Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automatic 3D Landmark Extraction System Based on an Encoder-Decoder Using Fusion of Vision and LiDAR

To provide a realistic environment for remote sensing applications, point clouds are used to realize a three-dimensional (3D) digital world for the user. Motion recognition of objects, e.g., humans, is required to provide realistic experiences in the 3D digital world. To recognize a user’s motions, 3D landmarks are provided by analyzing a 3D point cloud collected through a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system or a red green blue (RGB) image collected visually. However, manual supervision is required to extract 3D landmarks as to whether they originate from the RGB image or the 3D point cloud. Thus, there is a need for a method for extracting 3D landmarks without manual supervision. Herein, an RGB image and a 3D point cloud are used to extract 3D landmarks. The 3D point cloud is utilized as the relative distance between a LiDAR and a user. Because it cannot contain all information the user’s entire body due to disparities, it cannot generate a dense depth image that provides the boundary of user’s body. Therefore, up-sampling is performed to increase the density of the depth image generated based on the 3D point cloud; the density depends on the 3D point cloud. This paper proposes a system for extracting 3D landmarks using 3D point clouds and RGB images without manual supervision. A depth image provides the boundary of a user’s motion and is generated by using 3D point cloud and RGB image collected by a LiDAR and an RGB camera, respectively. To extract 3D landmarks automatically, an encoder–decoder model is trained with the generated depth images, and the RGB images and 3D landmarks are extracted from these images with the trained encoder model. The method of extracting 3D landmarks using RGB depth (RGBD) images was verified experimentally, and 3D landmarks were extracted to evaluate the user’s motions with RGBD images. In this manner, landmarks could be extracted according to the user’s motions, rather than by extracting them using the RGB images. The depth images generated by the proposed method were 1.832 times denser than the up-sampling-based depth images generated with bilateral filtering.
Species Profiles: Life Histories and Environmental Requirements of Coastal Fishes and Invertebrates (North Atlantic): Softshell Clam.

Abstract : The softshell clam, Mya arenaria, is a commercially and recreationally important invertebrate that inhabits the bottom sediments of subtidal and intertidal waters of moderate to high salinity. Its range is limited by water temperatures too low for reproduction in the north and by lethal warm temperatures in the south. Clams feed by siphoning seawater and removing food particles, especially phytoplankton, with their gills. Clams are therefore sensitive to factors affecting water quality, including suspended sediments, salinity, water temperature, oxygen, and waterborne pollutants. The clam life cycle consists of mass spawning and external fertilization, the development of pelagic larvae, settlement and metamorphosis into spat, and rapid juvenile growth to maturity. Clam recruitment and the migration of spat are dependent upon inshore currents. High morality of eggs, larvae, and spat is largely offset by high reproductive potential. As the clam grows, it finds refuge most predators deep in the sediments, but it also loses its ability to burrow and is subject to suffocation by siltation. Sediment types, currents, and tidal heights all affect clam growth rates. Keywords: Estuaries, Fisheries, Shellfish, Salinity, Temperature, Feeding habits, Contaminants, Oxygen.
Adjustment of Cell Adhesion on Polyurethane Structures via Control of the Hard/Soft Segment Ratio

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Adjustment of Cell Adhesion on Polyurethane Structures via Control of the Hard/Soft Segment Ratio Gaëtan Lutzweiler, Julien Barthes, Nihal Engin Vrana, Michel Rawiso, Benoît Louis, Josselin Mayingi, Albane Carre, Wiebke Drenckhan, Pierre Schaaf
Estimating species richness: calibrating a large avian monitoring programme

Summary 1 Species richness is the most widely used measure for the diversity of a biological community. Unfortunately, the number of species counted is usually a biased measure, as not all species present may be detected. Use of species counts as a proxy for true species richness requires the assumption of constant (over space and time) species detectability. This index assumption is hardly ever tested and, if violated, comparisons over time, space or other dimensions, for example different habitats, will be distorted. In monitoring programmes one therefore needs to know the proportion of species present that are detected and how this proportion is affected by external factors. 2 We used capture–recapture techniques to calibrate the Swiss breeding bird survey, where species richness is recorded annually in c. 270 1-km2 quadrats during two to three visits and interest is focused on annual trends and regional comparisons. Hitherto, analysis has been restricted to species counts, while species detectability and its determinants are not known. We used the interpolated jackknife estimator to compute mean species detectability for 268 quadrats in 2001–03 and tested determinants of detectability related to space, time, observer, survey effort and biology. 3 Mean species detectability averaged 0·89 (SD 0·06, range 0·72–1·00), with no significant difference among years and significant, but small, regional differences. Observers differed, but surprisingly not in relation to their experience in a quadrat. Detectability was positively related to mean visit duration. Larger communities had a lower mean species detectability. A slight violation of population closure because of staggered arrival of migrants did not introduce any measurable bias into our results. 4 Synthesis and applications. Species detectability in the Swiss programme was high and varied little in relation to recognized sources of heterogeneity. Nevertheless, increased standardization should be considered for mean visit duration. While these results are pleasing for the Swiss programme and show that using counts as indices of species diversity need not always induce serious bias, conditions in other programmes, and in the future in the Swiss programme, may be quite different. Both in monitoring programmes and in ecological studies, as a way of risk minimization, species richness ought to be rigorously estimated whenever possible to avoid detection of spurious effects because of changes in species detectability.
Evidence of Ozone-Induced Visible Foliar Injury in Hong Kong Using Phaseolus Vulgaris as a Bioindicator

