Reproduction Capabilities Research Articles

Udderly accurate: A deep learning based modelling for determination of dairyness of Sahiwal cow using computer vision

Dairy farming is a crucial agricultural practice for food and nutritional security. Selection of the best milching animals has always been a challenging task for optimising production efficiency. The efficacy of milk yield production is contingent upon a number of factors including inherent linear traits. Linear traits refer to the quantifiable physical characteristics that are associated with the production and reproduction capabilities of dairy animals. This article presents an innovative approach for the classification of Sahiwal cows into high, medium and low yielder categories based on images featuring linear traits through emerging deep learning and computer vision techniques. A large dataset of 4110 images highlighting important linear traits such as udder size, shape, and texture of different categories of Sahiwal cows has been created for training, validation and testing of the model. Images were collected from the herd of Sahiwal cows maintained at the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal. The dataset was pre-processed using image augmentation techniques to enhance the model’s robustness. Different architectures of CNN models namely InceptionV3, ResNet50 and GoogleNet were trained and optimised. The Inception V3 model demonstrated the best result with 85.64% testing accuracy among all these models in classifying the cow. The developed model can be used under field conditions to determine the dairyness of a cow in real time mode in place of human experts. Additionally, the model’s interpretability is evaluated through feature visualisation, showcasing the importance of different udder features in milk yield prediction.

Pratuokng: The Borneo bamboo zither of Bidayuh Sarawak

The pratuokng is an idiochord tube zither, which is a musical instrument. The Bidayuh Biatah pratuokng bamboo sound radiators of Annah Rais in Padawan, Sarawak, Malaysia are made up of seven strings and one drum. The sound reproduction capabilities are unique and innovative. This study intends to highlight the importance of sound studies in the studio setting. The frequency spectrum was evaluated using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis via PicoScope oscilloscopes, and the time frequency analysis (TFA) using Adobe Audition that produced the spectrograms. The observations and perceptions offered by the actual meaning of this bamboo tube zither instruments showed that the notes of the pratuokng strings are E, D, F, Ab, B, A#, and B, respectively. The drum note is A. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd(A), 3rd(B), 4th(A), 4th(B), and 5th strings are 320 Hz (E4 = 329.63), 300 Hz (D4 = 293.67), 350 Hz (F4 = 349), 410 Hz (A4b = 415), 490 Hz (B4 = 493), 470 Hz (A4# = 466), and 500 Hz (B4 = 493), respectively, i.e., with note E, D, F, Ab, B, A#, and B, respectively. The drum is 210 Hz (A3 = 220). The signal in the frequency spectrum showed both distinct fundamental and higher partial frequencies. In particular, the first octave are present except for string 4B and 5. The inconsistent number of partials in each string is due to the inconsistent thickness of the raised fiber from the bamboo tube.

Phenoptosis and the Various Types of Natural Selection.

In the first description of evolution, the fundamental mechanism is the natural selection favoring the individuals best suited for survival and reproduction (selection at the individual level or classical Darwinian selection). However, this is a very reductive description of natural selection that does not consider or explain a long series of known phenomena, including those in which an individual sacrifices or jeopardizes his life on the basis of genetically determined mechanisms (i.e., phenoptosis). In fact, in addition to (i) selection at the individual level, it is essential to consider other types of natural selection such as those concerning: (ii) kin selection and some related forms of group selection; (iii) the interactions between the innumerable species that constitute a holobiont; (iv) the origin of the eukaryotic cell from prokaryotic organisms; (v) the origin of multicellular eukaryotic organisms from unicellular organisms; (vi) eusociality (e.g., in many species of ants, bees, termites); (vii) selection at the level of single genes, or groups of genes; (viii) the interactions between individuals (or more precisely their holobionts) of the innumerable species that make up an ecosystem. These forms of natural selection, which are all effects and not violations of the classical Darwinian selection, also show how concepts as life, species, individual, and phenoptosis are somewhat not entirely defined and somehow arbitrary. Furthermore, the idea of organisms selected on the basis of their survival and reproduction capabilities is intertwined with that of organisms also selected on the basis of their ability to cooperate and interact, even by losing their lives or their distinct identities.

