Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SceneNet: A Multifeature Joint Embedding Network With Complexity Assessment for Power Line Scene Classification

Power line extraction is not only crucial for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) obstacle avoidance, but also a fundamental step for fault diagnosis of power lines. Therefore, achieving robust and accurate extraction of power lines in aerial images is essential to enable intelligent UAVs inspection. Unfortunately, power line extraction is an extremely challenging task, and all the current methods attempt to utilize a single model to solve the problem of power line extraction in complex and variable scenes. This results in insufficient generalization ability and suboptimal computational efficiency. In this work, we propose a power line scene classification network based on complexity assessment, named SceneNet, which can provide a solution for tackling power line extraction challenges. First, we propose a human–machine hybrid reasoning model to obtain the ground truth of image complexity reasonably and build the first benchmark dataset that can be used for automatic classification research of power line scenes. Second, we propose an improved StyleGAN3 model and loop transfer learning strategy for data augmentation. Most importantly, the SceneNet comprises a multifeature joint embedding module and a feature encoding–decoding module. On one hand, it achieves the multilevel fusion of artificial features and high-dimensional semantic features. On the other hand, we use a self-attention mechanism to enable full use of the contextual association between each block of the fusion feature map. The SceneNet has successfully achieved the mapping and pattern recognition between the abstract concept and the concrete features. Experimental results demonstrate that the SceneNet is obviously superior to the existing 12 state-of-the-art models, and it provides guidance and delineation of applicable scenes for power line extraction methods.
Bulbous head formation in bidisperse shallow granular flow over an inclined plane

Rapid shallow granular flows over inclined planes are often seen in nature in the form of avalanches, landslides and pyroclastic flows. In these situations the flow develops an inversely graded (large at the top) particle-size distribution perpendicular to the plane. As the surface velocity of such flows is larger than the mean velocity, the larger material is transported to the flow front. This causes size segregation in the downstream direction, resulting in a flow front composed of large particles. Since the large particles are often more frictional than the small, the mobility of the flow front is reduced, resulting in a so-called bulbous head. This study focuses on the formation and evolution of this bulbous head, which we show to emerge in both a depth-averaged continuum framework and discrete particle simulations. Furthermore, our numerical solutions of the continuum model converge to a travelling wave solution, which allows for a very efficient computation of the long-time behaviour of the flow. We use small-scale periodic discrete particle simulations to calibrate (close) our continuum framework, and validate the simple one-dimensional (1-D) model with full-scale 3-D discrete particle simulations. The comparison shows that there are conditions under which the model works surprisingly well given the strong approximations made; for example, instantaneous vertical segregation.
Hot-air full drying driven metabolome changes in white tea (Camellia sinensis L.)

ABSTRACT White tea (Camillia sinensis L.) is the least processed tea, and due to simpler processing steps involved, its flavor and nutritive compound composition is least disturbed. However, only a limited number of research has explored the key metabolomic changes during white tea processing (especially drying). The freshly harvested leaves of C. sinensis var. Tieguanyin were initially withered at room temperature for 72 h, and first-dried on fire at 70°C for 3 h. Then, they were spread at room temperature for 7 days and fully dried at 80°C for 4 h, followed by cooled at room temperature. The metabolome of the tea leaves before (CK) and after full drying (RO) were compared using UPLC-MS/MS. The LC-MS/MS analysis identified 1,253 compounds belonging to 11 classes. The highest number of accumulated compounds belonged to flavonoids, phenolic acids, and lipids. Of the 57 differentially accumulated metabolites (DAMs), 49 were up-accumulated in RO. These were classified as amino acids derivatives, lipids, organic acids, vitamins, alkaloids, nucleotides and derivatives, flavonoids, tannins, terpenoids, lignans and coumarins. We found that several health beneficial compounds showed up-accumulation in RO compared to CK. We concluded that Hot-air full drying alters white team metabolome composition.
Self-Supervised Learning for Context-Independent DfD Network using Multi-View Rank Supervision