(1) Background: Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with millions of people exposed to severe air pollution. Surface ozone, mostly produced photochemically from anthropogenic precursor gases, is harmful to both humans and vegetation. The phytotoxicity of ozone has been shown to damage plant photosynthesis, induce early leaf death, and retard growth. (2) Methods: We use genotypes of bush bean Phaseolus vulgaris with various degrees of sensitivity to ozone to investigate the impacts of ambient ozone on the morphology and development of the beans. We use ozone-induced foliar injury index and measure the flowering and fruit production to quantify the ozone stress on the plants. (3) Results: We expected that the ozone-sensitive genotype would suffer from a reduction of yield. Results, however, show that the ozone-sensitive genotype suffers higher ozone-induced foliar damage as expected but produces more pods and beans and heavier beans than the ozone-resistant genotype. (4) Conclusions: It is postulated that the high ozone sensitivity of the sensitive genotype causes stress-induced flowering, and therefore results in higher bean yield. A higher than ambient concentration of ozone is needed to negatively impact the yield production of the ozone-sensitive genotype. Meanwhile, ozone-induced foliar damage shows a graduated scale of damage pattern that can be useful for indicating ozone levels. This study demonstrates the usefulness of bioindicators to monitor the phytotoxic effects of ozone pollution in a subtropical city such as Hong Kong.
Digimums' online grocery shopping: the end of children's influence?

This paper investigates children's influence on their mothers' online grocery shopping. As virtual shopping does not provide instant gratification, the authors explore how children between the ages of 7 and 11 are involved in the online purchasing process (before, during and after the purchase) with their digital mothers (digimums). ,We collected qualitative data from 27 separate semi-structured interviews of mothers and their children. ,Children's influence during the online buying process exists and can be active, passive and/or proactive. The findings extend knowledge about children's influence by adding the notion of proactive influence where children use an intended approach to anticipate their mother's needs for grocery shopping and take initiatives. Children use less impulsive requests and become smart shoppers using more rational arguments to explain their requests. The online buying process contributes to children's online socialisation: They learn the importance of the shopping list, prices, discounts, brands and so on. Online socialisation at home might take the physical form of using digital devices (i.e. scanning) and entering the credit card code, which contributes to the children's learning. ,Online buying virtualises children's relationship to objects, and the screen acts as a kind of filter. This makes their influence strategy less emotional and corporeal and more rational (smart shopper).
Piconewton regime dynamic force microscopy in liquid

In this work, a cantilever in a fluid is driven by a mixed signal composed of a standard driving signal and a feedback signal consisting of the amplified and phase shifted oscillation signal. This mimics the oscillation of a cantilever with a quality factor up to three orders of magnitude higher than its natural Q (∼1). This technique allows the identification of the resonance frequency of the cantilever by mechanical excitation of the fluid. The improved sensitivity has been checked by imaging a very soft sample of 1% agarose gel in the dynamic mode. A force smaller than 50 pN could be applied to the sample, improving the spatial resolution and the phase contrast significantly. This technique provides a major improvement in atomic force microscopy/spectroscopy in liquids.
End-To-End Accent Conversion Without Using Native Utterances

Techniques for accent conversion (AC) aim to convert non-native to native accented speech. Conventional AC methods try to convert only the speaker identity of a native speaker’s voice to that of the non-native accented target speaker, leaving the underlying content and pronunciations unchanged. This hinders their practical use in real-world applications, because native-accented utterances are required at conversion stage. In this paper, we present an end-to-end framework, which is able to conduct AC from non-native-accented utterances without using any native-accented utterances during online conversion. We achieve this by independently extracting linguistic and speaker representations from non-native accented speech and condition a speech synthesis model on these representations to generate native-accented speech. Experiments on open-source data corpora show that the proposed system can convert Hindi-accented English speech into native American English speech with high naturalness, which is indistinguishable from native-accented recordings in terms of accent.
Use of closed loop system using Arduino for different parameters in farming

