Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
BR$^2$Net: Defocus Blur Detection Via a Bidirectional Channel Attention Residual Refining Network

Due to the remarkable potential applications, defocus blur detection, which aims to separate blurry regions from an image, has attracted much attention. Although significant progress has been made by many methods, there are still various challenges that hinder the results, e.g., confusing background areas, sensitivity to the scale and missing the boundary details of the defocus blur regions. To solve these issues, in this paper, we propose a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) for defocus blur detection via a Bi-directional Residual Refining network (BR$^2$Net). Specifically, a residual learning and refining module (RLRM) is designed to correct the prediction errors in the intermediate defocus blur map. Then, we develop a bidirectional residual feature refining network with two branches by embedding multiple RLRMs into it for recurrently combining and refining the residual features. One branch of the network refines the residual features from the shallow layers to the deep layers, and the other branch refines the residual features from the deep layers to the shallow layers. In such a manner, both the low-level spatial details and high-level semantic information can be encoded step by step in two directions to suppress background clutter and enhance the detected region details. The outputs of the two branches are fused to generate the final results. In addition, with the observation that different feature channels have different extents of discrimination for detecting blurred regions, we add a channel attention module to each feature extraction layer to select more discriminative features for residual learning. To promote further research on defocus blur detection, we create a new dataset with various challenging images and manually annotate their corresponding pixelwise ground truths. The proposed network is validated on two commonly used defocus blur detection datasets and our newly collected dataset by comparing it with 10 other state-of-the-art methods. Extensive experiments with ablation studies demonstrate that BR$^2$Net consistently and significantly outperforms the competitors in terms of both the efficiency and accuracy.
Wild mammals of North America : biology, management, and conservation

Winner of the 1984 Wildlife Publications Award from the Wildlife Society, the first edition of Wild Mammals of North America (published in 1982) offered zoologists, naturalists, wildlife specialists, and students detailed information about the biology, conservation status, and management of 57 mammalian species and species groups, with contributions from 100 of the leading authorities. Now thoroughly revised to reflect new biological research and approaches to wildlife conservation and management, the second edition of this "essential volume" ( Wildlife Society Bulletin) continues to provide the most current and comprehensive data on the distribution, physiology, ecology, behavior, commercial value, and viability of nongame species including bats, woodrats, prairie dogs, and armadillo, the whales, seals, and sireians, as well as carnivores, furbearers, and big game species.
Expression of mRNAs for two novel isoforms of mouse heat shock factor 1 in mouse cells and tissues

Heat shock transcription factor 1 (HSF1) mediates the response to heat in all cellular organisms. On exposure to heat, the HSF1 in cells refolds, enters the nucleus and switches on genes encoding protective heat shock proteins (hsps). Two isoforms of mammalian HSF1, denoted α and β, were previously known to be derived by alternate splicing of an additional coding exon. These forms differ by the presence of an additional 22 amino acid segment in the HSF1α protein as compared to β. Our previous studies show that these isoforms switch on different subsets of hsp genes and to different extents; HSF1α is generally a better activator of hsp genes. This study provides evidence for expression of the mouse mRNAs for two additional isoforms, also derived by alternate splicing, containing an additional 28 amino acid segment, denoted HSF1γ and δ. Existence of these new isoforms was predicted by bioinformatic analysis of HSF1 expressed sequence tags using the basic local alignment search tool (BLAST). Comparative bioinformatic analysis suggests many vertebrate species, including zebrafish, clawed frogs, mice, and humans possess these isoforms. Based on reverse‐transcriptase PCR analysis, the HSF1γ isoform mRNAs from mouse fibroblast cells and various mouse tissues may be widely expressed, both before and after heat shock, while HSF1δ is expressed only in certain tissues. Experiments are underway to construct mouse expression plasmids that can be used to test the ability of HSF1γ and δ isoforms to activate hsp target genes in mouse fibroblasts to begin to identify their functions. Supported by NIH NIGMS grant 1 R15 GM096231–01.
Development of ASEAN counselor education standards

