Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating fertility of triploid clones of Hypericum androsaemum L. for use as non-invasive landscape plants.

Although Hypericum androsaemum L. is a valuable landscape plant, the species can be weedy and potentially invasive in certain locations. Infertile, non-invasive cultivars of H. androsaemum with desirable ornamental features would be ecologically beneficial and valuable for the horticultural industry. The male and female fertility of 10 triploid H. androsaemum, developed with a combination of variegation and foliage colors, was investigated under greenhouse (controlled pollination) and field conditions (natural pollination). Male fertility was evaluated based on pollen viability tests (pollen staining and pollen germination). Female fertility was based on fruit set, seed set, germinative capacity of seeds, and number of seedlings produced for each flower. Although values for different measures of fertility varied among triploid clones, pollen germination was significantly reduced for all triploids and nine of the 10 triploids produced no viable seed. These results represent 100% failure of ≈171,000 potential fertilization events based on fertility levels of diploid controls. The remaining triploid clone produced two seedlings per flower compared with 260 seedlings per flower for the controls. However, the seedlings produced by the triploid clone died shortly after germination. This research documented that the triploid H. audrosaemum tested are highly infertile with no measurable female fertility. These clones will provide ideal alternatives to fertile forms of H. androsaemum where invasiveness is a concern. These methods also provide a useful protocol for evaluating fertility of other taxa that are selected or developed as non-invasive cultivars of potentially weedy species.
D EEP L EARNING 3 D S HAPES U SING A LT-AZ A NISOTROPIC 2S PHERE C ONVOLUTION

The ground-breaking performance obtained by deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for image processing tasks is inspiring research efforts attempting to extend it for 3D geometric tasks. One of the main challenge in applying CNNs to 3D shape analysis is how to define a natural convolution operator on noneuclidean surfaces. In this paper, we present a method for applying deep learning to 3D surfaces using their spherical descriptors and alt-az anisotropic convolution on 2-sphere. A cascade set of geodesic disk filters rotate on the 2-sphere and collect spherical patterns and so to extract geometric features for various 3D shape analysis tasks. We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that our proposed method has the possibility to bridge the gap between 2D images and 3D shapes with the desired rotation equivariance/invariance, and its effectiveness is evaluated in applications of non-rigid/ rigid shape classification and shape retrieval.
Performance Evaluation of Parallel Multipliers for High Speed MAC Design

Nowadays multimedia applications are demanding high speed computing architectures. Adders and Multipliersare the very important functional blocks in Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU) of high speed computing architectures. Fast multiplication has always been a vital requirement of high performance processors and systems. This paper presents the implementations of the high speed Signed and unsigned fast Multipliers and their comparative analysis. In this paper, we have proposed VLSI architecturefor widely used parallel multipliers such as Booth’s multiplier, Wallace multiplier and Dadda Tree multipliers in order acquire their design attributes like speed, area. The acquired design parameters of the multipliers are analyzed to design optimum speedmultiply and Accumulate (MAC) unit for multimedia applications likeFilters, Synthesizers, Wireless communication channels, etc. Finally the designed multiplier has alsobeen applied to DSP application like convolution andtheir performance is analyzed in terms of area. Keywords—Digital Signal Processing (DSP), Multiply and Accumulate Unit (MAC), finite impulse response(FIR), serial-parallel multiplier(SPM).
LAWS: Locality-AWare Scheme for Automatic Speech Recognition

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems are changing the way people interact with different applications on mobile devices. Fulfilling such user-interactivity requires not only a highly accurate, large-vocabulary recognition system, but also a real-time, energy-efficient solution. However, these ASR systems need high memory bandwidth and power budget, which may be impractical for most of small form-factor battery-operated devices. In this article, we propose two combined techniques implemented on top of a state-of-the-art ASR accelerator in order to significantly reduce its energy consumption and memory requirements. First, by leveraging the locality among consecutive segments of the speech signal, we develop a Locality-AWare-Scheme (LAWS) which exploits the on-chip recently-explored data while removing most of the off-chip accesses during the ASR's decoding process. As a result, we remove up to 60 percent of ASR's workload. As the second step, we introduce an approach to improve LAWS's effectiveness by selectively adapting the amount of ASR's workload, based on run-time feedback. In particular, we exploit the fact that the confidence of the ASR system varies along the recognition process. When confidence is high, the ASR system can be more restrictive and reduce the amount of work. The end design including both techniques provides a saving of more than 87 percent in the memory requests and 2.3x reduction in energy consumption, and a speedup of 2.1x with respect to a state-of-the-art baseline design.
An Electrical Equivalent Circuit Model of a Lithium Titanate Oxide Battery

