Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Processamento de Imagens Omnidirecionais e Aplicações

Omnidirectional images and videos have been widely disseminated due to the popularization of devices for capture and visualization. Unlike images captured with perspective projection, omnidirectional media are defined on the surface of a sphere, having a field of view of 360 ◦ × 180 ◦ . Thus, they store the light intensities in the entire region around the capture point, with high potential for use in applications involving immersive augmented, mixed and virtual reality experiences. Although defined in the spherical domain, omni-directional images are often mapped to a (multi)planar representation, which results in distorted images and degrades the performance of most traditional visual computing algorithms designed to work in the plane. This chapter reviews the spherical camera model, the most common capture devices, and popular (multi)planar representations of omnidirectional media. It also lists the main challenges of omnidirectional visual computing, focusing on the deep learning paradigm, and discusses potential applications.
Desafios para a Computação Energeticamente Eficiente

New and relevant applications impose great challenges to computational systems, since they demand complex processing applied to large and growing amounts of data. With the weakening of Moore’s law seen in recent years, new approaches are needed to deliver the required performance. An additional challenge is the need to contain the growing energy consumption of computing devices and infrastructures to reduce operating costs, for environmental reasons and, for mobile devices, also due to battery limitations. In this chapter, we will address the challenges of developing such systems and possible solutions, traversing the multiple levels of abstraction in computing
Steps in building a transcription technology: deciphering the content of historical romanian documents

The paper presents the general lines of a technology aimed to decipher old Romanian documents in the form of uncials and prints, from the Cyrillic into the Latin script. The focus is on two final modules of the pipeline that assembles this technology, one recognizing character shapes and the other sequencing characters which are placed in-between lines by the copyists. The endeavor is motivated by the huge collection of old documents existing in libraries, only very few of them having received the attention of expert linguists.
A Delay Efficient Algorithm for Data Aggregation in Multi-hop Wireless Sensor Networks

Data aggregation is a key functionality in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). This paper focuses on data aggregat ion scheduling problem to minimize the delay (or latency). We pr opose an efficient distributed algorithm that produces a coll isionfree schedule for data aggregation in WSNs. We theoreticall y prove that the delay of the aggregation schedule generated b y our algorithm is at most 16R + ∆ − 14 time-slots. Here R is the network radius and ∆ is the maximum node degree in the communication graph of the original network. Our algorithm significantly improves the previously known best data aggre gation algorithm with a upper-bound of delay of 24D + 6∆ + 16 timeslots, where D is the network diameter (Note that D can be as large as 2R). We conduct extensive simulations to study the practical performances of our proposed data aggregatio n algorithm. Our simulation results corroborate our theoretical results and show that our algorithms perform better in practice. We prove that the overall lower-bound of delay for data aggregation under any interference model ismax{log n, R} where n is the network size. We provide an example to show that the lower-bound is (approximately) tight under the protocol interference model when rI = r, where rI is the interference range and r is the transmission range. We also derive the lowerbound of delay under the protocol interference model when r < rI < 3r and rI ≥ 3r.
Innovación en el uso de las microalgas en termalismo

In recent years microalgae have been used in various fields such as nutrition, cosmetics, pharmacology, etc. Its use as a therapeutic resource can have an important future in marine cure and thermal therapy, due to their valuable properties. Furthermore, with the increasing of the interest for products in society, the use of microalgae can become an important area of development in the thermal and thalassotherapy centers. Marine microalgae are an important source of vitamins, pigments, proteins and other substances that could be suitable for skin care so that they could be used in the treatment of some dermatological diseases such as psoriasis and acne, and also for cellulite, dry skin, etc. In the field of Hydrotherapy it is important to use products that have been proven and characterized from the point of view of physico-chemical quality and application. The aim of this study is to compare the thermophysical properties and evaluation of skin parameters (such as hydration, elasticity and fatigue) of different peloids made of microalgae and sea water.
Comment les individus issus de différentes cultures catégorisent les marques ? L’impact de la conception de soi

La maniere dont les consommateurs categorisent les produits et les marques a de nombreuses implications stra- tegiques pour les marketeurs (e.g. positionnement, merchandising, extension de marques). Cette recherche exa- mine les differences de categorisation des marques entre les consommateurs individualistes et collectivistes a travers le construit de la conception de soi. Les resultats d’une etude quantitative, menee sur deux echantillons de 500 consommateurs de culture collectiviste et 507 consommateurs de culture individualiste, montrent que les individus ayant une conception de soi independante categorisent les marques selon les attributs, alors que ceux ayant une conception de soi interdependante categorisent les marques selon l’occasion d’usage.
Successful treatment of massive pulmonary embolism in a pregnant woman, with low-dose, slow infusion of tissue plasminogen activator