Repro-protective activity of amygdalin and spirulina platensis in niosomes and conventional forms against aluminum chloride–induced testicular challenge in adult rats: role of CYP11A1, StAR, and HSD-3B expressions

The male reproductive system is negatively influenced by Al exposure. Al represented a considerable hazard to men’s reproduction capabilities. Amygdalin (AMG) and spirulina platensis (SP) have been considered to have a strong antioxidant and repro-protective activity; also, targeted drug delivery systems called niosomes improve the distribution of water-soluble medications like amygdalin and spirulina. Current study targeted to determine the effectiveness of AMG and SP against negative reproductive impact resulted by aluminum chloride (AlCl3) toxicity. Sixty adult male albino rats were separated into 6 groups, including the control group, which received distilled water; AlCl3 group, which received AlCl3; AMG+AlCl3 group, which received AlCl3+AMG; AMGLN+AlCl3 group, which received AlCl3+amygdalin-loaded niosomes; SP+AlCl3 group, which received AlCl3+SP; and SPLN+AlCl3 group, which received AlCl3+spirulina-loaded niosomes. All treatments were orally gavaged daily for 5 weeks, and rats were weighed weekly. At the termination of the experiment, some males (three from each group) were used for fertility traits via mating thirty virgin rat females (in a ratio of 1:2 and 2:3 male:female, respectively) followed by recording of birth weights and litter size (number of pups per each female) at birth to assess males’ reproductive capability. Other males were euthanized for collection of serum, epididymal semen samples, and tissue samples for biochemical, sperm evaluation, gene expression, and histopathological measurements. There are a considerable number of negative impacts of AlCl3 on male fertility clarified by declined serum testosterone levels; an increased oxidative stress (MDA, TAC); deteriorated semen quality; down-regulation of CYP11A1, StAR, and HSD-3b gene expressions; and testicular tissue degenerative changes. In addition, litter size (number of pups per each female) and birth weights of pups obtained from mated females were affected. AMG and SP treatments, either in niosomal or conventional form, alleviated the AlCl3 negative effects by reducing oxidative stress; increasing testosterone levels; improving semen quality; upregulating of CYP11A1, StAR, and HSD-3b gene expressions; and reducing degenerative changes of testicular tissue. Besides, negative reproductive effect was diminished as observed by changes in the litter size (number of pups per each female) and birth weights of pups obtained from mated females. AMG and SP treatments (either in niosomal or conventional form), ameliorated the AlCl3 negative effects as they possess powerful antioxidant activity, as well as they have the ability to improve the reproductive activity of affected males.Graphical abstract

A single-channel virtual receiving array using a time-reversal chaotic cavity.

Chaotic reverberation in a cavity, when coupled with time reversal acoustics, can be harnessed to build a perfect time-reversal mirror for transmitting and receiving highly focused sounds with a small number of transducers. In this article, a virtual receiving array, comprised of a single receiving transducer and a chaotic cavity, is developed based on time reversal processing of the reverberation inside the cavity. A prototype array, having 10 × 10 virtual receiving elements, is built and evaluated against a comparable physical array in terms of its localization and waveform reproduction capabilities. It turns out that the most crucial factor in the success of a virtual array is the ergodicity of its chaotic cavity, the exact mathematical expression for which is also derived. The virtual receiving array presented here may find some niche applications in reverberant environments, where a physical array turns out to be too costly or cumbersome to operate.

Additive autoencoder for dimension estimation

Dimension reduction is one of the key data transformation techniques in machine learning and knowledge discovery. It can be realized by using linear and nonlinear transformation techniques. An additive autoencoder for dimension reduction, which is composed of a serially performed bias estimation, linear trend estimation, and nonlinear residual estimation, is proposed and analyzed. Compared to the classical model, adding an explicit linear operator to the overall transformation and considering the nonlinear residual estimation in the original data dimension significantly improves the data reproduction capabilities of the proposed model. The computational experiments confirm that an autoencoder of this form, with only a shallow network to encapsulate the nonlinear behavior, is able to identify an intrinsic dimension of a dataset with low autoencoding error. This observation leads to an investigation in which shallow and deep network structures, and how they are trained, are compared. We conclude that the deeper network structures obtain lower autoencoding errors during the identification of the intrinsic dimension. However, the detected dimension does not change compared to a shallow network. As far as we know, this is the first experimental result concluding no benefit from a deep architecture compared to its shallow counterpart.

