management support, recognition and development opportunities were identified as sources of stress. CONCLUSIONS The findings support the utility of the MS as a measure of employee attitudes and performance.
Segmentation of cervical cancer images using active contour models

A new technique for automatic extraction of object region and boundary from the background for cell nucleus segmentation of cervical cancer images is proposed in this work. Gradient magnitude and directional information are employed to extract the exact boundary of the object under consideration. Segmentation process begins with preprocess as computation of optimum threshold based on the clusters automatically from K-means clustering algorithm. The cluster center of this threshold region, act as a seed for further processing. The problem of extracting the gradient information from concave boundaries is addressed by the use of gradient vector flow snake. The active contour has been found using convergence Index filter to find the exact boundary using directional information if the magnitude differentiation is less in the low intensity image like cell medical images. Then the object region is extracted from the object boundary and gray scale cluster. The advantage of this method is that it does not require any initial approximate contour or any seed point like parametric active contour model or any priori knowledge about the image characteristics. Further the segmentation speed of this algorithm also empowers real time execution possible for any generalize image applications.