Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Breeding for Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Ornamental Crops : A Review

Phenotypic performance of a plant is determined by its genotype, environment and the genotype-environment interaction. When some factor of the environment interferes with the complete expression of genotypic potential, it is called stress. Stresses are also classified as biotic (pathogens, pests, weeds, etc.) and abiotic depending on their biological/abiological nature. Abiotic stresses result due to moisture, temperature (high/low), minerals (deficiency/ toxicity), salinity, soil pH, air pollution, etc. Abiotic stress conditions cause extensive losses to agricultural production worldwide [1]. Individually, stress conditions such as drought, salinity or heat have been the subject of intense research [2]. However, in the field, crops and other plants are routinely subjected to a combination of different abiotic stresses. In drought-stricken areas, for example, many crops encounter a combination of drought and other stresses, such as heat or salinity.
Sialic acids in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Aberrant glycosylation is a universal trait of cancer cells, and various types of glycan structures are well-known markers of tumour progression and invasion. This article discusses the respective role of sialic acids, biosynthesis of sialylglycoconjugates and the genetic basis of such phenomenon as well as effects of sialisation, different from normal, and their correlation with clinical prognosis in the head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). So far, only few studies of the level of sialic acid in head and neck tumours have been carried out. Conclusions of the published reports confirm the elevated levels of total sialic acid in these tumours. Not all the authors, however, agree about correlation between the level of free or associated forms of sialic acid with the tumour size and severity or condition of lymph nodes. Comparing the progress in diagnosis and treatment of other types of cancer that has been made thanks to extensive work on the role of sialic acids, we came to conclusion that only further, detailed studies of this subject, related to HNSCC would be able to define the role of the glycoforms of sialic acid as a tumour marker or the target of immunotherapy.
A comparison of oral clonidine versus oral midazolam as premedication in adults

Introduction: Premedication is an important aspect in anaesthesia. We conducted a double blind randomised controlled study to compare the clinical efficacy of oral premedication using clonidine 200 μg versus midazolam 15mg with respect to anxiolytic, sedative, antisialogogue effect and attenuation of haemodynamic response to intubation in adult patients undergoing general anaesthesia for various surgeries. Material and Methods: One hundred patients belonging to ASA 1-2 physical status in the age group of 18-60 years, both males and females, weighing between 50-70 kg were randomly allocated into two groups of 50 each. Group 1 received oral clonidine 200μg and group 2 received midazolam 15mg, both 90 minutes prior to surgery. All patients were given general anaesthesia with thiopentone sodium, vecuronium, fentanyl, oxygen, nitrous oxide and sevoflurane. Patient’s level of sedation was assessed using a five point sedation score. The antisialogogue effect was also studied. Pulse rate, systolic, diastolic, mean arterial blood pressure and rate pressure product were the haemodynamic parameters evaluated. Baseline values were obtained and recorded again 90 minutes after premedication. Thereafter, haemodynamic parameters were recorded after induction of anaesthesia with thiopentone sodium and vecuronium; one, five and ten minutes after intubation. Results and Conclusion: Midazolam premedicated patients were sedated to a significantly greater extent than clonidine pretreated patients. Antisialogogue effect was seen in clonidine group. Haemodynamic parameters in the clonidine group were well maintained throughout the study period. There was significant attenuation of pressor response to laryngoscopy and intubation in the clonidine group as compared to midazolam therefore drug of choice for premedication.
Review of Wire-Cut EDM Process on Titanium alloy

Wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) is a specialized thermal machining process capable of accurately machining parts with varying hardness or complex shapes, which have sharp edges that are very difficult to be machined by the main stream machining processes. This practical technology of the WEDM process is based on the conventional EDM sparking phenomenon utilizing the widely accepted non-contact technique of material removal. Since the introduction of the process, WEDM has evolved from a simple means of making tools and dies to the best alternative of producing micro-scale parts with the highest degree of dimensional accuracy and surface finish quality. This paper reviews the vast array of research work carried out from the EDM process to the development of the WEDM. It reports on the WEDM research involving the optimization of the process parameters surveying the influence of the various factors affecting the machining performance and productivity on titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V). This paper reviews the effects of various WEDM process parameters such as pulse on time, pulse off time, servo voltage, peak current, dielectric flow rate, wire speed, wire tension on different process responseparameters such as material removal rate (MRR), surface roughness(Ra), Kerf (width of Cut), wire wear ratio (WWR) and surface integrity factors.
PERSPECTIVE INTENSITY IMAGES FOR CO-REGISTRATION OF TERRESTRIAL LASER SCANNER AND DIGITAL CAMERA

Co-registration of terrestrial laser scanner and digital camera has been an important topic of research, since reconstruction of visually appealing and measurable models of the scanned objects can be achieved by using both point clouds and digital images. This paper presents an approach for co-registration of terrestrial laser scanner and digital camera. A perspective intensity image of the point cloud is firstly generated by using the collinearity equation. Then corner points are extracted from the generated perspective intensity image and the camera image. The fundamental matrix F is then estimated using several interactively selected tie points and used to obtain more matches with RANSAC. The 3D coordinates of all the matched tie points are directly obtained or estimated using the least squares method. The robustness and effectiveness of the presented methodology is demonstrated by the experimental results. Methods presented in this work may also be used for automatic registration of terrestrial laser scanning point clouds.
Robust Decentralized Joint Precoding using Team Deep Neural Network

Using Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) to tackle socalled Team Decision problems where the nodes aim at maximizing an expected common utility on the basis of different individual observations without any additional communications was recently introduced in a previous work and illustrated in the simple case of decentralized scheduling. In this work11D. Gesbert and P. de Kerret are supported by the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Agreement no. 670896). , we apply this idea to design a decentralized robust precoding scheme in a Network MIMO configuration, which appears as a more challenging setting due to the continuous decision space and the required fine granularity of the precoding, in particular at high SNR. While the application remains fundamentally decentralized due to the decentralized nature of the channel state information (CSI), the training is done jointly. This is possible thanks to the common knowledge of the statistics (or equivalently the training data set) at all cooperating TXs. The joint training is done directly with respect to the desired figure-of-merit such that there is no need to generate labels using another method, and the precoding scheme obtained from the training does not only replicate a known scheme but is able to outperform state-of-the-art methods, as illustrated by simulations.
Impact of Line Current Harmonics on the DC Bus Quality of a Three-Phase PWM Inverter

Three-Phase PWM inverters are widely used in many applications. The dc bus of a three-phase PWM inverter is subject of harmonics due to the inherent PWM switching operation that may impose severe consequences to the system. The impact of 5th and 7th harmonic components on the dc bus ripple is investigated in this paper. The analytical formulation and simulation method have been used to quantify the impact of these harmonics on the dc bus quality. The results show that there is a low frequency component with an order of 6 (6th harmonic) on the inverter dc side current which is explained and discussed here.
Role of Pranayama in Rehabilitation of COPD patients-a Randomized Controlled Study

Effects of Pranayama was studied on COPD patients considering PFT, blood gases, 6MWT and SGRQ scores and compared with control. Forty eight patients with severe COPD were randomly divided (24 each) into two groups. Group 1 patients were trained to do paranayama for 3 months for at least half an hour duration. Both the groups were allowed to continue with their usual physical activity and medications. Spirometry, ABG, 6MWT was done and SGRQ scores were measured before and after study. Training-induced changes were greater in group 1 than 2 for following variables: increase of FVC (% predicted) from 68 ± 4.2 to 72 ± 3.9 (p=0.11), FEV1 (% predicted) from 48 ± 2.4 to 52 ±2.1, (p=0.15), PEF (%predicted) from 24.2 ± 0.9 to 30.1± 0.8 (p<0.05), 6MWT from 262 ± 38 to 312 ± 47 m (p<0.05). There was decrease in scores of symptoms (72 ± 2.5 to 66 ± 2.9, p<0.03), activity (66± 2.1 to 50 ± 1.7, p<0.005), impact (53± 2.9 to 39 ± 1.8, p<0.008) and total score (55± 2.9 to 48 ±2.3 p<0.02) in group 1 but not in group 2 patients.
A Product Recommendation System Based on the Nearest Neighbor Algorithm and Cloud Computing