The GDP (Gross domestic product) of most countries in the world are base on the regular basis of agriculture contribution of that particular country. The current weather conditions in the world and crop loss are the main reason for its contribution to GDP. New technologies and advanced fertilizers are now used in farming though these technologies and advanced fertilizers do not reach farmers till now. In this paper, a concept for the automated watering system in agriculture is introduce which uses wireless sensors technology for the detection of moisture in the soil suitable for agriculture using a smartphone application which will play a critical role in agriculture. The automatic watering to plants using the Arduino system and android app is use. Even this application of Android will provide information to the farmers related to agriculture like costs of seeds, level of moisture required, amount of water needed, which type of soil required, forecast weather, fertilizers to be used and pesticides required.
Training Student Pharmacists in Suicide Awareness and Prevention

Objective. To determine whether students gained knowledge, confidence, and skills in identifying and preventing suicide in patients, peers, friends, and family after receiving training in suicide prevention. Methods. Student pharmacists participated in a 3.5-hour suicide prevention training program. A pre- and post- intervention assessment and pre- and post-intervention survey were administered before and after completion of the training program. Questions were designed to assess knowledge of, comfort with, and confidence in assessing and intervening with individuals at risk of suicide. A standardized patient prescription counseling session was conducted two weeks after the training session. Videos of the counseling sessions were reviewed to determine whether student pharmacists assessed the patient for suicide risk. Additionally, a post-counseling reflection was completed asking students to reflect on incorporation of the suicide prevention training into their prescription counseling session. Results. One-hundred seventy-one student pharmacists participated in the training. Knowledge increased across all areas as evidenced by improved scores on the post-intervention knowledge assessment. Students’ comfort level with asking about suicidal ideation and their confidence with intervening significantly increased from the pre- to post-intervention survey. After the training, 40% stated they knew someone who may need help and 21% said they had decided to seek help for themselves. Conclusion. The training program increased student pharmacists’ knowledge of and confidence in assessing and counseling individuals considering suicide. Encouraging student pharmacists to participate in prevention training may aid future providers in preventing death by suicide.
BEST PRACTICES TO IMPROVE THE HEALTHCARE PATIENT EXPERIENCE IN GYNAECOLOGY AND OBSTETRICS

The quality and level of the Czech healthcare system is a very current and often discussed topic. The Czech healthcare system is considered to be one of the most advanced healthcare systems in the world, but is very often criticized as being too ? technological? and ? scientific? and the psychosocial aspects are neglected. The social competencies of doctors are expected, but not enough attention is payed to their definition, development and creation of conditions for their application. We need to change the curriculum for undergraduate and postgraduate doctors? psychosocial preparation. The research focuses on gynaecological and obstetric specialization, where the need for a psychosocial approach is seen as being essential. This paper reviews the conceptual and empirical literature in order to develop a model of the various aspects of the doctor-patient relationship encompassed by the ? patient-centred? concept. Based on the empirical studies we identified ? best practices? that should be essential for education based on the competency for undergraduate and postgraduate doctors? preparation. The main methods are three focus groups for six doctors at different levels of experience and nine in-depth interviews with expectant mothers who had varying experiences with parturition: spontaneous parturition, planned caesarean section parturition, long-term hospitalization up to four weeks. The main outcome of the study is to describe the best practise of doctors/obstetricians, which is acceptable to doctors and corresponds to the needs and expectations of mothers.
Hopf Bifurcation in DCTCP Congestion Control

Data center networks (DCNs) are prevalent and essential to provide a myriad of big data analytics for data-intensive applications with requirements of high stability and low latency. To satisfy these demands, Data Center Transmission Control Protocol (DCTCP) has been proposed to replace Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) in handling switches with high speed links and low round-trip time (RTT) in DCN. In this letter, we analyze the network stability and RTT in a simplified DCTCP fluid model to better control DCN stability. Numerical results demonstrate that the network stays stable if RTT is smaller than a critical value which is the Hopf bifurcation point. In other words, once RTT exceeds this critical value, the network will become unstable. We further analyze the effect of other parameters to stability, while shedding a light on ways to adjust and control the stability for stability-sensitive services.
Evaluating the Economic Viability of Inland Seafood Markets in Georgia: A Two-Pronged Approach

