Nurul Labib Sayeedi, Md. Faiyaz Abdullah Sayeedi, Shubhashis Roy Dipta
et al.
Bangla culture is richly expressed through region, dialect, history, food, politics, media, and everyday visual life, yet it remains underrepresented in multimodal evaluation. To address this gap, we introduce BanglaVerse, a culturally grounded benchmark for evaluating multilingual vision-language models (VLMs) on Bengali culture across historically linked languages and regional dialects. Built from 1,152 manually curated images across nine domains, the benchmark supports visual question answering and captioning, and is expanded into four languages and five Bangla dialects, yielding ~32.3K artifacts. Our experiments show that evaluating only standard Bangla overestimates true model capability: performance drops under dialectal variation, especially for caption generation, while historically linked languages such as Hindi and Urdu retain some cultural meaning but remain weaker for structured reasoning. Across domains, the main bottleneck is missing cultural knowledge rather than visual grounding alone, with knowledge-intensive categories. These findings position BanglaVerse as a more realistic test bed for measuring culturally grounded multimodal understanding under linguistic variation.
BYVET JOINT HEAL<sup>TM</sup> (BJH) contains mucopolysaccharide protein, chondroitin sulfate, type II collagen, and omega-3 fatty acids, which protect and prevent osteoarthritis (OA)-associated tissue damage and degradation in dogs and cats. This study aimed to generate a novel dietary supplement and evaluate its prevention and therapeutic efficacy in an OA Sprague Dawley rat model induced using monosodium iodoacetate (MIA). Negative control, MIA-induced OA control (MIA), OA rats treated with BJH three weeks after (M+BJH3) and those treated two weeks before and three weeks after OA induction (BJH2+M+BJH3) groups were assigned. M+BJH3 and BJH2+M+BJH3 had similar mean body weight increases until 29 days. BJH2+M+BJH3 showed a significantly higher body weight than M+BJH3 and MIA on the final day. Interleukin-1β in BJH2+M+BJH3 was significantly lower than that in MIA. Tumor necrosis factor-α, aggrecan, matrix metalloproteinases13, and cyclooxygenase-2 levels in M+BJH3 and BJH2+M+BJH3 significantly differed compared to those in MIA. BJH administration before OA induction significantly decreased OA severity and functional recovery. Consuming a BJH supplement showed modifying and chondroprotective effects and significantly reduced cartilage degeneration and inflammation with no side effects. Hence, our findings demonstrate the potential of using BJH as a safe therapeutic and preventive supplement for OA and associated cartilage abnormalities. Also, 30 dogs diagnosed with OA by a veterinarian participated in the clinical trial, and BJH was provided for 8 weeks. Blood tests (CBC, serum chemistry) and joint assessment were performed before and after the feeding, and the effects of a BJH supplement were compared. BJH supplement was easy to administer, and no side effects were reported. Feeding BJH supplementation alone to dogs with arthritis had an overall positive effect on arthritis scores for 8 weeks without any other treatment, including non-steroidal drugs.
Microplastic pollution in the ocean is a growing problem. It affects the entire ecosystem and, therefore, the species that inhabit it. Plastics can be filtered or ingested by organisms, entering and negatively affecting individuals. Among the populations affected are crustaceans. In previous studies, fibers have been found mainly in the stomach contents of these animals, although other types, such as pellets, have also been found. This study examines the presence of microplastics in <i>Cronius ruber</i>, an invasive crab species in the Canary Islands, and investigates their potential links to nearby wastewater discharges. A total of 63 crabs were sampled from four beaches in Gran Canaria in 2021, and their stomach contents were analyzed through alkaline digestion, filtration, and micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (micro-FTIR). Microplastics were detected in 52% of individuals; the particles averaged 0.7 ± 0.5 mm in length, with an average of 1.73 ± 1.02 particles per crab. Fibers constituted 89% of the microplastics, with blue and black being the predominant colors. Rayon, commonly used in textiles, was the most frequently identified polymer (52%), highlighting the role of wastewater from laundry processes as a significant pollution source. Beaches close to unauthorized wastewater discharges, such as Anfi del Mar (<i>n</i> = 3) and El Puertillo (<i>n</i> = 32), showed the highest contamination levels, with a frequency of occurrence (FO) of microplastic particles of 67% and 58%, respectively. Playa de Las Nieves was the one with the lowest contamination level (<i>n</i> = 22), with a frequency of occurrence of microplastic particles of 41%. This is the first study to document microplastic ingestion in <i>C. ruber</i>, raising concerns about its ecological presence and the potential bioaccumulation of contaminants in marine ecosystems. Further research is essential to understand the long-term consequences of microplastic exposure on invasive species and their possible roles in pollutant transfer through food webs.