A precise lithium-ion battery model is required to specify their appropriateness for different applications and to study their dynamic behavior. In addition, it is important to design an efficient battery system for power applications. In this investigation, a second-order equivalent electrical circuit battery model, which is the most conventional method of characterizing the behavior of a lithium-ion battery, was developed. The current pulse procedure was employed for parameterization of the model. The construction of the model was described in detail, and a battery model for a 13 Ah lithium titanate oxide battery cell was demonstrated. Comprehensive characterization experiments were accomplished for an extensive range of operating situations. The outcomes were employed to parameterize the suggested dynamic model of the lithium titanate oxide battery cell. The simulation outcomes were compared to the laboratory measurements. In addition, the proposed lithium-ion battery model was validated. The recommended model was assessed, and the proposed model was able to anticipate precisely the current and voltage performance.
Morphological characterization and in vitro germination of heat-treated pollen in Eucommia ulmoides

Abstract Polyploid breeding has the potential to increase the economic secondary metabolites of Eucommia ulmoides. However, pollination with induced ploidy-mixed pollen has failed to produce polyploids (GAO, 2006). In this investigation, the morphological characterization and in vitro germination of heat-induced ploidy-mixed pollen of E. ulmoides were analysed to determine why there is no polyploid production. Heat-treated pollen grains were easily distinguished as large and small according to their length. The large pollen grains were significantly longer than both untreated and heat-treated small samples, suggesting that they were probably 2n pollen. Rather than the three germinal pores in small pollen, the large grains typically had four pores and, in some cases, shallow furrows, which might affect their germination. Although the maximal germination rates of the treated small and large pollen were not significantly different, the large pollen germinated tardily during the early stages of incubation. The small pollen maintained its growth during the incubation, but the tube growth of large pollen almost stopped after 24 h incubation. Both vegetative and generative nuclei in the large pollen moved into tubes later than in small pollen and the frequency of mitosis in generative nuclei of large pollen was low. Therefore, the tardy germination, poor tube growth, and weak activity of both vegetative and generative nuclei probably caused the poor competition of large pollen in certation. Finally, techniques to increase the competition of highploidy pollen and the prospect of 2n female gamete induction in the polyploid breeding program of E. ulmoides are discussed.
Perception and Saccades during Figure-Ground Segregation and Border-Ownership Discrimination in Natural Contours

SUMMARY Figure-ground (FG) segregation has been considered as a fundamental step towards object recognition. We explored plausible mechanisms that estimate global ﬁgure-ground segregation from local image fea- tures by investigating the human visual system. Physiological studies have reported border-ownership (BO) selective neurons in V2 which signal the local direction of ﬁgure (DOF) along a border; however, how local BO signals contribute to global FG segregation has not been clariﬁed. The BO and FG processing could be independent, dependent on each other, or insepa-rable. The investigation on the di ﬀ erences and similarities between the BO and FG judgements is important for exploring plausible mechanisms that enable global FG estimation from local clues. We performed psychophys- ical experiments that included two di ﬀ erent tasks each of which focused on the judgement of either BO or FG. The perceptual judgments showed consistency between the BO and FG determination while a longer distance in gaze movement was observed in FG segregation than BO discrimina- tion. These results suggest the involvement of distinct neural mechanism for local BO determination and global FG segregation.
The Galactic Magneto-ionic Medium Survey: Moments of the Faraday Spectra

Faraday rotation occurs along every line of sight in the Galaxy; rotation measure (RM) synthesis allows a 3D representation of the interstellar magnetic field. This study uses data from the Global Magneto-Ionic Medium Survey, a combination of single-antenna spectro-polarimetric studies, including northern sky data from the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO) 26 m telescope (1270–1750 MHz) and southern sky data from the Parkes 64 m telescope (300–480 MHz). From the synthesized Faraday spectral cubes we compute the zeroth, first, and second moments to find the total polarized emission, mean RM, and RM width of the polarized emission. From DRAO first moments we find a weak vertical field directed from Galactic North to South, but Parkes data reveal fields directed toward the Sun at high latitudes in both hemispheres: the two surveys clearly sample different volumes. DRAO second moments show feature widths in Faraday spectra increasing with decreasing positive latitudes, implying that longer lines of sight encounter more Faraday rotating medium, but this is not seen at negative latitudes. Parkes data show the opposite: at positive latitudes the second moment decreases with decreasing latitude, but not at negative latitudes. Comparing first moments with RMs of pulsars and extragalactic sources and a study of depolarization together confirm that the DRAO survey samples to larger distances than the Parkes data. Emission regions in the DRAO survey are typically 700–1000 pc away, slightly beyond the scale height of the magneto-ionic medium; emission detected in the Parkes survey is entirely within the magneto-ionic disk, less than 500 pc away.
Novel Topical Nanoformulations : An Overview