Pregnancy and puerperium periods are hypercoagulable states associated with increased levels of procoagulant factors (increased fibrinogen, factor V and VIII levels) and decreased anticoagulant activity (decreased protein S level and increased activated protein C resistance). In pregnancy, the risk for deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) is increased five-fold compared to nonpregnant women of the same age, the latter being one of the leading causes of death during pregnancy. The risk for DVT and PE in pregnancy is further increased in the presence of underlying thrombophilic disorders such as factor V Leiden mutation, prothrombin gene (G20210A) mutation, deficiencies of antithrombin, protein C, and protein S, and the Successful treatment of massive pulmonary embolism in a pregnant woman, with low-dose, slow infusion of tissue plasminogen activator
Following resettled people over time: the value of longitudinal data collection for understanding the livelihood impacts of the Three Gorges Dam, China

Abstract The long-term effects of dam-induced displacement and resettlement are poorly understood. This paper presents a rare longitudinal assessment of the livelihood outcomes of people resettled as a result of a major dam project – the Three Gorges Project in China. It signposts pitfalls that practitioners need to be aware of when planning their own longitudinal monitoring and evaluation (M&E) projects, such as those relating to (i) sample and control group selection, (ii) deciding the timing and frequency of data collection, (iii) mitigating attrition and (iv) accounting for the broader social and policy changes that occur over longer periods when analysing results. The paper argues that longitudinal research is important not only for assessing resettlement outcomes accurately but also for ensuring that ongoing government interventions are adequate and not withdrawn prematurely.
Sea-ice thickness from field measurements in the northwestern Barents Sea

The Barents Sea is one of the fastest changing regions of the Arctic, and has experienced the strongest decline in winter-time sea-ice area in the Arctic, at -23 +/- 4% per decade. Sea-ice thickness in the Barents Sea is not well studied. We present two previously unpublished helicopter-borne electromagnetic (HEM) ice thickness measurements from the northwestern Barents Sea acquired in March 2003 and 2014. The HEM data are compared to ice thickness calculated from ice draft measured by ULS deployed between 1994 and 1996. These data show that ice thickness varies greatly from year to year; influenced by the thermodynamic and dynamic processes that govern local formation vs long-range advection. In a year with a large inflow of sea-ice from the Arctic Basin, the Barents Sea ice cover is dominated by thick multiyear ice; as was the case in 2003 and 1995. In a year with an ice cover that was mainly grown in situ, the ice will be thin and mechanically unstable; as was the case in 2014. The HEM data allow us to explore the spatial and temporal variability in ice thickness. In 2003 the dominant ice class was more than 2 years old; and modal sea-ice thickness varied regionally from 0.6 to 1.4 m, with the thinner ice being either first-year ice, or multiyear ice which had come into contact with warm Atlantic water. In 2014 the ice cover was predominantly locally grown ice less than 1 month old (regional modes of 0.5–0.8 m). These two situations represent two extremes of a range of possible ice thickness distributions that can present very different conditions for shipping traffic; or have a different impact on heat transport from ocean to atmosphere.
HISTORICAL DISTRIBUTION OF RAZO LARK Alauda razae IN THE CAPE VERDE ARCHIPELAGO

L'Alouette de Razo Alauda razae est actuellement une des especes d'oiseaux les plus menacees au monde, son aire de distribution etant restreinte au petit ilot de Razo (Cap-Vert), sa population ne depassant guere les 100 individus. L'analyse d'ossements de 22 gisements recent et provenant de toutes les iles principales de l'archipel et de l'ilot de Cima a permis d'identifier des ossements de cette espece dans les iles de Santa Luzia (Ribeira Penedo), Sâo Vicente (Monte Verde) et Santo Antao (Ribeira Fria). La presence, juste avant l'arrive de l'homme au XV e siecle, de cet oiseau dans un territoir beaucoup plus vaste que sa distribution actuelle, suggere l'existence d'un processus d'extinction tres rapide associe aux activites humaines et aux animaux introduits.
EL ANÁLISIS SEMINAL COMO HERRAMIENTA PARA PREDECIR EL POTENCIAL REPRODUCTIVO EN TOROS / SEMEN ANALYSIS AS A TOOL TO PREDICT THE REPRODUCTIVE POTENTIAL IN BULLS