Although context-based monocular depth estimation has shown remarkable improvement, the adaptation to unseen contexts is still a major challenge. On the other hand, the use of physical depth cues, such as defocus associated with lens aberration, allows context-independent depth estimation. However, explicitly supervising physical depth cues would have a significant impact on cost and versatility, because of the need to use expensive equipment to obtain the ground truth. Therefore, we propose a novel self-supervised learning for a single-shot neural depth from defocus (DfD) utilizing structure from motion (SfM) images taken by the target lens. Since the scale of SfM depth is ambiguous, we used rank loss to train the network. To demonstrate the versatility of our method, we conducted validation experiments using not only DSLR cameras but also smartphones with small image sensors. We confirmed that our method is highly accurate by a large margin over state-of-the-art methods including the physically-calibrated neural single-shot DfD and context-based methods.
Trophic ecology and spatial behaviour of wolf ( Canis lupus ) in an Appennine area

Nowadays the Italian wolf ( Canis lupus ) is expanding its range and increasing in numbers, nevertheless it is still a vulnerable species. In this work, we have focused on the wolf feeding and spatial behavior, in a region of Northern Apennine. First, we investigated the relation between wolf and red fox ( Vulpes vulpes ), assessing the extent of their trophic niche overlap. Our findings suggest a very limited trophic competition between them. Moreover, we analyzed the functional response of wolf to changes in prey availability, and the impact of wolf predation and hunting harvest on ungulate populations. Wild boar ( Sus scrofa ) was the main and selected prey species for wolves. Moreover, the proportion of roe deer ( Capreolus capreolus ) in wolf diet peaked when boar densities were low, resulting in a functional response dependent on the main prey density fluctuations. Furthermore, even if wolves and hunters focused on targets with different reproductive potential in the population, their combined impact did not exceed the annual recruitment, and thus did not result to limit ungulates population growth. Finally, analyzing the variables involved in the choice of rendezvous sites locations, we found rendezvous sites typically inside protected areas, and usually distant from human settlements. Over recent years, rendezvous sites have occurred closer to urban areas, thus, our projections of suitability of sites can help planning to minimize possible wolf-human conflicts.
Understanding Harassment at the workplace and its impacts in the context of Pakistan: Do we lack adequate legislation or effective implementation?

It used to be a prevalent notion that Men are the only breadwinners of a family in the older times. However, as the world progressed it became obvious that no real progress is possible without a more inclusive gender representation at work. With more women entering the professional arena the rise of harassment the incumbent gender faced became glaring. Considering the diverse psychological impacts with the socio-economic bearing such acts of harassment incur, it was given the status of a grave crime and special enactments were made on the subjects. In order to curb workplace harassment, there are special laws in countries, Pakistan is no exception as it has Protection Against Harassment at the Workplace Act, which serves to curb the issue. The writer describes the Harassment by highlighting its finest details. Furthermore, it also sheds light on the laws present on the subject which tend to explain that legislation has been adequate on the subject and it demands actions to curb harassment which is a step forward from the legislation.
Transforming Multidimensional Data into Images to Overcome the Curse of Dimensionality

When dealing with high-dimensional multivariate time series classification problems, a well-known difficulty is the curse of dimensionality. In this article, we propose an original approach of transposition of multidimensional data into images to tackle the task of classification. We propose a lightweight hybrid model that take this transposed data as an input. This model contains convolutional layers as a feature extractor followed by a recurrent neural network. We apply our method to a large dataset consisting of individual patient medical records. We show that our approach allows us to significantly reduce the size of a network and increase its performance by opting for a transformation of the input data.
Morphological and functional outcome after pancreatic necrosectomy and lesser sac lavage for necrotizing pancreatitis