Product recommendation systems are also called recommender systems in the information industry. This study discusses the application of nearest neighbor algorithm and cloud computing in a mobile phone game recommender system. Mobile phone games are characterized by low development cost and time, and currently have the largest number and market among all electronic games. Searches for mobile phone games are carried out using only keywords and categories, which makes it very likely for users to miss games they might be interested in when searching through such a large number of games, especially when they do not have a specific target and are just browsing for new games. A good production or marketing strategy targets specific customers based on analyses of market or consumer demands. This study develops a recommender system based on the nearest neighbor algorithm and cloud computing using the most notable features of mobile phone games.
1 Introduction to Spintronic and Nanomagnetic Computing Devices

This book focuses on recent developments in two important and interrelated information processing device concepts and related phenomena: “spintronic devices” and “nanomagnetic devices. ” In the former, individual electron spins are coherently manipulated as they flow through the active region of a device to elicit device functionality. In the latter, an ensemble of spins in a nanostructure acts collectively as a giant classical spin (a single domain nanomagnet) owing to mutual exchange coupling, and the giant spin polarization (or the magnetization of the nanomagnet) is switched between stable orientations to store and/or process binary data. These information processing paradigms have attracted attention because of their low energy dissipation, nonvolatility and relatively fast speed of operation.
Monetary Policy Obeying the Taylor Principle Turns Prices into Strategic Substitutes

Monetary policy affects the degree of strategic complementarity in firms' pricing decisions if it responds to the aggregate price level. In normal times, when monopolistic competitive firms increase their prices, the central bank raises interest rates, which lowers consumption demand and creates an incentive for firms to reduce their prices. Thereby, monetary policy reduces the degree of strategic complementarities among firms' pricing decisions and even turns prices into strategic substitutes if the effect of interest rates on demand is sufficiently strong. We show that this condition holds when monetary policy follows the Taylor principle. By contrast, in a liquidity trap where monetary policy is restricted by the zero lower bound, pricing decisions are strategic complements. Our main contribution consists in relating the determinacy and stability of equilibria to strategic substitutability in prices. We discuss the consequences for dynamic adjustment processes and some policy implications. Abstract Monetary policy affects the degree of strategic complementarity in firms' pricing decisions if it responds to the aggregate price level. In normal times, when monopolis-tic competitive firms increase their prices, the central bank raises interest rates, which lowers consumption demand and creates an incentive for firms to reduce their prices. Thereby, monetary policy reduces the degree of strategic complementarities among firms' pricing decisions and even turns prices into strategic substitutes if the effect of interest rates on demand is sufficiently strong. We show that this condition holds when monetary policy follows the Taylor principle. By contrast, in a liquidity trap where monetary policy is restricted by the zero lower bound, pricing decisions are strategic complements. Our main contribution consists in relating the determinacy and stability of equilibria to strategic substitutability in prices. We discuss the consequences for dynamic adjustment processes and some policy implications.
Evaluating the Reliability, Coverage, and Added Value of Crowdsourced Traffic Incident Reports from Waze