There is a lack of information regarding the barriers preventing Georgia seafood producers from taking advantage of a presumed market premium in inland markets. Using a two-pronged approach, we estimated the willingness to pay (WTP) for locally caught Georgia seafood (clams, crab, oysters, shrimp, and grouper) sold in either farmers markets or through community supported agriculture outlets in the Atlanta-Athens area. We then estimated the costs per pound associated with targeting inland markets using an enterprise budget framework. This cost data, combined with the WTP data, provides a more holistic picture of the potential profitability associated with transporting Georgia-caught seafood inland to in-state consumers. While our analysis suggests inland markets could be economically viable for shrimp, we also identified factors hindering the development of inland markets.
High-Resolution ISAR Imaging and Motion Compensation With 2-D Joint Sparse Reconstruction

With regard to the multifunction radar transmitting sparse stepped-frequency-modulation (SSFM) signal for inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging, the received echo signal is usually sparse in two dimensions, i.e., sparse stepped-frequency-modulation and sparse aperture waveforms (SSFM-SAWs), and there are translational and rotational motion errors between subpulses. The two problems seriously challenge the feasibility of conventional 1-D sparse reconstruction algorithms. This article proposes a novel high-resolution ISAR imaging and motion compensation with the 2-D joint sparse reconstruction (2D-JSR) algorithm. In this technique, a 2D-JSR dictionary is established according to the SSFM-SAW signal model. Based on the Bayesian compressive sensing (BCS) theory, the 2D-JSR is then transformed into solving a sparsity-driven optimization problem with ${l_{1}}$ -norm constraint. With the accommodation of a modified quasi-Newton solver, the exact recovery of SSFM-SAW can be achieved. In addition, a new algorithm, named joint translational motion compensation and range spatial-variant autofocus (JTSVA) algorithm, is also developed to realize motion parameters by a two-step estimation. Integrating with 2-D coupling information of echo signal and the efficient and robust motion compensation algorithm, the accurate motion parameters together with well-focused and scaled high-resolution ISAR images can be obtained. Extensive experiments based on both simulated and real data demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is capable of the precise reconstruction of ISAR images and the effective suppression of both motion errors and noise.
Impact of an Open Access Nationwide Treatment Model on Hepatitis C Virus Antiviral Drug Resistance

Direct acting antivirals (DAAs) have revolutionized hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment, but drug resistance could undermine proposed global elimination targets. Real‐world studies are needed to inform the impact of widespread DAA treatment on antiviral resistance in the community. The prevalence and range of posttreatment resistance‐associated substitutions (RASs) was determined in Australian patients with open access to DAAs through a wide range of prescribers. NS3, NS5A, and NS5B regions were amplified by polymerase chain reaction and analyzed by population sequencing. Clinically relevant RASs were identified using online databases (ReCALL and Geno2Pheno[hcv]). Of 572 samples, 60% were from genotype 3 and 27% from genotype 1a. Ninety‐two percent of people failed a DAA regimen containing an NS5A inhibitor, including 10% with a pangenotype regimen. NS5A RASs were detected in 72% of people with genotype 1 and 80% with genotype 3. For genotype 1, there was a range of RASs across the NS5A region, while for genotype 3, the Y93H RAS predominated (72%). The prevalence of NS3 RASs was higher in people exposed to an NS3 inhibitor (35% vs. 3.9%; P < 0.0001). NS5B resistance was rare, with a single case of sofosbuvir resistance. Multiclass drug resistance was found in 33% of people exposed to both NS3 and NS5A inhibitors. Conclusion: The high prevalence of NS5A RASs among people failing DAA therapy reinforces the importance of specific retreatment regimens, ideally guided by resistance testing. The impact of multiclass drug resistance on retreatment in people exposed to both NS3 and NS5A inhibitors needs to be assessed in real‐world studies. Surveillance for increasing antiviral resistance during treatment scale‐up is essential to maintain the efficacy of current DAA regimens.
Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus Type I Associated with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Syndrome: Immunopathological Aspects and Treatment Options

Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is a retrovirus related to infectious myelopathies, neoplasms, lymphomas, leukemias, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). It is acquired through sexual transmission, transfusion of blood products, and breastfeeding. The increased expression of human endogenous retrovirus K (HERV-K) in the brain tissue of patients with ALS has been demonstrated, a finding that supports the relationship between the virus and this disease. Therapeutic options include supportive measures and symptomatic treatment with anti-inflammatory medications including steroids, cyclosporines, pentoxifylline, danazol, interferons, and vitamin C. New management proposals are being implemented with valproic acid that acts to facilitate the recognition of the virus by the immune system and with zidovudine antivirals focused on reducing viral load. The purpose of this paper is to describe a clinical case that exhibits clinical signs and evidence of motor neuron compromise as described in electrophysiology studies along with positive laboratory tests for the HTLV-I virus.