This research is motivated by the importance of the development of ASEAN Counselor Education Standards whose member countries have similar cultural and geographic contexts. The purpose of the study is the formulation ASEAN Counselor Education Standards. The research was conducted through survey of lecturers and counselor education students UPI and UPSI. Data were collected through the ASEAN Counselor Education Standards Questionnaire. The findings of the study were (a) in the total analysis and the aspect there was no similarity of views between lecturers and students on the development of ASEAN Counselor Education Standards, but on the indicator analysis there was a similar view between lecturers and students on the development of ASEAN Counselor Education Standards, (b) both lecturers and students are important development of ASEAN Counselor Education Standards, (c) the formulation of the ASEAN Counselor Education Standard includes 1: Learning Environment, Standard 2: Professional Counseling Identity, Standard 3: Professional Practices, and Standards 4: Evaluation in the Program. The research recommendation is addressed to the higher education institution of counselor education organizers in ASEAN and subsequent researchs. The conclusion of the ASEAN counselor education standard can be used as guidance for the development of counselor education in guidance and counseling study program in ASEAN.
Laplacian Support Vector Machine for Vibration-Based Robotic Terrain Classification

The achievement of robot autonomy has environmental perception as a prerequisite. The hazards rendered from uneven, soft and slippery terrains, which are generally named non-geometric hazards, are another potential threat reducing the traversing efficient, and therefore receiving more and more attention from the robotics community. In the paper, the vibration-based terrain classification (VTC) is investigated by taking a very practical issue, i.e., lack of labels, into consideration. According to the intrinsic temporal correlation existing in the sampled terrain sequence, a modified Laplacian SVM is proposed to utilise the unlabelled data to improve the classification performance. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper studying semi-supervised learning problem in robotic terrain classification. The experiment demonstrates that: (1) supervised learning (SVM) achieves a relatively low classification accuracy if given insufficient labels; (2) feature-space homogeneity based semi-supervised learning (traditional Laplacian SVM) cannot improve supervised learning’s accuracy, and even makes it worse; (3) feature- and temporal-space based semi-supervised learning (modified Laplacian SVM), which is proposed in the paper, could increase the classification accuracy very significantly.
Identificación de movimiento humano a través del procesamiento de video

El estudio del movimiento del cuerpo humano y el reconocimiento del rostro han abierto fronteras en las diferentes áreas del conocimiento. Este artículo tiene como objetivo presentar la generación de un método alternativo para identificar rostros y caracterizar el movimiento del cuerpo humano. La metodología utilizada tiene tres fases, en la primera se genera una base de videos NoSQL haciendo uso del sistema gestor de bases de datos (SGDB) MongoDB; la segunda permite la identificación de rostros humanaos mediante dos algoritmos como la Transformada de Hough y el algoritmo de Viola-Jones; y la tercera identificación de movimiento utilizando Flujo Óptico y el método de Histograma de Gradientes Orientados. Como resultados significativos se obtiene que la identificación facial permite seleccionar un rango de relevancia que da las coordenadas del área aproximada de interés o actor, para ser tenido en cuenta al realizar el procesamiento de flujo óptico, evitando así, procesar áreas de falsos positivos, es decir sombras o reflejos producidos por el ambiente. Finalmente se concluye que, al tener una identificación clara del rostro en vista frontal, facilita el seguimiento de las acciones humanas.
Mechanism of Bacterial Translation Termination and Ribosome Recycling

The elucidation of the role of release factor 3 (RF3) in translation termination and the demonstration that GTP hydrolysis was needed for RF3 action became possible with the development of improved purified in vitro systems for protein synthesis. In the absence of RF3, the inhibitory action of RF1 on ribosome recycling can be reduced by increasing the ribosome-recycling factor (RRF) concentration, suggesting that whatever the action of RRF may be, it is incompatible with the presence of RF1 on the ribosome. The experiments in vitro with the purified translation system show that ribosome recycling from initiation via protein elongation and termination of protein synthesis depends strictly on the presence of IF3. This implies that RRF and EF-G together split the ribosome into its subunits after termination and that this step is the overture to ribosome recycling back to initiation of translation from the posttermination state. The fate of the mRNA after termination and ribosome recycling is highly relevant for translation of multicistronic mRNAs. The in vitro data suggest that when termination of protein synthesis is followed by the action of RRF, EF-G, and IF3 the 30S particle remains attached to the mRNA, allowing the latter to diffuse long distances along the subunit. In the presence of GTP, RF3 accelerates recycling of RF1 and RF2 by enhancing their rates of dissociation after termination of translation.
Immunological Assays of Freezing Tolerance in Barley using Antifreeze Proteins Antisera