DOI: 10.21276/sajp.2018. 7.2. 4 Abstract: Novel drug delivery system (NDDS) refers to the approaches, formulation, technologies and systems for transporting a pharmaceutical compound in the body as needed to safety achieve its desired therapeutically effects. Novel drug delivery system have got several advantages like delivering drug at optimum dose , reduction in the production cost, better therapy. Nanomiemgel is one of the NDDS, which utilizes the “multi absorption mechanism” concept. It consist of two matrix namely, Nano emulsion and Nano micelle. There are several methods for the preparation of these two matrices. These novel drug delivery systems have broad applicability in the field of pharmaceutics.
A Monte Carlo Method using PDE Expansions for a Diversifed Equity Index Model

This paper considers a new class of Monte Carlo methods that are combined with PDE expansions for the pricing and hedging of derivative securities for multidimensional diffusion models. The proposed method combines the advantages of both PDE and Monte Carlo methods and can be directly applied to models with more than two state variables. The pricing procedure is illustrated using a three-component index model that captures some of the key features of a diversified stock index over long time periods. The method is widely applicable and is demonstrated here in the general setting of the benchmark approach, where spatial boundary limiting conditions for the PDE need to be appropriately chosen and approximated. The PDE expansion is based on a Taylor series approximation for the underlying three-component PDE. A Monte Carlo method with variance reduction is then formulated to approximate the true solution. Almost exact simulation schemes are described for the given state variables in the model. Numerical results are presented that demonstrate the effectiveness and tractability of the proposed pricing and hedging methodology.
Semantic Analysis: Can MD&A Word Choice Increase Stock Price of American Publicly Traded Banks Disseminating Using Twitter?

Social media has become a part of the International framework. Use has risen exponentially and organizations that have relied on traditional channels of communication are considering its use. Researchers studied the impact of semantics on organizations disseminating financial information using Twitter. This study sought to understand the impact of word strength in communicating with investors. This study included 34 American publicly traded banks over four quarters or a sample size of 136. Seventeen used Twitter while seventeen did not. The researchers analyzed the semantic content of these messages. Using a predictive model, researchers compared the cumulative abnormal returns associated with the announcement. Researchers concluded that using Twitter did not positively impact stock price. Researchers also found that banks using Twitter used more powerful words in communicating. This research advances understanding the role social media and semantics can play to disseminate financial information.
A Structural Equation Modeling of the Relationship Between Occupational Stress and Job Performance in Health Care Workers

Healthcare workers (HCWs) suffer from occupational stress. This stress has adverse effects on individual and organization. This factor can be impose irreparable damage to the health care organizations and ultimately reduce job performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of occupational stress on the performance of HCWs. This descriptive-analytical study was conducted in 2017, by-census on 400 health-care workers of one of the public hospitals in Gorgan, Iran. Data was collected using Osipow’s Occupational Stress Questionnaire and Paterson’s Job Performance Questionnaire. Descriptive, analytical statistics and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was analyzed by SPSS v. 22 and LISREL 8.72. The highest and lowest effect of stressful factors on job performance were related to physical environment (β=0.89, p<0.001) and the role insufficiency (β=0.43, p<0.001) respectively. The overall dimensions of occupational stress explained 73% of changes in the variance of job performance of HCWs (R-squared=0.73). One of the important interventions can be focusing on the improvement of the physical conditions of the workplace and maintaining this at standard levels.
Playing Card Detection and Identification

Playing cards are a typical item in households. They are used in a variety of games such as poker and blackjack. In some of these cases it can be helpful to algorithmically identify the playing cards from camera images. This paper explores two approaches to detect and identify cards in a static image. An approach using SIFT is first tried, but due to highly similar features, fails to produce meaningful results. Secondly, a template matching based approach is explored and analyzed. For ideal cases, it reaches a 98% success rate for correct identification. Finally, the non-ideal case of perspective distortion is explored and tested.
Highly efficient planar perovskite solar cells through band alignment engineering

