Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shape and Level Bottles Detection Using Local Standard Deviation and Hough Transform

This paper presents shape and level analysis using local standard deviation and Hough transform technique to detect the shape and level of the bottle.A 155 sample images are used as a test product to detect shape and level. Local standard deviation is used contrast gain technique to segment the shape of the bottle by enhancing the contrast of the image. The ratio of the area is calculated from the extent parameter. The maximum and minimum water level is created by using Hough transform technique to identify the level of the water. Decision tree is applied to classify the shape and level of the bottle either good or defect condition. From experimental result, 97% and 93% accuracy of shape and level is achieved which shows that the proposed analysis technique is potential to be applied for beverages product inspection system.
Agricultural Phosphorus and Eutrophication

Sharpley, A.N. , T. Daniel, T. Sims, J. Lemunyon, R. Stevens, and R. Parry. 1999. Agricultural Phosphorus and Eutrophication. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, ARS–149, 42 pp. Inputs of phosphorus (P) are essential for profitable crop and animal agriculture. However, P export in watershed runoff can accelerate the eutrophication of receiving fresh waters. The rapid growth and intensification of crop and animal farming in many areas has created regional imbalances in P inputs in feed and fertilizer and P output in farm produce. In many of these areas, soil P has built up to levels in excess of crop needs and now has the potential to enrich surface runoff with P. The overall goal of efforts to reduce P losses from agriculture to water should be to increase P use efficiency, balance P inputs in feed and fertilizer into a watershed with P output in crop and animal produce, and manage the level of P in the soil. Reducing P loss in agricultural runoff may be brought about by source and transport control strategies. This includes refining feed rations, using feed additives to increase P absorption by animals, moving manure from surplus to deficit areas, finding alternative uses for manure, and targeting conservation practices, such as reduced tillage, buffer strips, and cover crops, to critical areas of P export from a watershed. In these critical areas high P soils coincide with parts of the landscape where surface runoff and erosion potential are high.
Debating Development Help: NGO Fieldworker Perspectives on Street and Urban Poor Children in Ghana

This ethnographic investigation of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Catholic Action for Street Children (CAS) questions the cultural appropriateness of its policies and practices. By situating CAS in a historical context of colonialism and structural adjustment reforms, I show how it is responsive to a legitimating environment that consists of private donors, international finance institutions, and the Ghanaian government, all of which put pressure on CAS to specifically target “street children” and to adopt a policy of choice that places primary responsibility for development on the individual child. I argue that the legitimating environment is neoliberal in orientation, especially with respect to who is identified as a recipient of aid and what type of aid the recipient should receive, and which is further connected to a global transformation in representation from the street child as innocent victim to one who is more like an adult and so responsible for his or her own choices. Through an analysis of the perspectives of CAS’s own fieldworkers, I argue that the conceptualization of street children as “miniature adults” promotes policies that help only more advantaged street children, masks social inequalities, and does not include children’s support networks in a formulation of aid. Based on my findings, I recommend a more participatory approach that includes fieldworkers’ ideas and perspectives in the design and implementation of CAS policies.
Nonradiographic Axial Spondyloarthritis New Definition of an Old Disease ?

The term nonradiographic axial spondyloarthritis (SpA) has recently been introduced to identify patients with axial SpA earlier, before structural changes in the sacroiliac joints have been detected. This was an important step forward for earlier diagnosis and for the conduct of treatment trials in these patients. With the new definition of nonradiographic axial SpA as part of the axial SpA group, several questions have been raised regarding this subgroup, which will be discussed in this review.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Basic Principles and Recent Advances

Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is a pragmatic, action-oriented treatment approach that has become a widely used psychotherapy for major mental disorders. CBT methods were initially developed for depression and anxiety disorders (1–3), and later they were modified for many other conditions, including personality disorders, eating disorders, and substance abuse; they have also been adapted for use as an adjunct to medication in the management of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (3, 4–7). This article delineates the core principles of CBT, describes procedures used in clinical practice, and notes some of the recent advances that have been made in this treatment method. The extensive research supporting the efficacy of CBT is briefly reviewed.
Surface-wave generation by underground nuclear explosions releasing tectonic strain