Editorials Measuring hepatic functional reserve using MEGX still a mirage! S K Sarin, Manoj Kumar 203 Gastrointestinal stromal tumor paradigm for successful targeted therapy Susy Kurian 207 Original Articles Impact of shorter duration of treatment on virological response rate in genotype 2 or 3 chronic hepatitis C virus infection Ioannis S Elefsiniotis, Konstantinos D Pantazis, Dimitrios Dimitroulopoulos, Sotirios Koutsounas, Antonios Moulakakis, Emmanouel Paraskevas 209 Gastrointestinal stromal tumors: a demographic, morphologic and immunohistochemical study F Rauf, Y Bhurgri, S Pervez 214 Morphological and functional outcome after pancreatic necrosectomy and lesser sac lavage for necrotizing pancreatitis Mettu Srinivas Reddy, Sumitoj Singh, Rajinder Singh, Kartar Singh, Gurpreet Singh 217 Analysis of Helicobacter pylori antimicrobial susceptibility and virulence genes in gastric mucosal biopsies in the United Arab Emirates Mubarak S Alfaresi, Adeel Islam Abdulsalam, Abida A Elkoush 221 Gastrointestinal stromal tumors: a single institution experience of 50 cases Senthil Rajappa, Krishna Mohan Muppavarapu, Shantveer Uppin, Raghunadharao Digumarti 225 Review Celiac disease in India Surender Kumar Yachha, Ujjal Poddar 230 Case Series Hydatidiarrhea Suyash Mohan, Ashish Verma, Sanjay Saran Baijal 238 Clinico-pathology conference A treated case of follicular lymphoma presenting with fever and diarrhea Kim Vaiphei, Pankaj Malhotra, Nidhi Sharma, Anil Kumar Narasiyappah, Subhash Chander Varma 240 Case Snippets Endovascular management of hepatic hemorrhage and subcapsular hematoma in HELLP syndrome Chandan Jyoti Das, Deep Narayan Srivastava, Jyotindu Debnath, Vijay Ramchandran, Sujoy Pal, Peush Sahni 244 Visceral leishmaniasis: acute liver failure in an immunocompetent Asian-Indian adult G Malatesha, Nishith K Singh, Vinay Gulati 245 Endoscopic removal of chicken bone that caused gastric perforation and liver abscess R J Mukkada, A P Chettupuzha, V J Francis, P G Mathew, S P Chirayath, Abraham Koshy, Philip Augustine 246 Letters Reactogenicity of a combined hepatitis A and hepatitis B vaccine in healthy Indian children and adults Rakesh Aggarwal, A Balachandran, Unnikrishnan Menon, Rahul Nagpal, Girish Pokharna, Sanjay Rao, Dhananjay Shah, Karthik Srinivasa, Sanjoy Datta, Hans Bock 248 Colonoscopic and ileoscopic biopsies increase yield of diagnosis in chronic large bowel diarrhea with normal colonoscopy S Khanna, R Talukdar, N Saikia, S Mazumdar, S Kulkarni, J C Vij, A Kumar 250 Delta hepatitis infection in northeast India Biswa Jyoti Borkakoty, Dipankar Biswas, Jagadish Mahanta 251 Thrombophilic factors in Egyptian children with portal vein thrombosis Khaled Salama, Nehal El-Koofy, Manal El-Hawary, Mona El-Raziky, Mona Abou-El Ela, Hala Ali, Hanaa El-Karaksy 252
Impact of Six Extraction Methods on Molecular Composition and Antioxidant Activity of Polysaccharides from Young Hulless Barley Leaves

Young hulless barley leaves are gaining recognition for potential health benefits, and the method of extracting polysaccharides from them is critical for potential food industry applications. This study delves into a comparative analysis of six distinct fiber extraction techniques: hot water extraction; high-pressure steam extraction; alkaline extraction; xylanase extraction; cellulase extraction; and combined xylanase and cellulase extraction. This analysis included a thorough comparison of polysaccharide–monosaccharide composition, structural properties, antioxidant activities (DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP), and rheological properties among fibers extracted using these methods. The results underscore that the combined enzymatic extraction method yielded the highest extraction yield (22.63%), while the rest of the methods yielded reasonable yields (~20%), except for hot water extraction (4.11%). Monosaccharide composition exhibited divergence across methods; alkaline extraction yielded a high abundance of xylose residues, whereas the three enzymatic methods demonstrated elevated galactose components. The extracted crude polysaccharides exhibited relatively low molecular weights, ranging from 5.919 × 104 Da to 3.773 × 105 Da across different extraction methods. Regarding antioxidant activities, alkaline extraction yielded the highest value in the ABTS assay, whereas enzymatically extracted polysaccharides, despite higher yield, demonstrated lower antioxidant capacity. In addition, enzymatically extracted polysaccharides exerted stronger shear thinning behavior and higher initial viscosity.
Palaeohydrogeology of the sedimentary plain of Suriname