Alexander Weinberg, Franziska Witte, Dana Carina Schubert
et al.
Anthropogenic climate change is primarily caused by CO2 and CH4 emissions, with a significant portion originating from agriculture and livestock. Reducing methane emissions in ruminant husbandry has been a longstanding goal. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to influence the fermentation processes in the artificial rumen model (rumen simulation technique, RUSITEC) using five different carbons—one activated carbon (AC) and four biochars (BCs)—and one control without supplement. The carbons were included at 2% of dry matter (DM) of the basal diet, which corresponded to 0.3 g DM of the assigned additive. The treatments were conducted on 12 fermenters with two replications (n = 4/treatment) in a randomized block design. The experimental period consisted of a 7-day adaptation phase and an 8-day data and sample collection phase. Parameters included gas volume, gas composition, disappearance rates, volatile fatty acid (VFA) production, and nutrient digestion. Except for biochar (BC) 3, carbons showed no impact on gas parameters, while BC 3 decreased CO2 production (p = 0.0453), gas volume (p = 0.0255), and the ratio of CO2 (p = 0.0304), CH4 (p = 0.0304), and gas volume (p = 0.0304) to disappeared organic matter (dOM). BC 3 also showed a tendency to decrease in methane production (p = 0.0878). The effects on produced VFA were only found for BC 3, which reduced the daily production of total VFA (p = 0.0226), acetic acid (p = 0.0248), propionic acid (p = 0.0166), i-butyric acid (p = 0.0366), and the ratio of VFA to dry matter loss (p = 0.0172) and to dOM (p = 0.0304), while pH (p = 0.0309) was higher compared to the control. Only BC 3 had decreasing effects on disappearance rates (p = 0.0304). Although BC 3 reduces greenhouse gas emissions, it does so at the expense of fermentation, as indicated by its decreasing impact on digestion rate, VFA production, and the resulting increase in pH. In conclusion, biochar has the potential to affect rumen fermentation in vitro. However, general statements regarding the effects of biochars on fermentation cannot be derived from this experiment; each biochar source needs to be evaluated individually.
The task of 2D animal pose estimation plays a crucial role in advancing deep learning applications in animal behavior analysis and ecological research. Despite notable progress in some existing approaches, our study reveals that the scarcity of high-quality datasets remains a significant bottleneck, limiting the full potential of current methods. To address this challenge, we propose a novel Controllable Image Generation Pipeline for synthesizing animal pose estimation data, termed AP-CAP. Within this pipeline, we introduce a Multi-Modal Animal Image Generation Model capable of producing images with expected poses. To enhance the quality and diversity of the generated data, we further propose three innovative strategies: (1) Modality-Fusion-Based Animal Image Synthesis Strategy to integrate multi-source appearance representations, (2) Pose-Adjustment-Based Animal Image Synthesis Strategy to dynamically capture diverse pose variations, and (3) Caption-Enhancement-Based Animal Image Synthesis Strategy to enrich visual semantic understanding. Leveraging the proposed model and strategies, we create the MPCH Dataset (Modality-Pose-Caption Hybrid), the first hybrid dataset that innovatively combines synthetic and real data, establishing the largest-scale multi-source heterogeneous benchmark repository for animal pose estimation to date. Extensive experiments demonstrate the superiority of our method in improving both the performance and generalization capability of animal pose estimators.
Hilda Hadan, Sabrina A. Sgandurra, Leah Zhang-Kennedy
et al.