A memory system of a robot cognitive architecture and its implementation in ArmarX

Cognitive agents such as humans and robots perceive their environment through an abundance of sensors producing streams of data that need to be processed to generate intelligent behavior. A key question of cognition-enabled and AI-driven robotics is how to organize and manage such data and knowledge efficiently in a cognitive robot control architecture. We argue, that memory is a central active component of such architectures that mediates between semantic and sensorimotor representations, orchestrates the flow of data streams and events between different processes and provides the components of a cognitive architecture with data-driven services for learning semantics from sensorimotor data, the parametrization of symbolic plans for execution and prediction of action effects.Based on related work, and the experience gained in developing our ARMAR humanoid robot systems, we identified conceptual and technical requirements of a memory system as central component of cognitive robot control architecture that facilitate the realization of high-level cognitive abilities such as explaining, reasoning, prospection, simulation and augmentation. Conceptually, a memory should be active, support multi-modal data representations, associate knowledge, be introspective, and have an inherently episodic structure. Technically, the memory should support a distributed design, be access-efficient and capable of long-term data storage. We introduce the memory system for our cognitive robot control architecture and its implementation in the robot software framework ArmarX. We evaluate the efficiency of the memory system with respect to transfer speeds, compression, reproduction and prediction capabilities.

E‐commerce: A Novel Introduction Pathway for Cultivated Alien Plants with High Invasion Potential in China

Photo 1. Over 13,718 alien plants have already been introduced in China for cultivation, and 987 of them are traded via online plant nurseries on 1688.com. The photograph shows a typical cultivated alien plant native to Central America, Monstera deliciosa Liebm., which has now been sold in at least 67 online nurseries on 1688.com. Photo credit: Ran Dong. Photo 2. Cactaceae and Crassulaceae are two of the most popular families of cultivated alien plants that are available on 1688.com. There are 183 taxa from these two families (the information was accessed 29 July – 15 August 2019). However, only 19.3% of them are naturalized and/or invasive, because most of them have only a short introduction history (34 years on average) and lack climatic suitability (2.4% on average). Photo credit: Ran Dong. Photo 3. Sphagneticola trilobata (L.) Pruski is one of the 46 invasive cultivated plants that are available on 1688.com. Due to its fast growth and reproduction capabilities, as well as its adaptation to the local environment, this species is considered one of the most invasive in China. Even so, it is still being traded and used for urban greening. Photo credit: Zhi-Cong Dai. These photographs illustrate the article “Cultivated alien plants with high invasion potential are more likely to be traded online in China” by Ran Dong, Bi-Cheng Dong, Qiu-Yue Fu, Qiang Yang, Zhi-Cong Dai, Fang-Li Luo, Jun-Qin Gao, Fei-Hai Yu, and Mark van Kleunen published in Ecological Applications. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2811.

Influences of roaming domestic cats on wildlife activity in patchy urban environments