Efficiency of animal production must take into account the genetic and reproductive tools, two important components in the farming system. The assessment of sperm quality is a prerequisite for the development of artificial insemination programs, in which the used semen must maintain the fertilize ability after being cryopreserved. In the field of animal reproduction, there is still a search for a "prognostic seminal analysis" able to adequately predict the stud fertility of an out from a semen sample. However, this comprehensive analysis is difficult to develop due to the inherent complexity on the sperm physiology. The ideal semen analysis would be the one that allow predict in a simple and effective way the fertilizing capacity of an ejaculate. The implementation of methodology that describe functional and physiological sperm characteristics charge value to be the only method in the laboratory representing the fertilizing capacity of bull. Knowledge of the quality of each bull sperm becomes one of the main objectives in the production of bovine semen, a prerequisite for the development of assisted reproductive technologies. RESUMEN La eficiencia de la produccion y la calidad animal debe estar acompanada de herramientas geneticas y reproductivas, dos componentes de gran importancia que se deben tener en cuenta en la implementacion de proyectos de produccion animal. La evaluacion de la calidad espermatica es un requisito indispensable para el desarrollo de programas de inseminacion artificial, en el que el semen utilizado mantenga la habilidad de fecundar despues de ser crio-preservado. En el area de la reproduccion animal se busca un “analisis seminal ideal” que valore adecuadamente y prediga la fertilidad de una muestra seminal. Sin embargo, este analisis integral es muy dificil de desarrollar, debido a la enorme complejidad inherente a la funcion espermatica. El analisis de semen ideal seria aquel que de forma sencilla y eficaz permitiera predecir la capacidad fecundante de un eyaculado. La implementacion de metodologias que describan caracteristicas funcionales y fisiologicas espermaticas cobra valor al ser el unico metodo en el laboratorio que representa la capacidad fecundante del toro. El conocimiento de la calidad espermatica de cada toro se convierte en uno de los principales objetivos en la produccion de semen bovino, un requisito indispensable para el desarrollo de las tecnologias de reproduccion asistida
Panorama des potentialités SIG en 3 dimensions : vers des modèles virtuels 3D de villes

Depuis de nombreuses annees, de nombreux travaux tentent de modeliser la ville en trois dimensions. Ces outils sont aujourd’hui arrives a mâturite et sont disponibles sur le marche. Un panorama des modeles et technologies sous-jacentes est presente dans cet article. Apres avoir donne une liste d’applications potentielles, les divers concepts de modelisationdes de villes a trois dimensions sont definis. La norme CityGML est ensuite esquissee. Cette norme cherche a decrire la totalite des bâtiments et du mobilier urbain d’une ville. Nous terminons cet article par la presentation des projets des societes Google (Google Earth) et Micosoft (Virtual Earth) qui ont pour objectif de decrire, avec un haut niveau de realisme, toutes les villes du monde entier afin de pouvoir naviguer, localiser des services et effectuer des simulations.
Measurements and Analysis of Water Discharges and Suspended Sediment Fluxes in Changjiang Estuary

An RDI WH600 ADCP has been deployed on a moving vessel for the water and suspended sediment fluxes measurements in the Changjiang Estuary. The acoustic signals recorded have a significant relationship with the suspended sediment concentrations (SSCs) obtained by in-situ water sampling during the measurements. Then the acoustic SSC models established were used to convert ADCP acoustic signals into high-resolution SSCs along the cross-sections at Xuliujing and the bar shoal at South Trough in the Changjiang Estuary. The analysis of current velocity profiles shows that the study area is characterized by the rectilinear current at the Xuliujing area. The maximum water and suspended sediment fluxes present during the flood period. However, since the ebb period is much longer than the flood period and the river discharge is huge, the water and suspended sediment fluxes are larger during the ebb than those during the flood. Thus, the net water and suspended sediment transport towards the sea. For example, the net water and suspended sediment are 0.71×109 m3 and 2.5×108 kg during a tidal cycle on November 12, 2003, respectively. Nevertheless, the current is with a rotary pattern at the bar shoal at South Trough of the Changjiang Estuary. The surveyed data also shows that the water and suspended sediment fluxes are larger during the flood than those during the ebb. We also find that a significant relationship exists between the water discharge measured at Datong Station and that at Xuliujing cross-sections from 1998 to 2004. Hence, the derived equations could be used to estimate the daily water discharge through Xuliujing, which can represent the discharge into the sea from the Changjiang River. And the historic water discharge into the sea can be retrieved by using this method. In addition, the annual water discharge into the sea is slightly larger than the annual discharge at Datong Station. However, during the dry period (water discharge 104 m3/s at Datong Station), the discharge into the sea is smaller than that measured at Datong Station, which may be resulted from the human activities.
Object Detectors as Input for Reinforcement Learning Agents