Deceptive game designs that manipulate players are increasingly common in the gaming industry, but the impact on players is not well studied. While studies have revealed player frustration, there is a gap in understanding how cultural attributes affect the impact of deceptive design in games. This paper proposes a new research direction on the connection between the representation of culture in games and player response to deceptive designs. We believe that understanding the interplay between cultural attributes and deceptive design can inform the creation of games that are ethical and entertaining for players around the globe.
Recent progress in Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) have significantly enhanced the ability of artificial intelligence systems to understand and generate multimodal content. However, these models often exhibit limited effectiveness when applied to non-Western cultural contexts, which raises concerns about their wider applicability. To address this limitation, we propose the Traditional Chinese Culture understanding Benchmark (TCC-Bench), a bilingual (i.e., Chinese and English) Visual Question Answering (VQA) benchmark specifically designed for assessing the understanding of traditional Chinese culture by MLLMs. TCC-Bench comprises culturally rich and visually diverse data, incorporating images from museum artifacts, everyday life scenes, comics, and other culturally significant contexts. We adopt a semi-automated pipeline that utilizes GPT-4o in text-only mode to generate candidate questions, followed by human curation to ensure data quality and avoid potential data leakage. The benchmark also avoids language bias by preventing direct disclosure of cultural concepts within question texts. Experimental evaluations across a wide range of MLLMs demonstrate that current models still face significant challenges when reasoning about culturally grounded visual content. The results highlight the need for further research in developing culturally inclusive and context-aware multimodal systems. The code and data can be found at: https://tcc-bench.github.io/.
Urinary tract infection (UTI) is commonly encountered in small animal general practice. Within the past 5 years, there have been changes to terminology, such as the renaming of asymptomatic bacteriuria to subclinical bacteriuria, as well as paradigm shifts in the management of UTI. In general, there is an emphasis for responsible antimicrobial stewardship and selecting treatment based on urine culture and sensitivity and treating symptomatic bacterial UTI with a shorter duration of antimicrobials. In addition, for most cases, treatment of subclinical bacteriuria is not indicated.
Recent advancements in text-to-3D generation have demonstrated the ability to generate high quality 3D assets. However while generating animals these methods underperform, often portraying inaccurate anatomy and geometry. Towards ameliorating this defect, we present C3DAG, a novel pose-Controlled text-to-3D Animal Generation framework which generates a high quality 3D animal consistent with a given pose. We also introduce an automatic 3D shape creator tool, that allows dynamic pose generation and modification via a web-based tool, and that generates a 3D balloon animal using simple geometries. A NeRF is then initialized using this 3D shape using depth-controlled SDS. In the next stage, the pre-trained NeRF is fine-tuned using quadruped-pose-controlled SDS. The pipeline that we have developed not only produces geometrically and anatomically consistent results, but also renders highly controlled 3D animals, unlike prior methods which do not allow fine-grained pose control.
With the growing popularity of ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) culture, generating high-quality anime character images has become an important research topic. This paper introduces a novel Generative Adversarial Network model, USE-CMHSA-GAN, designed to produce high-quality anime character images. The model builds upon the traditional DCGAN framework, incorporating USE and CMHSA modules to enhance feature extraction capabilities for anime character images. Experiments were conducted on the anime-face-dataset, and the results demonstrate that USE-CMHSA-GAN outperforms other benchmark models, including DCGAN, VAE-GAN, and WGAN, in terms of FID and IS scores, indicating superior image quality. These findings suggest that USE-CMHSA-GAN is highly effective for anime character image generation and provides new insights for further improving the quality of generative models.
Ibrahim Said Ahmad, Shiran Dudy, Resmi Ramachandranpillai
et al.
Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, are widely used to generate content for various purposes and audiences. However, these models may not reflect the cultural and emotional diversity of their users, especially for low-resource languages. In this paper, we investigate how ChatGPT represents Hausa's culture and emotions. We compare responses generated by ChatGPT with those provided by native Hausa speakers on 37 culturally relevant questions. We conducted experiments using emotion analysis and applied two similarity metrics to measure the alignment between human and ChatGPT responses. We also collected human participants ratings and feedback on ChatGPT responses. Our results show that ChatGPT has some level of similarity to human responses, but also exhibits some gaps and biases in its knowledge and awareness of the Hausa culture and emotions. We discuss the implications and limitations of our methodology and analysis and suggest ways to improve the performance and evaluation of LLMs for low-resource languages.