In order to measure an antifreezing tolerance, antifreeze proteins accumulated upon cold acclimation in apoplast were analyzed. As Dongborilho were cold-acclimated for 3 to 74 days there was an abrupt increase in apoplastic proteins up to 30 days and then decrease to the similar levels. Among the known antifreeze proteins, CLP produced in E. coli. and TLP purified from apoplast were used to generate antisera that allow to measure and localize the proteins in leaves of barley. The CLP of 27.7 kDa and TLPs of 6, 26, 27, 30, and 31 kDa were increased in their amounts in apoplast as cold treatment being longer. There was a correlation among the amounts of those proteins accumulated in apoplast and freezing tolerance as shown in field and ion leakage tests for five cultivars. The deposit of CLP was localized in the marginal area and the area adjacent to leaf vescular bundle cells in an increasing manner according to duration of cold acclimation but no variation was observed in terms of it's distribution. Based on the close correlation between levels of antifreeze proteins and degrees of freezing tolerance, the immunological methods was to develop to estimate a freezing tolerance in barley.
Okul Yöneticilerinin Otantik Liderlik ve Çatışma Yönetimi Stratejileri arasındaki İlişkinin İncelenmesi

Bu arastirmanin amaci okul yoneticilerinde otantik liderlik ve catisma yonetim stratejileri arasindaki iliskiyi incelemektir. Bu dogrultuda Istanbul ili, Avrupa yakasi, Kucukcekmece ilcesindeki devlet okullarinda calisan yonetici ve ogretmenlerin otantik liderlik algi duzeyleri ile catisma yonetim stratejilerine yonelik algi duzeylerinin belirlenmesi hedeflenmis ve aralarinda bir iliski olup olmadigi arastirilmistir. Bu iliskiyi belirlemede “Spearman Korelasyonu” kullanilmistir. Yapilan calisma sonucunda okul yoneticilerinin otantik liderlik duzeyleri ile catisma yonetim stratejileri arasinda pozitif yonde ve yuksek bir iliski oldugu sonucuna ulasilmistir.
An In-Class Role-Playing Activity to Foster Discussion and Deeper Understanding of Biodiversity and Ecological Webs

In a general sense, biodiversity is an intuitively simple concept, referring to the variety of Earth’s organisms. Ecologists, however, conceptualize biodiversity in a more nuanced, multidimensional way to reflect the enormous diversity of species, niches, and interspecific interactions that generate spatiotemporal complexity in communities. Students may not fully comprehend or appreciate this deeper meaning if they fail to recognize the full range of species in a community (e.g., the often-ignored microbes and small invertebrates) and how their varied interactions (e.g., mutualism, parasitism) and activities (e.g., ecosystem engineering) affect an ecosystem’s emergent structure (e.g., food webs) and function (e.g., decomposition). To help students learn about biodiversity and complex ecological webs, a role-playing activity was developed in which students “become” a different species (or resource) that they investigated for homework. In class, students work in small groups to “meet” other species in their community and, as appropriate for their roles, “consume” or “interact” with each other. As they make intraspecific connections, students collectively create an ecological web diagram to reveal the structure of their community’s relationships. This diagram is used for further exploration and discussion about, e.g., trophic cascades, non-trophic interactions, ecosystem engineering, and species’ effects on the movement of energy and nutrients. This inquiry-based activity has been observed to sustain student engagement and yield productive discussions and positive responses. Further, qualitative assessment indicates that students’ knowledge about biodiversity and ecological interactions improves after the activity and discussions, suggesting that students benefit from acting in and constructing their own ecological webs.
Effects of Goreisan on LPS-induced diarrhea and decrease in aquaporin 3 expression in intestinal epithelial cells.