In the coastal Tertiary sediments of Suriname, a stagnant body of fresh to moderately brackish meteoric groundwater is found extending 90 km into the continental shelf. Carbon-14 dating shows that groundwater ages in the coastal plain vary from recent to 20 000 years old, Isochrones indicate that a seaward flowing groundwater system existed during the Late Glacial Maximum. Numerical modelling of the palaeogeography showed that a secondary topography formed by incised palaeochannels is required to explain the presence of meteoric groundwater in the distant parts of the shelf.
Efficient Dehazing with Recursive Gated Convolution in U-Net: A Novel Approach for Image Dehazing

Image dehazing, a fundamental problem in computer vision, involves the recovery of clear visual cues from images marred by haze. Over recent years, deploying deep learning paradigms has spurred significant strides in image dehazing tasks. However, many dehazing networks aim to enhance performance by adopting intricate network architectures, complicating training, inference, and deployment procedures. This study proposes an end-to-end U-Net dehazing network model with recursive gated convolution and attention mechanisms to improve performance while maintaining a lean network structure. In our approach, we leverage an improved recursive gated convolution mechanism to substitute the original U-Net’s convolution blocks with residual blocks and apply the SK fusion module to revamp the skip connection method. We designate this novel U-Net variant as the Dehaze Recursive Gated U-Net (DRGNet). Comprehensive testing across public datasets demonstrates the DRGNet’s superior performance in dehazing quality, detail retrieval, and objective evaluation metrics. Ablation studies further confirm the effectiveness of the key design elements.
Production of Recombinant Zika Virus Envelope Protein by Airlift Bioreactor as a New Subunit Vaccine Platform

The Zika Virus (ZIKV) is an emerging arbovirus of great public health concern, particularly in the Americas after its last outbreak in 2015. There are still major challenges regarding disease control, and there is no ZIKV vaccine currently approved for human use. Among many different vaccine platforms currently under study, the recombinant envelope protein from Zika Virus (rEZIKV) constitutes an alternative option for vaccine development and has great potential for monitoring ZIKV infection and antibody response. This study describes a method to obtain a bioactive and functional rEZIKV using an E. coli expression system, with the aid of a 5-L airlift bioreactor and following an automated fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) protocol, capable of obtaining high yields of approximately 20 mg of recombinant protein per liter of bacterium cultures. The purified rEZIKV presented preserved antigenicity and immunogenicity. Our results show that the use of an airlift bioreactor for the production of rEZIKV is ideal for establishing protocols and further research on ZIKV vaccines bioprocess, representing a promising system for the production of a ZIKV envelope recombinant protein-based vaccine candidate.
Indian-Pacific Journal of Accounting and Finance (IPJAF)

As technology advances, individuals will utilise the gadgets in their daily processes. However, individuals may still require views from their peers and other people surrounding in making decisions. The views formed would affect the individual’s attitude towards their actions. This study was administered to understand the influence of normative belief on taxpayers’ attitude towards voluntary tax compliance intention using the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). A total of 311 responses were obtained from the survey conducted remotely online, which was analysed using Smart PLS 3.0 software. The attitude (ATT) construct was decomposed into several dimensions of general tax filing knowledge, compatibility, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and subjective norm. Interestingly, the study found that normative belief, which was measured using the dimension of the subjective norm, has a significant influence on attitude. Similarly, it was found that general tax filing knowledge does significantly influence attitude. However, the dimensions of compatibility, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness were found to be insignificant. In conclusion, the study recognises that technologies play an essential role in individuals’ attitude on tax compliance. Nevertheless, the views of peers and tax knowledge do have an impact on taxpayers regardless of the compatibility and usefulness of the systems when it comes to the voluntary tax compliance intention.
First Demonstration of RFI Mitigation in the Phase Synchronization of LT-1 Bistatic SAR