AbstractFollowing recent arguments that cultural practices in wild animal populations have important conservation implications, we argue that recognizing captive animals as cultural has important welfare implications. Having a culture is of deep importance for cultural animals, wherever they live. Without understanding the cultural capacities of captive animals, we will be left with a deeply impoverished view of what they need to flourish. Best practices for welfare should therefore require concern for animals’ cultural needs, but the relationship between culture and welfare is also extremely complex, requiring us to rethink standard assumptions about what constitutes and contributes to welfare.
The current research included examination of 100 fecal sample from bovine wascollected from AL-Qadisiyah province, from September 2018 until February 2019.TheMicroscopically result showed that oval or spherical shaped with dark pink color or redoocyst on blue ground and 30(30%) positive sample out 100 case . It was recorded thatthe maximum rate 41.66% (5/12) was seen in November, but the lowest rate 18.75%(3/16) was seen in the month of February with no significant differences at level(p<0.05.) According to age the maximum rate of incidence 40%(14/35)was found inthe age group lower than a month, but the lowest incidence was seen in the group( >1years). There is no significant differences at p<0.05.between male and female. In thecurrently study the N-PCR in molecular investigation were used ,the positive samplewas18 (60%) out of 30 fecal sample. Sequencing of a fragment of the(18s rRNA) gene(834 bp) that separated from many distinct area in AL- Qadisiyah governmentrecorded (50%)6/12 sample related to NCBI – Blast Cryptosporidium parvum ,( 33.33%)4/12 sample display deep related to NCBI –Blast Cryptosporidium bovis (this firststudy reported C. bovis in Iraq ) , (16.66%) 2/12 sample showed closed related to NCBI–Blast Cryptosporidiumandersoni.
Filippos Georgios NIKOLAU, Alina Ioana FAT, Alexandra NEGRILA
et al.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality parameters of raw buffalo milk, by determining the physicochemical parameters with major impact in terms of milk quality, number of somatic cells and total number of viable counts, at the level of a commercial farm. Over a period of 12 months, samples of raw buffalo milk were collected and analyzed from a farm authorized for the production of buffalo milk, resulting in a dynamic evaluation of quality parameters. The raw milk samples were analyzed using the - CombiFossTM7 equipment. which analyzes all the parameters necessary for official controls of milk production and quality. The averages for the results of the physicochemical parameters fat, protein, lactose, total solids and urea were 8.821 g/100 g, 4.400 g/100 g, 4.291 g/100 g, 17.93 g/100g and 27.08 mg/dL, respectively. Even if the gross composition does not exceed the allowed limits, the TVC exceeded the European standards in the case of 58.3% of the analyzed samples, the annual average being 2059.65x1000 cfu/ml. The value of the SCC average obtained was 304.85x1000 cells/ml, in accordance with the European standard. The values of SCC and TVC are increasing during the sheltering period, which means poor hygiene conditions.
Neospora caninum is an obligate intracellular parasitic protozoan that can cause abortions in cattle and pose considerable economic losses to the cattle industry. As a major livestock province, little is known of N. caninum infection in cattle in Shanxi Province, north China. In order to investigate the seroprevalence of N. caninum in cattle in Shanxi Province, 978 cattle serum samples were collected from 11 cities in three representative geographical locations in Shanxi Province, and the N. caninum-specific IgG antibodies were examined using an indirect enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit commercially available. The results showed that 133 of the 978 examined cattle serum samples (13.60%, 95% CI = 11.45–15.75) were positive for N. caninum antibodies, and the seroprevalence in different cities ranged from 0 to 78.89%. The geographical location and management mode were the risk factors associated with N. caninum infection in cattle herds in Shanxi Province. Cattle in Northern and Central Shanxi Province as well as cattle whose management mode is that of large-scale cattle farming companies are more susceptible to N. caninum infection. This was the first large-scale survey of N. caninum seroprevalence and assessment of associated risk factors in cattle in Shanxi Province, which provided baseline information for the prevention and control of N. caninum infection in cattle in Shanxi Province, north China.