—In traditional reinforcement learning applications with images as input, the observation for the agent to learn from, is an image. In these models, a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is typically used to extract the features before for the learning process, in order to maximize the cumulative reward. In this paper, a different approach for pre-processing the input for reinforcement learning agents is considered. The proposed approach uses object detectors instead instead of CNNs, and converts each input image into bounding boxes and object locations for the agent to learn from.
Distribution characteristics of effective root density in the planted Robinia pseudoacacia and Platycladus orientalis forest site

The distributions of roots density have important implications for the nutrient cycling, water uptake and use, as well as for the whole ecosystem hydrological balance. Although there have been many reports on roots for forest, few of them was conducted for plantations on Loess plateau, especially for the plantations of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) and oriental arborvitae (Platycladus orientalis Franco) which play a greatly important role in water and soil conservation in the region. By means of dig methods from left to right and from up to down, the spatial density distributions of effective root in length and weight were studied in the planted forest sites of 13-year-old black locust and oriental arborvitae, respectively. The goals of this paper were to 1) examine the association of root density with tree species and locations at different soil depths as well as distance far away from the stem, and 2) develop a two-dimensional distribution models of effective root density for black locust and oriental arborvitae which were essential for the study of water uptake and dynamic simulation for soil water in the roots zone. The results were showed that although the depth of black locust root is as twice as that of oriental arborvitae, the average density of effective roots for the black locust is only 44.5 % of the oriental arborvitaes. At the vertical direction, the effective roots mainly distributed in the range of 0～60 cm below the surface for both the black locust and oriental arborvitae, but the maximum value was in the range of 0～30 cm below the surface. Of which the ratio of effective root length in the layer to effective root length in total is 51.58 % for black locust and 58.38% for oriental arborvitae, and the ratio of effective root weight in the layer to effective root weight in total is 63.01 % for black locust and 71.09 % for oriental arborvitae. The density distribution of effective roots for two species is decrease at an exponent function with the increase in soil depth. At the horizontal direction, the density distribution of effective root for black locust is a quadratic parabola. The top value for density of effective root in length and weight is situated 30～90 cm from the stem. The density distribution of effective root for oriental arborvitae is decrease with the increase in distance from the stem. Regression estimate of non-linear parameter showed that model whose equation is RD=EXP(A+BX+CZ) is a good ways for characterizing distribution of effective root density in the planted forest site.
The Growing Strawberries Dataset: Tracking Multiple Objects with Biological Development over an Extended Period

Multiple Object Tracking (MOT) is a rapidly developing research field that targets precise and reliable tracking of objects. Unfortunately, most available MOT datasets typically contain short video clips only, disregarding the indispensable requirement for adequately capturing substantial long-term variations in real-world scenarios. Long-term MOT poses unique challenges due to changes in both the objects and the environment, which remain relatively unexplored. To fill the gap, we propose a time-lapse image dataset inspired by the growth monitoring of strawberries, dubbed The Growing Strawberries Dataset (GSD). The data was captured hourly by six cameras, covering a span of 16 months in 2021 and 2022. During this time, it encompassed a total of 24 plants in two separate greenhouses. The changes in appearance, weight, and position during the ripening process, along with variations in the illumination during data collection, distinguish the task from previous MOT research. These practical issues resulted in a drastic performance downgrade in the track identification and association tasks of state-of-the-art MOT algorithms. We believe The Growing Strawberries will provide a platform for evaluating such long-term MOT tasks and inspire future research. The dataset is available at https://doi.org/10.4121/e3b31ece-cc88-4638-be10-8ccdd4c5f2f7.v1 .
Evaluation of the Development of Crystals on Smear Ripened Evaluation of the Development of Crystals on Smear Ripened Cheese through Polarized Light Microscopy and X-ray Diffraction Cheese through Polarized Light Microscopy and X-ray Diffraction

Cheese crystals are a very polarizing topic for consumers; some people enjoy these crunchy constituents whereas others dislike their gritty texture. The presence of these crystals, or lack thereof, often dictates consumer’s demand for cheese products. The purpose of this experiment was to look at the change in crystal composition over time on smear ripened cheese with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the crystals. The cheese samples were analyzed under a polarized light microscope to find the angle of extinction of the crystals as well as to gather morphological data on them. This study showed that there are nine different apparent crystal subtypes present on this cheese type. Three were definitively identified using powder X-ray diffractometry as calcite, ikaite, and struvite. Struvite and ikaite were able to be differentiated from the other subtypes based on single crystal X-ray diffractometry work. This study also revealed that the average area of the crystals present on the cheese tended to decrease during weeks 7, 8, and 9 post manufacture. The crystals then showed a significant increase in area by week 12. This work showed that the crystals on the bacterial smear of smear ripened cheese are very complex and varied. Single crystal X-ray diffraction work would greatly aid in the definitive identification of these different crystal subtypes.