Seismic surface-wave generation by underground nuclear explosions releasing tectonic strain is studied through a series of synthetic radiation-pattern calculations based on the earthquake-trigger model. From amplitude and phase radiation patterns for 20-s Rayleigh waves, inferences are made about effects on surface-wave magnitude, M/sub s/, and waveform character. The focus of this study is a comparison between two mechanisms of tectonic strain release: strike-slip motion on vertical faults and thrust motion on 45/sup 0/ dipping faults. The results of our calculations show that Rayleigh-wave amplitudes of the dip-slip model at F values between 0.75 and 1.5 are significantly lower than amplitudes of the strike-slip model or of the explosion source alone. This effect translates into M/sub s/ values about 0.5 units lower than M/sub s/ of the explosion alone. Waveform polarity reversals occur in two of four azimuthal quadrants for the strike-slip model and in all azimuths of the dip-slip-thrust model for F values above about 3. A cursory examination of waveforms from presumed explosions in eastern Kazakhstan suggests that releases of tectonic strain are accompanying the detonation of many of these explosions. Qualitatively, the observations seem to favor the dip-slip-thrust model, which, in the case of a few explosions, must more » have F values above 3. « less
a case report and literature review of primary resistant Hodgkin lymphoma: a response to anti-pD-1 after failure of autologous stem cell transplantation and brentuximab vedotin

: Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a highly curable hematologic malignancy, and ~ 70% of cases can be cured with combination chemotherapy with or without radiation. However, patients with primary resistant disease have a cure rate of , 30%. For such patients, high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) is considered to be the standard treatment. If patients fail to respond to ASCT or relapse soon thereafter, they usually receive another ASCT, allogeneic stem cell transplantation or treatment with novel agents. This case report presents the case of a 54-year-old patient with primary resistant HL who received single-agent treatment, brentuximab vedotin, after ASCT relapse. Despite treatment with brentuximab vedotin, the disease continued to progress. In patients with such highly resistant disease, the treatment options are limited. Depending on the physical condition and the willingness of the patient, pembrolizumab, a programmed cell death protein-1 inhibitor, can be given as salvage therapy. But, out of our expectation, the patient achieved a very good partial response after four cycles of pembrolizumab. No serious adverse events were observed with pembrolizumab treatment. This case provides support for a new and effective strategy for treating primary resistant Hodgkin lymphoma.
Purification and Characterization of β-Adrenergic Receptor mRNA-binding Proteins*

β-Adrenergic receptors (β-ARs), like other G-protein-coupled receptors, can undergo post-transciptional regulation at the level of mRNA stability. In particular, the human β1- and β2-ARs and the hamster β2-AR mRNA undergo β-agonist-mediated destabilization. By UV cross-linking, we have previously described an ∼M r 36,000 mRNA-binding protein, βARB, that binds to A/C+U-rich nucleotide regions within 3′-untranslated regions. Further, we have demonstrated previously that βARB is immunologically distinct from AUF1/heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) D, another mRNA-binding protein associated with destabilization of A+U-rich mRNAs (Pende, A., Tremmel, K. D., DeMaria, C. T., Blaxall, B. C., Minobe, W., Sherman, J. A., Bisognano, J., Bristow, M. R., Brewer, G., and Port, J. D. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 8493–8501). In this report, we describe the peptide composition of βARB. Mass spectrometric analysis of an ∼M r36,000 band isolated from ribosomal salt wash proteins revealed the presence of two mRNA-binding proteins, hnRNP A1, and the elav-like protein, HuR, both of which are known to bind to A+U-rich nucleotide regions. By immunoprecipitation, HuR appears to be the biologically dominant RNA binding component of βARB. Although hnRNP A1 and HuR can both be immunoprecipitated from ribosomal salt wash proteins, the composition of βARB (HuR alone versus HuR and hnRNP A1) appears to be dependent on the mRNA probe used. The exact role of HuR and hnRNP A1 in the regulation of β-AR mRNA stability remains to be determined.
On the Instability of Two Dimensional Backward-Facing Step Flow using Energy Gradient Method

In the present paper, the energy gradient method is implemented to study the instability of 2-D laminar backward-facing step (BFS) flow under different Reynolds numbers and expansion ratios. For this purpose, six different Reynolds numbers (50 ≤ Re ≤ 1000) and two various expansion ratios of 1.9423 and 3 are considered. We compared our results of the present study with existing experimental and numerical data and good agreement is achieved. To study of fluid flow instability, we evaluated the distributions of velocity, vorticity and energy gradient function K. The results of our study show that as the expansion ratio decreases the flow becomes more stable. We also found that the origin of instability in the entire flow field is located on the separated shear layer nearby the step edge. In addition, we approved that the inflection point on the profile of velocity corresponds to the maximum of vorticity resulted to the instability.
Packing Them In: An Archaeology of Environmental Racism in Chicago, 1865-1954