Traffic managers strive to have the most accurate information on road conditions, normally by using sensors and cameras, to act effectively in response to incidents. The prevalence of crowdsourced traffic information that has become available to traffic managers brings hope and yet raises important questions about the proper strategy for allocating resources to monitoring methods. Although many researchers have indicated the potential value in crowdsourced data, it is crucial to quantitatively explore its validity and coverage as a new source of data. This research studied crowdsourced data from a smartphone navigation application called Waze to identify the characteristics of this social sensor and provide a comparison with some of the common sources of data in traffic management. Moreover, this work quantifies the potential additional coverage that Waze can provide to existing sources of the advanced traffic management system (ATMS). One year of Waze data was compared with the recorded incidents in the Iowa’s ATMS in the same timeframe. Overall, the findings indicated that the crowdsourced data stream from Waze is an invaluable source of information for traffic monitoring with broad coverage (covering 43.2% of ATMS crash and congestion reports), timely reporting (on average 9.8 minutes earlier than a probe-based alternative), and reasonable geographic accuracy. Waze reports currently make significant contributions to incident detection and were found to have potential for further complementing the ATMS coverage of traffic conditions. In addition to these findings, the crowdsourced data evaluation procedure in this work provides researchers with a flexible framework for data evaluation.
Early spring phytoplankton dynamics in the subpolar North Atlantic: The influence of protistan herbivory

We measured phytoplankton‐growth (μ) and herbivorous‐protist grazing (g) rates in relation to mixed‐layer‐depth (MLD) during the March/April 2012 EuroBasin cruise in the subpolar North Atlantic. We performed 15 dilution experiments at two open‐ocean (∼ 1300 m) and one shelf (160 m) station. Of the two open‐ocean stations one was deeply mixed (476 m), the other stratified (46 m). At the shelf station, MLD reached the bottom. Initial chlorophyll a (Chl a) varied from 0.2–1.9 μg L−1 and increased up to 2.7 μg L−1 at the shelf station. In 80% of experiments, regardless of MLD, growth‐rates exceeded grazing‐mortality rates. At the open‐ocean stations, the deep ML coincided with μ and g that varied over the same range (≤ 0–0.6 d−1), whereas stratification corresponded to μ and g that ranged from 0.14–0.41 d−1 to 0.11–0.34 d−1, respectively. At the stratified station, the balance between μ and g explained 98% of in situ variations in Chl a, whereas at the deep‐ML station, rate estimates had no explanatory power. The consistent relationship between μ and g, which corresponded to a grazing‐removal of 64% of primary production, suggests that g might be predictable if μ is known, and that a coefficient of 0.64 may be a useful parameter for subarctic carbon models. Composition and persistence of the plankton assemblages differed at the stations and may have been a significant driver of grazing‐pressure. Overall, these results showed no association of MLD with grazing‐pressure and highlight the need to assess to what extent MLD represents the depth of active‐mixing to understand the effects of protistan‐grazing on the development of the North Atlantic spring bloom.
Pharmacological Aspects of Andrographis paniculata on Health and Its Major Diterpenoid Constituent Andrographolide

Nowadays, research on medicinal plants has attracted a lot of attention globally. A number of evidence has been accumulated to demonstrate promising potential of medicinal plants used in various traditional, complementary, and alternative systems. In recent years, a medicinal plant, Andrographis paniculata, and its major active phytochemicals have been extensively studied for several pharmacological activities. To understand the mechanism of action, researches have to be carried out at molecular levels. The present review aims at compiling consequential compendium of pharmacological benefits of health on this plant and its major diterpenoid constituent andrographolide that have been tested in various experimental models using modern scientific methodologies.
Isolation of Bluetongue Virus from Midges of Culicoides Schultzei Complex in West Bengal, India