The simplification of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), by replacing the mesoporous electron selective layer (ESL) with a planar one, is advantageous for large-scale manufacturing. PSCs with a planar TiO2 ESL have been demonstrated, but these exhibit unstabilized power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). Herein we show that planar PSCs using TiO2 are inherently limited due to conduction band misalignment and demonstrate, with a variety of characterization techniques, for the first time that SnO2 achieves a barrier-free energetic configuration, obtaining almost hysteresis-free PCEs of over 18% with record high voltages of up to 1.19 V.
Influence of preheating on mechanical and surface properties of nanofilled resin composites

Background Resin composite preheating is an innovative method that could be clinically beneficial by improving the handling properties, marginal adaptation, and surface properties of uncured nanofilled resin composite materials. There is conflict and unclear information regarding the effect of preheating on the microhardness, fracture toughness and surface roughness of nanofilled resin composites. Thus, it is important to assess whether dental clinicians can adopt preheating procedures without compromising composite mechanical strength. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of preheating on microhardness, fracture toughness and surface roughness of nanofilled resin composite. Material and Methods In this study, one commercial nanofilled resin composite Filtek Z350 XT was used. A total of 28 disc-shaped specimens were fabricated in a Teflon mold (10 mm diameter x 2 mm thick) for Vickers microhardness indentation test and surface roughness test. The samples were divided into two groups of 14 samples each, one group of samples was light-cured at room temperature (24ºC) without preheating (non-heated group), and the other group was light-cured after preheating (preheated group). Vickers hardness measurements of 14 specimens (n=7) either preheated or non-heated of the top and bottom surfaces was measured by means of microhardness tester by applying 100 g load for 10 s. Surface Roughness measurements (Ra) were obtained from 14 specimens (n=7) either preheated or non-heated with the atomic force microscope. Fourteen single-edge-notched-beam specimens were prepared for fracture toughness test (n=7) either preheated or non-heated with measurements (2.5 x 5 x 25 mm3) and a crack 2.12 mm in length. The specimens were tested via three-point bending mode, using a universal testing machine at crosshead speed of 1.0 mm/min until failure occurred. Results Independent sample t- tests revealed no significant difference between non-heated and preheated groups for all tests (p>0.05). However, for Vickers hardness test, there were significant differences between top and bottom surfaces for non-heated and preheated groups (p<0.05). Moreover, surface roughness average Ra (nm) mean values of preheated group was higher than non-heated group but no significant difference between them was found (p>0.05). Conclusions Preheating procedure did not negatively affect microhardness, fracture toughness and surface roughness of nanofilled resin composites so preheating is recommended for the other potential clinical advantages. Key words:Preheating, nanofilled composites, microhardness, fracture toughness, surface roughness.
Effective interaction potential for amorphous silica from ab initio simulations

We discuss a novel approach that allows to obtain effective potentials from ab initio trajectories. Our method consists in fitting the weighted radial distribution functions obtained from the ab initio data with the ones obtained from simulations with the effective potential, and using the parameters of the latter as fitting variables. As a case study, we consider the example of amorphous silica, a material that is highly relevant in the field of glass science as well as in geology. Our approach is able to obtain an effective potential that gives a better description with respect to structural and thermodynamic properties than the potential proposed by van Beest, Kramer, and van Santen, and that has been very frequently used as a model for amorphous silica. In parallel, we have also used the so-called "force matching" approach proposed by Ercolessi and Adams to obtain an effective potential. We demonstrate that for the case of silica this method does not yield a reliable potential and discuss the likely origin for this failure.
Bacteriological Quality and Risk Factors for Contamination of Raw Mixed Vegetable Salads Served in Collective Catering in Abidjan (Ivory Coast)

The aim of this study was to determine the bacteriological quality of raw mixed vegetable salads served in collective catering in Abidjan and to assess the factors likely to favor contamination. An investigation was conducted to determine the practical risk of contamination. A total of 306 samples were collected and analyzed for the detection and enumeration of Enterobacteriaceae, E. coli and Salmonella according to standard microbiology methods. The most important risk factors were lack of training (96.7%), decontamination (84.0%), cross-contamination of vegetables in contact with fresh chicken or fish (76.7%) and salads that were uncovered and unprotected, thus exposed to the air and at ambient temperature for sale (97.7%). Theprevalence was 100%, 77.8% and 2.6% respectively for Enterobacteriaceae, E. coli and Salmonella. The average load of Enterobacteriaceae and E. coli was 4.93 log10 (CFU/g) and 1.89 log10 (CFU/g), respectively. Unsatisfactory microbiological quality samples were 52.3%. The results showed a failure of the sanitary quality in more than half of the products. Raising awareness in all of the workers in the food chain for vegetable salads is thus necessary to protect the health of the consumers.