Goreisanis often used for gastrointestinal symptoms associated with bacterial and viral infections, to care diarrhea and to prevent general dehydration. Although several clinical reports have shown the effectiveness of Goreisan, pharmacological properties and underlining mechanism of Goreisanhas not been clear. In this study, therefore, we investigated the antidiarrheic effect of Goreisanusing a mouse model of enterocolitis induced by Lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Goreisandid not affect TNF-α mRNA expression, but markedly improved tissue injury and diarrhea scores. On the other hand, aquaporin-3 (AQP3) is expressed in the intestinal epithelium, and responsible for the absorption of water in the intestinal tract. Interestingly, both AQP3 mRNA and protein expression in the intestinal epithelium in LPS-treated group were significantly reduced, and Goreisaninhibited this decrease in AQP3. Decrease in AQP3 is thought to be associated with development of diarrhea, and therefore, Goreisan is estimated to have improved diarrhea symptoms by regulating the expression of AQP3. These results confirmed the effectiveness of Goreisanfor infectious gastroenteritis, and it is also suggested a new effect of Goreisan .
Wolkenstein’s Model of Size Effects in CO Oxidation by Gold Nanoparticles

The Wolkenstein’s theory of catalysis and the d-band theory of formation chemical bonds between transition metal catalysts and adsorbates were used to develop the approach applied to the kinetics of CO oxidation by gold nanoparticles. In the model, within the framework of the mechanism of the reaction going through dissociative adsorption of oxygen molecules and reaction with gas-phase CO molecules, weak and strong chemisorption states of intermediates (O, CO2) were taken into account in the kinetic equations by introducing reversible electronic steps corresponding to electron transfers between the intermediates and the catalyst. As a result, we obtain the expression for the reaction rate, which exhibits a volcano-shape dependence upon the size of the gold nanoparticles at the conditions when the intermediates fractions are not small compared to the empty active sites of the catalyst. It is supposed that the approach can be also applied to the Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism.
Acoustic wave propagation at nonadiabatic conditions: The continuum limit of a thin acoustic layer

Existing studies on sound propagation in rarefied gases are extended to consider wave transmission at nonadiabatic ambient conditions, where arbitrarily large reference temperature and density gradients prevail. Asymptotic analysis of the acoustic field is carried out in the limit of small Knudsen numbers and high actuation frequencies, for both mechanical and thermal wall excitations.
Mycotoxins and Animal Foods

FORMATION AND SPECIFICITY. Aflatoxin: An Ecologically Elicited Genetic Activation Signal. The Environmental Factors Controlling Mycotoxin Formation. Detection and Quantification of Toxigenic Molds. Toxigenic Penicillium Species. The Toxigenic Aspergilli. Toxigenic Fusaria. Miscellaneous Toxigenic Fungi. Testing Animal Feedstuffs for Mycotoxins: Sampling, Subsampling, and Analysis. Detection and Quantification of Mycotoxins by Chemical Analysis. The Determination of Mycotoxins in Animal Feeds by Biological Methods. DETECTION AND OCCURRENCE IN NATURAL PRODUCTS. The Principles of Grain Handling and Transportation. The World Animal Feed Industry. Natural Occurrence of Mycotoxins in Small Grain Cereals. Natural Occurrence of Mycotoxins in Corn. Natural Occurrence of Mycotoxins in Groundnuts, Cottonseed, Soya, and Cassava. Natural Occurrence of Mycotoxins in Growing and Conserved Forage Crops. Mycotoxins in Feedstuffs: Production in Novel Substrates. Mycotoxins in Grain Dusts: Health Implications. Limits and Regulations for Mycotoxins in Raw Materials and Animal Feeds. ANIMAL TOXICITY. Biochemical Mode of Action of Mycotoxins. Biological Activities of Mycotoxins: Field and Experimental Mycotoxicoses. The Influence of Mycotoxins on the Immune System. Toxicity of Trichothecenes and Other Related Mycotoxins in Laboratory Animals. Poultry. Toxicity of Mycotoxins to Fish. Porcine Nephropathy Associated with Ochratoxin A. Effects of Naturally Occurring Mycotoxins on Ruminants. Mycotoxicoses in Horses. POST-HARVEST CONTROL. Prevention of Mycotoxin Contamination (Principally Aflatoxins and Fusariumtoxins) at the Pre-Harvest Stage. Storage of Grains and Seeds. Post-Harvest Storage and Preservation of Tropical Crops. Chemical Preservatives. Physical and Chemical Separation of Mycotoxins From Agricultural Products. In Situ Degradation of Mycotoxins by Physical Methods. The Chemical Degradation of Mycotoxins. Biological Detoxification of Mycotoxins. Interactions of Myco toxins with Feed Ingredients. Do Safe Levels Exist? Index
Utilisation des antibiotiques en élevage et enjeux de santé publique