Roaming domestic cats (Felis catus) are recognised as a threat to wildlife globally. Yet management of pet cats in urbanised areas is not regularly mandated, and management of feral cats in urbanised areas is rarely implemented. Mounting evidence emphasises the value of urban environments as hot spots of wildlife activity, which as the human population continues to grow may become the best or only habitats available to some wildlife species. Wildlife in urban environments must navigate introduced stressors that can compound with natural stressors. Additional, often novel, predators such as free-roaming pet and feral cats that are prevalent in urban environments could have high nonconsumptive fear/stress impacts on urban wildlife that influence their activity and adversely affect their health and reproduction capabilities, possibly more so than direct predation effects do. Cat roaming activity, particularly that of pet cats, could be managed with the support of the community, though motivation needs to be ensured. Understanding if roaming cat activity influences urban wildlife activity via perceived fear/stress impacts will help to build community motivation for the need for domestic cat management in urbanised areas. Using infrared motion sensor cameras positioned in both yards and green space edge habitats, we observed whether the presence and times active of native and introduced small mammals, and native birds, were impacted by domestic cat activity within a 24-h period and by their activity in the prior-24-h period. We found evidence of cat roaming activity during the hours of most wildlife activity, and show that wildlife navigated “landscapes of fear” relative to cat activity, as wildlife observed across a 24-h period increased their activity in the absence of cats in the same 24-h period and in the previous 24-h period. We also tested if cat activity was relative to previous cat activity, or disturbances, and found that cats reduced activity in response to each, but were still consistently present. Our results provide justification for the need to increase management of domestic cats in urbanised areas and offer fear/stress impacts as a novel approach to engender community support of such management.

Reproduction capabilities of penalized hyperbolic-polynomial splines

This paper investigates two important analytical properties of hyperbolic-polynomial penalized splines, HP-splines for short. HP-splines, obtained by combining a special type of difference penalty with hyperbolic-polynomial B-splines (HB-splines), were recently introduced by the authors as a generalization of P-splines. HB-splines are bell-shaped basis functions consisting of segments made of real exponentials eαx,e−αx and linear functions multiplied by these exponentials, xe+αx and xe−αx. Here, we show that these types of penalized splines reproduce functions in the space {e−αx,xe−αx}, that is they fit exponential data exactly. Moreover, we show that they conserve the first and second ‘exponential’ moments.

A Review of Sexual Function Following Genital Burns: An Understudied, Morbid, and Rare Condition

ABSTRACT Introduction Genital burns are rare but devastating injury that can impart long term physical and emotional distress to patients. Most victims of genital burns are male patients while the highest prevalence occurs during 0-12 years of age. While the techniques to either conservatively or surgically repair genital burns have been detailed, to our knowledge there have not been a retrospective review following up on the sexual function of these patients after their reconstruction. Objective We aim to call attention to articles that analyze sexual function after genital burns and identify the lack of research in this subject. Methods We conducted a retrospective analysis by searching through PubMed for key words including “Genital burns, male female, genital, burns” and excluding the word “burning” as it commonly describes a symptom rather than the injury. We selected papers that described techniques for how they treated genital burns regardless of whether they followed the sexual function of the patient after treatment. We found 31 papers that fit our criteria with many of the papers focusing on surgical intervention. These 31 papers were analyzed and categorized on whether they analyzed sexual function. For the purpose of this review, sexual function was divided into the broad categories of aesthetic, function, sensation, psychological, and reproduction. Results Of the 31 papers reviewed, there were 8 studies that assessed aesthetic satisfaction, 7 that assessed function, 9 that assessed sensation, 1 that assess psychological impact, 3 that assess reproduction capabilities, and 13 studies did not address any of these categories in their findings (table 1). Papers that studied surgical interventions for genital burns in any capacity were more likely to also study sexual function as opposed to studies that focused on conservative management. Some gaps in the literature that we noted were that while the papers acutely followed up in sexual function, we could find no incidence of a long-term retrospective review on sexual function after repair. Conclusions Given that many of the patients suffering from genital burns are children, it is difficult to adequately understand the long-lasting effects some of these treatments have as they mature. While it would be difficult to follow up with these patients, it is important to understand the best treatment option for patients with genital burns. Disclosure No

Application of a biological multilevel response approach in the copepod Acartia tonsa for toxicity testing of three oil Water Accommodated Fractions