Chapter 1 Introduction Part 2 Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Environmental Racism and Environmental Injustice Chapter 3 Social Darwinism, Scientific Racism, and the Birth of the Environmental Leper Chapter 4 An Archaeology of the Modern Environmental Justice Movement Part 5 Packing Them In Chapter 6 Justice in the Jungle: Immigrants and Environmental Racism in the Back of the Yards, 1880-1930 Chapter 7 Engineering and Environmental Inequality: The Rise and Fall of the Notorious "Bubbly Creek" Part 8 Broken Promises Chapter 9 Planning and Environmental Inequalities: Race, Place, and Environmental Health in Chicago Chapter 10 "We Fight Blight": Block Beautiful and the Urban Conservation Movement in Chicago's Black Belt, 1915-1954
Cyclostrophic Balance in Surface Gravity Waves: Essay on Coriolis Effects

When gravity waves of small amplitude progress over the surface of deep water, the particle orbits are observed to be closed circles; therefore the waves possess orbital angular momentum. The particles experience a balance of two equal and opposite forces, called the cyclostrophic balance: the outward centrifugal force and an inward pressure force. On the Earth’s surface the Coriolis force causes a minor disruption of the normal cyclostrophic balance. For plane waves it is possible that the Coriolis force can be balanced at all times, and the cyclostrophic balance can be maintained as well, by a slight change in the orientation and the shape of the particle orbits. In order to balance all three forces simultaneously in either hemisphere, the shape of the orbits should be oval (perhaps elliptical) in general, where the shorter axis of the oval is parallel to the mean surface, and the plane of the orbits should be tilted to the left of the direction of wave propagation. In the northern hemisphere the orbital planes should also be tilted to the left of the vertical and in the southern hemisphere to the right of the vertical, facing in the direction of wave propagation. For ocean swell the order of magnitude of the sine of both tilt angles, as well as the eccentricity of the orbits, is comparable to the ratio of the Coriolis parameter to wave frequency, or one in ten thousand, which is probably too small to be observed. If in some particular circumstance (perhaps transient conditions) the Coriolis force is not balanced, then a Coriolis torque exists that will try to change the direction, but not the magnitude, of the orbital angular momentum of the waves. The general form of the Coriolis torque is worked out in Appendix.
A Novel Unsupervised Sample Collection Method for Urban Land-Cover Mapping Using Landsat Imagery

Land-cover mapping over urban areas using Landsat imagery has attracted considerable attention in recent years as it can promptly and accurately reflect the biophysical composition status of the urban landscape and allow further applications such as urban planning and risk management. However, due to the large diversity across different urban landscapes, adequate training sample collection for urban area mapping is both challenging and time-consuming. In this paper, we propose a novel unsupervised sample collection method for mapping urban areas using Landsat imagery. Specifically, the idea is to select reliable, representative, and diverse training samples from the images in a two-stage and iterative manner, based on a set of spectral indices (vegetation, impervious surface, soil, water). To validate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method, a synthetic data set was designed and a series of Landsat images over 39 representative cities from different biomes across the world was employed. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm was quantitatively validated by assessing the quality of the automatically collected samples and the accuracy of the mapping results. In terms of the mapping performance, the proposed automatic approach can achieve a comparable mapping accuracy to supervised classification with manually collected samples. On the basis of the freely accessed Landsat data, the proposed approach demonstrates a promising potential for automatic large-scale (i.e., global) mapping over urban areas.
Depression in the next generation is related with maternal behaviors: A cross-comparison by alternating rat’s mother care

This study investigated the potential impacts of depressive rats’ maternal behavior as an early life stress on the outcome of offspring as an adulthood. Offspring from the same mother were divided into two groups, half of them were fostered or remained by a depressive mother, and the other half remained or fostered by a control mother, respectively. The results showed that offspring fostered by depressive mothers presented significant depressive behaviors. Meanwhile, depressive mothers engaged in more grooming during the light cycle, but less off-the-pup behavior during the dark phase. In conclusion, offspring exposed to a postnatal depressive maternal environment developed a depressive-like behavior. Contrarily, postpartum maternal behaviors play an essential role, which might determine the outcome of the next generation. Furthermore, the appropriate timing of postpartum maternal caring sequences, which might eliminate prenatal stressful influences, was recognized and might be a promising approach for reducing children’s predisposition to mental disorders in their life time.
Arachidonic acid metabolism in health and disease