Les antibiotiques, sous forme de medicaments veterinaires, doivent etre utilises dans le cadre du traitement de maladie animale d’etiologie bacterienne. Leur usage a bon escient est de la responsabilite du veterinaire qui doit se donner les moyens d’un choix raisonne base sur ses connaissances epidemiologiques, sur son sens du diagnostic et sur les examens complementaires notamment bacteriologique. Utiliser les antibiotiques conduit a creer une pression de selection pour des bacteries resistantes pathogenes ou commensales. Des dispositifs de surveillance epidemiologique de la resistance aux antibiotiques et de l’usage des antibiotiques ont ete mis en place en France pour evaluer la nature et l’ampleur des usages et les taux de resistance aux principaux antibiotiques. Ces donnees sont completees par l’etude des genes et des mecanismes de resistance, de la pharmacologie des antibiotiques et de la pharmaco- epidemiologie des phenomenes de resistance c’est-a-dire l’etude de la relation entre l’usage des antibiotiques et les mesures preventives associes aux phenomenes d’emergence et de diffusion des genes de resistance et des bacteries de resistance.
Production of drought tolerant transgenic soybean expressing codA gene under regulation of a water stress inducible promoter

Currently, drought stress has been known as a critical abiotic factors limiting crop production around the world. Several genes associated with water stresses, including codA gene encoded for choline oxidase, have been characterized and transferred to several important crops to enhance the tolerance to drought stress. Therefore, in this study, codA gene under the regulation of a drought inducible promoter-rd29A was introduced into soybean using the Agrobacterium-mediated method. The presence of codA gene in transgenic soybeans was confirmed by PCR and Southern hybridization. Under drought stress treatments, transgenic soybeans showed an enhanced seedling growth and plant biomass as compared to nontransformed soybeans. Moreover, the contents of glycine betaine and free proline, two major organic osmolytes as well as peroxidase activity were found increased in codA transgenic soybean. The malondialdehyde content in transformed soybeans decreased by less than 50% relative to control soybean plants under drought stress conditions. This is the first report on the utilization of the codA gene to improve drought tolerance in soybeans.
¿Cuánto pueden condicionar las condicionalidades? Evidencia sobre las asignaciones familiares de Argentina y Uruguay

This article analyzes the causal mechanism that underlies conditional cash transfers, based on analysis of the implementation processes of the Universal Pay for Children of Argentina and the Family Allowances Regime (Equity Plan) of Uruguay. We carry out an in-depth study of how conditionalities are communicated to the recipients of both policies, how they are understood by them, and how noncompliance is sanctioned. The comparison between Argentina and Uruguay shows how each policy focuses on different stages of implementation. This accounts for two different ways of implementing conditionalities, each of which alters the causal chain through which conditionalities could modify recipients’ behavior. The analysis questions the expectation that conditionalities can modify recipients’ behavior and seeks to understand conditions under which such an expectation is reasonable. Resumen Este articulo analiza el mecanismo causal que subyace a las condicionalidades a partir del analisis de los procesos de implementacion de la Asignacion Universal por Hijo de Argentina y el Regimen de Asignaciones Familiares (Plan de Equidad) de Uruguay. Para ello, con el objetivo de aportar elementos sobre la relacion causal entre condicionalidades y el eventual cambio de comportamiento de las familias, aqui se profundiza en como las condicionalidades son comunicadas a los receptores de ambas politicas, como son entendidas por ellos, y como el incumplimiento es sancionado. La comparacion entre Argentina y Uruguay muestra como cada politica pone el foco en distintas etapas de su proceso de implementacion. Esto da cuenta de dos formas distintas de implementar las condicionalidades, alterando en forma distinta la cadena causal a traves de la cual las condicionalidades podrian modificar la conducta de los receptores. El analisis provee elementos para reflexionar sobre el grado en que es esperable que las condicionalidades de las politicas de transferencias logren los efectos deseados y en que condiciones es esto razonable.