Copepods play a critical role in the marine food webs, being a food source for marine organisms. In this study, we investigated the toxic effects of Water Accommodated Fractions (WAFs) from three types of oil: Naphthenic North Sea crude oil (NNS), Intermediate Fuel Oil (IFO 180) and a commercial Marine Gas Oil (MGO). The WAFs were prepared at 10 °C and 30 PSU (practical salinity unit), and tested on the marine copepod Acartia tonsa at different endpoints and at different levels of biological organization. We determined the median lethal concentrations after 96 h (LC50) and reproduction capabilities were calculated in adult females following seven days of exposure to sublethal WAF doses. The total lipid content was measured in reproductive females using Nile red lipophilic dye after 96 h of WAF exposure. We also measured the transcription levels of genes involved in antioxidant response and xenobiotic biotransformation after short exposure for 48 h. High doses (7% WAF) of MGO affected survival, percentage of fecund females, egg hatching success, and total lipid content. The IFO 180 WAF affected, at medium (20%) and high (40%) doses, the number of fecund females, mortality and produced significant effects on gene expression levels. In conclusion, toxicity assays showed that the WAFs prepared from refined oils were more toxic than crude oil WAF to Acartia tonsa.

Survey study of the Factors Determining Culex pipiens Mosquitoes Residing Strategy in Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University Campus

The present study surveying more than 1909 mosquitoes with their nests arounds all the campus areas andborders through using of both nets and adhesive papers for collection purposes. Data analysis showing asignificant effects by each of agriculture (60%), rubbish and sewage puddles factors (16%)in the spreading,reproduction and distribution of Culex pipiensspp. in the campus region within probability of P<0.05 as andependent significant result.Conclusion of our project predicting that the location of campus building will ruled and controlling thepercentage of bug’s net spreading and reproduction capabilities.

Color Management for Cinematic Immersive Experiences

Immersive technologies offer new approaches for engaging audiences and providing visual information, whether for entertainment or more practical applications. To ensure that the content maintains the intended appearance across different devices and environments, one of the key challenges is accurate color management. In this paper, we discuss the challenges that have to be overcome to create color-accurate immersive experiences at a cinematic quality level. We propose workflows for efficiently characterizing different virtual and augmented reality devices and review their color reproduction capabilities against current display standards.

Experimental measurements validate the use of the binary encounter approximation model to accurately compute proton induced dose and radiolysis enhancement from gold nanoparticles

In protontherapy, it has been suggested that nanoparticles of high-Z material like gold (GNP) could be used as radiosensitizers. The origin of this enhancement phenomenon for proton radiation is not yet well understood and additional mechanistic insights are required. Previous works have highlighted the good capabilities of TRAX to reproduce secondary electron emission from gold material. Therefore, TRAX cross sections obtained with the binary encounter approximation (BEA) model for proton ionization were implemented within Geant4 for gold material.Based on the TRAX cross sections, improved Geant4 simulations have been developed to investigate the energy deposition and radical species production around a spherical gold nanoparticle (5 and 10 nm in diameter) placed in a water volume during proton irradiation. Simulations were performed for incident 2 MeV proton. The dose enhancement factor and the radiolysis enhancement factor were quantified. Results obtained with the BEA model were compared with results obtained with condensed-history models.Experimental irradiation of 200 nm gold films were performed to validate the secondary electron emission reproduction capabilities of physical models used in Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. TRAX simulations reproduced the experimental backscattered electron energy spectrum from gold film with better agreement than Geant4. Results on gold film obtained with the BEA model enabled to estimate the electron emission from GNPs. Results obtained in our study tend to support that the use of the BEA discrete model leads to a significant increase of the dose in the near vicinity of GNPs (<20 nm), while condensed history models used in Geant4 seem to overestimate the dose and the number of chemical species for increasing distances from the GNP. Based on discrete BEA model results, no enhancement effect due to secondary electron emitted from the GNP is expected if the GNP is not in close proximity to key cellular functional elements (DNA, mitochondria…).

Temperature effect on the structural strains of an ancient Tibetan building based on long-term monitoring data

Many studies have indicated that structural strain will be significantly influenced by temperature variations, and a good understanding of the effect of temperature on structural strain is essential. A structural health monitoring system has been installed in a typical Tibetan timber building to measure the structural strains and ambient temperature since 2012. This paper presents the correlation between temperature and strain data from the monitored structure. A method combining singular spectrum analysis and polynomial regression is proposed for modeling the temperature induced strains in the structure. Singular spectrum analysis is applied to smooth the temperature data, and the correlation between the resulting temperature time series and the measured strains is obtained by polynomial regression. Parameters of the singular spectrum analysis and the regression model are selected to have the least regression error. Results show that the proposed method has both good reproduction and prediction capabilities for temperature induced strains, and that the method is accurate and effective for eliminating the effect of temperature from the measured strain. A standardized Novelty Index based on the residual strain is also used for the condition assessment of the structure.