Abstract Arachidonic acid (AA), an n‐6 essential fatty acid, is a major component of mammalian cells and can be released by phospholipase A2. Accumulating evidence indicates that AA plays essential biochemical roles, as it is the direct precursor of bioactive lipid metabolites of eicosanoids such as prostaglandins, leukotrienes, and epoxyeicosatrienoic acid obtained from three distinct enzymatic metabolic pathways: the cyclooxygenase pathway, lipoxygenase pathway, and cytochrome P450 pathway. AA metabolism is involved not only in cell differentiation, tissue development, and organ function but also in the progression of diseases, such as hepatic fibrosis, neurodegeneration, obesity, diabetes, and cancers. These eicosanoids are generally considered proinflammatory molecules, as they can trigger oxidative stress and stimulate the immune response. Therefore, interventions in AA metabolic pathways are effective ways to manage inflammatory‐related diseases in the clinic. Currently, inhibitors targeting enzymes related to AA metabolic pathways are an important area of drug discovery. Moreover, many advances have also been made in clinical studies of AA metabolic inhibitors in combination with chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Herein, we review the discovery of AA and focus on AA metabolism in relation to health and diseases. Furthermore, inhibitors targeting AA metabolism are summarized, and potential clinical applications are discussed.
Improving food security of farming households in Nigeria: Does broiler outgrowers’ program make any difference?

The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of outgrowers’ programs on the food security of smallholder poultry farming households in Osun State. Using multi-stage sampling technique, a structured questionnaire was designed to collect information from beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of outgrowers’ programs in the study area. Descriptive statistics, food security index, and Heckman’s selection model were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that outgrowers and non-outgrowers were on the average, 49 and 45 years old, with about 12 and 8 years of experience in poultry farming, respectively. The Poultry Farmers’ Association was represented by 97% of outgrowers and 47% of non-outgrowers. There were four major broiler outgrowers’ programs existing in the area. The Anchor-Borrower Outgrowers’ program and Osun Broiler Outgrowers’ program adopted a fixed contract model, whereas, the Dayntee Farm and GS Farm outgrowers’ programs employed a semi-fixed contract model. The incidence of food insecurity was 18% for outgrowers and 35% for non-outgrowers, with food insecurity depth and severity being 0.025 and 0.033 for outgrowers and 0.134 and 0.52 for non-outgrowers, respectively. The study found a significant difference in outgrowers’ perceptions of food insecurity as well as their coping strategies. The major perceived indicators of food insecurity were inadequate resource endowment (MD = 0.758, p<0.01) and consumption of low-cost food (MD = 0.0658, p<0.01). Food acquisition on credit (WMS = 1.700), meals adjustment (WMS = 1.425), and cooking methods’ modification (WMS = 1.875) strategies were adopted to cope with food insecurity. Participation in the outgrowers’ program was influenced by membership of Poultry Farmers’ Association, credit access and flock sizes and the significant predictors of food security among the poultry farming households were outgrowers’ participation, household size, gender, marital status and credit access. It was therefore inferred that outgrowers were considerably more food secure than the non-outgrowers, encouraging the need to scale up the program in the poultry industry. Introduction of flexible regulations and reproductive education would make the program more rewarding to the poultry farming households.
Antimicrobial Resistance in Slaughterhouses, Kenya

Slaughterhouses are hotspots for the transmission of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. We conducted stakeholder discussions on antimicrobial-resistant pathogens within the slaughterhouse setting. Butchers were described as powerful stakeholders; challenges included limited funding and staff, inadequate infrastructure, and limited laboratory capacity. Slaughterhouse workers understood that their work increased their risk for exposure.
Poor Subjective Sleep Quality Predicts Symptoms in Irritable Bowel Syndrome Using the Experience Sampling Method

INTRODUCTION: Sleep quality may affect symptom experience in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Our aim was to investigate the relationship between sleep quality and gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms using actigraphy and the experience sampling method. METHODS: Patients with IBS were recruited from a tertiary Neurogastroenterology clinic and the community. GI symptoms and mood were recorded on a smartphone application, 10 times per day, over 7 consecutive days. Subjective sleep quality was recorded every morning to reflect the night before. Objective measures of sleep quality were estimated from wrist-worn actigraphy. Cross-lagged structural equation models were built to assess the directionality of sleep-symptom relationships over time. RESULTS: Eighty patients with IBS completed the study (mean age: 37 years [range 20–68], 89% female, 78% community). Approximately 66% had a Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score ≥ 8, indicating a clinically significant sleep disturbance. Approximately 82% (95% CI: 72–90) screened positive for a sleep disorder, most commonly insomnia. In cross-lagged analysis, poor subjective sleep quality predicted next-day abdominal pain (0.036 < P < 0.040) and lower GI symptoms (0.030 < P < 0.032), but not vice versa. No significant relationship with GI symptoms was found for any objective sleep measure using actigraphy. DISCUSSION: Poor subjective sleep quality was associated with higher next-day lower GI symptom levels, but not vice versa. Objective sleep measures did not predict next-day abdominal symptoms, potentially supporting the conclusion that it is the perception of sleep quality that is most influential. This study may be used to guide future research into the effect of sleep interventions on GI symptoms.