Although no outbreak of clinical bluetongue has been reported so far, large numbers of sero-positive animals are present in different agro-climatic zones of West Bengal, an eastern state of India. The environmental parameters are quite conducive for propagation of Culicoidessp. in the state of West Bengal. In order to identify the vector of BTV that is circulating in West Bengal state, attempts were made to isolate BTV from Culicoides midges identified as members of Culicoidesschultzei complex that were collected from localities having good number of sero-positive animals.Non-engorged midges were pooled to prepare sample and BTV was isolated using embryonated chicken eggs, followed by BHK-21 cell culture. Confirmation of BTV was made by RNA-PAGE and RT-PCR. This communication describes for the first time the isolation of BTV from midges of Culicoidesschultzei complex from the eastern Indian state West Bengal indicating that they may be one of the vectors responsible for circulating BTV in this region.
Incorporating water table dynamics in climate modeling: 3. Simulated groundwater influence on coupled land‐atmosphere variability

[1] Using a coupled regional climate-hydrologic modeling system, RAMS-Hydro, we investigate the role of the water table dynamics in controlling soil moisture, evapotranspiration (ET), boundary layer dynamics, and precipitation. In an earlier study we showed that a shallow water table can primarily exist in two types of hydrologic settings in North America: the humid river valleys and coastal regions in the east and the arid or semiarid intermountain valleys in the west. We also showed that the shallow water table in these settings can lead to significantly wetter soils than would exist without the presence of the water table. Here, we show that the water table–induced wetter soil directly maps into enhanced ET in the western setting, where soil water is a strong limiting factor of ET flux, but it is less likely to be the case in the more humid eastern setting where soil water is not limiting in general. We also ask whether any resulting enhanced ET will directly map into enhanced precipitation. Our hypothesis is that this can occur through two primary mechanisms: local, ET-driven enhancement of convective precipitation and enhanced regional or lateral moisture convergence caused by altered soil moisture fields, and hence altered ET, far from the region of concern. We find that, indeed, water table–induced higher ET in the arid west results in greater convective precipitation and that ET-precipitation coupling is primarily through local feedback pathways and precipitation recycling, with the main role of large-scale moisture convergence as an initiator of convection following dry periods. Transitioning to the more humid regions farther east, the greater atmospheric (relative to surface) control of precipitation progressively obscures any potential effects of the water table, and the effects of large-scale moisture convergence tend to dominate.
Performance Characterization of Mobile Phones in Augmented Reality Marker Tracking

Collaborative Augmented Reality (CAR) systems allow multiple users to share a real work environment including computer-generated images in real time. Currently, the hardware features of most mobile phones not only provide excellent multimedia services, but they also include wireless network capabilities to support local and remote communication and thus, they provide a natural platform for CAR systems. However, the wide variety of these hardware features can have important effects on the performance of the mobile CAR applications. This paper presents the experimental characterization of mobile phones for Augmented Reality marker tracking, a core task that any CAR application must include. The characterization is performed in regard to well-known performance metrics in distributed systems, and the results show that the most time consuming stage is the marker detection stage, followed by the image acquisition stage. Therefore, the improvement of these applications should be addressed to improve these stages. Moreover, the rendering stage is decoupled on some devices, depending on the operative system used. This decoupling process allows avoiding low refresh rates, facilitating the collaborative work. These results can be used as the basis for an efficient design of CAR systems and applications.
Inference in Higher Order MRF-MAP Problems with Small and Large Cliques

Higher Order MRF-MAP formulation has been a popular technique for solving many problems in computer vision. Inference in a general MRF-MAP problem is NP Hard, but can be performed in polynomial time for the special case when potential functions are submodular. Two popular combinatorial approaches for solving such formulations are flow based and polyhedral approaches. Flow based approaches work well with small cliques and in that mode can handle problems with millions of variables. Polyhedral approaches can handle large cliques but in small numbers. We show in this paper that the variables in these seemingly disparate techniques can be mapped to each other. This allows us to combine the two styles in a joint framework exploiting the strength of both of them. Using the proposed joint framework, we are able to perform tractable inference in MRF-MAP problems with millions of variables and a mix of small and large cliques, a formulation which can not be solved by either of the two styles individually. We show applicability of this hybrid framework on object segmentation problem as an example of a situation where quality of results is significantly better than systems which are based only on the use of small or large cliques.