The innovative bistatic synthetic aperture radar (BiSAR) mission LuTan-1 (LT-1) uses a noninterrupted synchronization scheme to achieve high-precision phase synchronization. While radio frequency interference (RFI) is a major factor in deteriorating phase synchronization performance. To present the effect of RFI on the synchronization phase clearly, the characteristics of RFI in the synchronization link are described in detail, and a precise analytic expression between the amplitude, frequency, and phase of RFI and synchronization phase error is established. Furthermore, a novel pulse-compression-based notch (PCN) method is proposed to eliminate the phase error introduced by RFI. In the proposed method, the saturated distortion signals resulting from strong interferences are detected and discarded by the distribution features of their modes. Then, inspired by contrary thinking, the synchronization signal after pulse compression is notched instead of RFI. A fast missing data iterative adaptive approach (Fast MIAA) is performed to recover the gaped RFI signal and remove it from the compressed signal. Finally, the correct synchronization phases can be extracted from the peak positions of the remaining signals. Experimental results derived from using simulated and real synchronization data of the LT-1 system validate the performance of the proposed RFI mitigation method.
Prognosticating Acute Ischemic Stroke and Estimating the Feasibility of Mapping Stroke Volume to the Functional Outcomes Using Diffusion-Weighted Images: A Systematic Review Protocol

Introduction: Diffusion-weighted image or DWI is commonly used to provide valuable and diverse information on acute stroke in tertiary care hospitals. DWI is a sensitive and accurate method for identifying the infarct core and can expose the area of cerebral infarction within a few hours of onset. This systematic review is planned to evaluate the measurement of stroke volume on DWI and correlate it with functional outcomes (modified ranking scale). Method: We have adhered to the PRISMA-P checklist to report this systematic review protocol. PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and TRIP (Turning Research into Practice) databases will be searched. Two independent reviewers will screen the records, extract data, and critically appraise the studies. A checklist for critical appraisal will be applied for data abstraction, and data extraction will be done using predictive modeling for systematic reviews. The risk of bias will be measured by the Prediction Model Risk of Bias Assessment Tool (PROBAST). The meta-analysis will be considered only if included studies have adequate data, and STATA statistical package version 13.1 will be used for performing a meta-analysis. A narrative synthesis will be performed if meta-analysis is not possible. Ethics and Dissemination: As this review will focus on secondary information, there is no ethical consideration required. We will disseminate our findings by publishing our analysis in a peer-reviewed journal. Protocol Registration: In Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (CRD42019141840).
The History of Canada

Collects the most up-to-date historical information on Canada and presents it in an engagingly written narrative. This beautifully written narrative history paints a magnificent picture of the second largest nation on earth. Canada, with its overarching geography of over one million bodies of water, endless prairies, frozen reaches of the north, and awe-inspiring mountain ranges, holds many stunning lands. Ofter portrayed by the American media as but a pale reflection of the United States, Canada, as displayed here, has a truly complex and intricate image. The political struggles of the past and present and the clash over issues of ethnicity, race, religion, language, and culture are just some of the details that mark this country's unmatched uniqueness. From the earliest contact between Amerindians and Europeans to the current burden of reg onal, cultural, and ethnic diversity that characterizes Canada in the early 21st century, this history draws the reader into the drama that is Canada. Since its earliest settlement by the French and the British and its struggle as an arena between those contesting empires, Canada has been a center for disagreement and debate. This work examines the economic, political, and ethnic issues of this century, including Canada's participation in world affairs. Short biographies of notable people in Canadian history, a list of all the Prime Ministers in Canada, a timeline of important events, and a bibliographic essay of recommended books and websites add reference points to this engagingly written history.