English

This study was conducted in Gambella Regional State (GRS) in order to characterize the Abigar cattle breed phenotypically at its breeding tract. It was done purposively in four selected districts of the region using extensive field surveys, morphological measurements and focused group discussions on the origin, distribution, current status and future threats, production and reproduction characteristics of Abigar cattle at its production environment. By using semi-structured questionnaire, 160 cattle owners were interviewed and qualitative and quantitative data were recorded for mature 200 female and 100 male cattle. Milk yield monitoring of 95 lactating Abigar cows was assessed in and around Gambella district for three months long. The data were entered into Excel sheet and analyzed using SPSS (2007) software package. The study has shown that Abigar cattle are the most dominant both in the Nuer and Anywaa zones of the region. The breed possesses unique features that can be used in identifying the breed from other indigenous breeds. The breed has got large body size, long-curved horns, gray and white dominant coat colors as well as ease of management by all gender groups due to its recognized docile character. The average age at puberty, age at first calving and calving interval were found to be 36.2, 42.5 and 14.1 months, respectively under extensive management. In addition, the breed has better production and reproduction capabilities despite the high heat load, recurrent drought and repeated disease prevalence in the region. However, a decreasing trend of the breed had been noticed in the studied areas in recent years mainly due to disease outbreaks and lack of medication, ethnic conflicts, cattle raiding and high expansion of commercial crop production. Thus, a well-coordinated and community driven participatory in situ conservation strategy has great significance to ensure the maintenance, future use and improvement of the breed for enhancement of food security of the pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in the region. Key words: Abigar, cattle, breed, Nuer, Anywaa, pastoral, agro-pastoral.

Evaluating gonio-appearance in advanced printing materials with quality control procedures and instrumentation used for automotive coatings

The future and current digital economy and society is based on the perceptual choice by the consumer of many real objects (cards, cosmetics, toys, etc.), but increasingly from digital simulations with a great photorealism. Due to the existence on the market of new and sophisticated gonio-apparent pigments, with aesthetic and physic-chemical aspects changing according to the illumination and observation directions, nowadays, it is a current great challenge the simulation on digital media (displays, virtual reality, printing technologies), of objects, with different shape and size, with the maximum perceptual realism. Regarding printing technologies, above all multi-channel and 3D printing technologies, needs to be checked the actual and future capacities to be used in the automotive sector in order to get more colored plastic pieces (add-on parts for the car body) with the same or better aesthetic and physic-chemical features. In this contribution, we will provide a general overview of a recent funded Spanish project called ADIREVGAO (Advanced DIgital REproduction of Visual Gonio-Appearance of Objects) for three years. One of the main goals of this project is to go into detail about the reproduction capabilities of the gonio-appearance on several printing technologies, above all on multichannel inkjet and 3D printing (additive manufacturing, FDM technology). Only the interplay of concepts and terminology (gonio-appearance, measurement geometries, etc.), in addition to available commercial instruments, color &amp; texture quality control by models, and the characterization techniques, and guidelines for testing gonio-apparent 3D printed materials, will be shown in this work.

Средний класс в регионах СЗФО: возможности расширенного воспроизводства

Средний класс в регионах СЗФО: возможности расширенного воспроизводства

Reproduction of exponential polynomials by multivariate non-stationary subdivision schemes with a general dilation matrix

We study scalar multivariate non-stationary subdivision schemes with a general integer dilation matrix. We characterize the capability of such schemes to reproduce exponential polynomials in terms of simple algebraic conditions on their symbols. These algebraic conditions provide a useful theoretical tool for checking the reproduction properties of existing schemes and for constructing new schemes with desired reproduction capabilities and other enhanced properties. We illustrate our results with several examples.