Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multipactor predictions for ion cyclotron resonance heating antennas of the tokamak WEST

During the plasma experimental campaigns performed on the tokamak WEST, a performance-limiting observation has been made on the Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ICRH) system composed of three identical antennas. When only one antenna is powered while the remaining two are off, an increase in the internal pressure is measured within the non-powered antennas. The internal pressure of the non-powered antennas exceeds a safety pressure interlock whose threshold is 4.5×10−3 Pa, and consequently, the application of the RF power is prohibited to avoid plasma creation within these antennas. In this paper, the multipactor phenomenon caused by the inter-antennas’ coupling is shown to be responsible for the pressure increase observed in the non-powered antennas. Additionally, an analytic estimation of the pressure rise caused by the multipactor is compared to that observed experimentally.
Generalized Optimization Method of Placement and Beamforming Design for Multiuser MIMO UAV Communications

In this letter, we investigate the integration of multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) technologies with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications. We jointly optimize the placement and the MU-MIMO beamforming matrix of the UAV for maximization of the sum rate of all users. Due to the complexity of MIMO rate expression and matrix inversion operation, we propose a generalized transformation method to decouple the variables and find an equivalent tractable function of the MIMO rate for the original problem based on weighted minimum mean square error (WMMSE) methods. To solve the problem, an alternating algorithm combined with the Lagrange dual method is proposed where the semi-closed-form solutions for UAV placement and beamforming scheme are obtained at each step. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method and show that the MU-MIMO technique can significantly improve performance in UAV networks.
From ocean depths to mountain tops: Uplift of the Troodos ophiolite (Cyprus) constrained by low‐temperature thermochronology and geomorphic analysis

The timing and mode of uplift of the Troodos ophiolite are constrained by low‐temperature thermochronology combined with geomorphic analysis. Zircon (U‐Th)/He and apatite fission track cooling ages in the Troodos plutonic sequence are all Cretaceous (83–106 Ma) and within error of published zircon U‐Pb crystallization ages. This indicates early cooling of the oceanic crust and termination of spreading axis magmatism at ~90 Ma. Apatite (U‐Th)/He ages decrease with reconstructed crustal depths from ~40 Ma near the top of the sheeted‐dike complex to ~4 Ma within the mantle sequence. A prominent inflection point in the age versus depth curve defines the bottom of the exhumed helium partial retention zone and records the onset of rapid exhumation of the main Troodos massif at 6 ± 2 Ma. Inverse thermal modeling supports this conclusion, indicating that the timing of uplift is earlier than previously estimated. The boundaries of the mantle sequence exposed in the core of the Troodos structure closely overlap the boundaries of a concentric zone delineated by high local relief and higher channel steepness indices, indicating differential exhumation and uplift of this area relative to its surroundings. This zone also overlaps with a prominent negative Bouguer gravity anomaly. The timing and pattern of the Troodos ophiolite uplift suggest that it is driven by serpentinite diapirism, possibly triggered by Miocene reactivation of subduction along the Cyprean Arc. The worldwide ubiquity of suprasubduction zone ophiolites may thus reflect the importance of extensive serpentinization at the overthrusting mantle wedge in obduction processes.
A technology of re-enchantment: reading, referencing, and redistributing Orthodox ‘spiritual literature’ in post-Yugoslav Serbia

ABSTRACT This article explores the issue of ‘re-enchantment’ through an ethnographic analysis of ‘spiritual literature’ in post-Yugoslav Serbia. Following the anthropologist Alfred Gell, it argues that Orthodox texts can be understood as ‘enchanted technology’ which, in turn, allows them to work as a ‘technology of enchantment’. Spiritual literature – distributed as physical objects between bags, bookshelves, bookshops, and kiosks, as well as digitally via social media – can propel some people to grow as Orthodox Christians and relate to society in Orthodox terms. After situating the re-emergence of Orthodox publishing in historical perspective, the article shows how people defer to books and how texts circulate. Overall, the article reveals the mechanics of one form of re-enchantment.
The Consecutive 200 Cases of Endoscopic-Combined Intrarenal Surgery: Comparison between Standard and Miniature Surgeries

Background and Objectives: Percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) is still the gold-standard treatment for large and/or complex renal stones. Endoscopic combined intrarenal surgery (ECIRS) was developed with the goal of minimizing the number of access tracts of PCNL while simultaneously improving the one-step stone-free rate (SFR). The aim of this study was to share the experience of the consecutive 200 cases of ECIRS in one institute and analyze surgical outcomes of mini-ECIRS and standard ECIRS. Materials and Methods: We performed ECIRS for 200 adult patients between July 2017 and January 2020. An ECIRS was performed with the patient under general anesthesia in the intermediate-supine position. Surgeries were finished using a tubeless technique with a simple ureteral stent insertion. Results: There were significant differences in the mean maximal stone length (MSL), the variation coefficient of stone density (VCSD), the linear calculus density (LCD), the Seoul National University Renal Stone Complexity (S-ReSC), and the modified S-ReSC scores in stone characteristics, and estimated blood loss (EBL) and operation time in peri-operative outcomes between conventional and mini-ECIRS. After propensity-score matching, there was only a difference in EBL between the two groups. In logistic regression models, MSL [odds ratio (OR) 0.953; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.926–0.979; p < 0.001], LCD (OR 4.702; 95% CI 1.613–18.655; p = 0.013) were significant factors for the success rate after ECIRS. Conclusions: In patients who underwent a mini-ECIRS, the stones were relatively smaller and less complex, and the operation time was shorter. However, if the size of stones was similar, there was no difference in the success rate, but EBL was lower in mini-ECIRS than in standard surgery.
Fully Distributed Consensus of Multiple Euler–Lagrange Systems Under Switching Directed Graphs Using Only Position Measurements

In this note, the distributed leaderless consensus problem of multiple Euler–Lagrange systems under switching directed graphs using only position measurements is investigated. We adopt a model reference adaptive consensus strategy to assign each agent a reference to track, which transforms the consensus problem into a trajectory tracking problem. Due to the absence of velocity information, a velocity filter and a third-order linear reference model are designed for each agent. The proposed consensus algorithm only requires the position information and only the relative position information is interchanged among the neighboring agents. It is shown that the agents can achieve position consensus under a uniformly connected switching directed graph in the absence of global gains, in which sense the proposed algorithm is fully distributed. The numerical simulations are performed to show the effectiveness of the theoretical results.
Comparison of Selenium Serum Levels in Patients WithMultiple Sclerosis and Normal Individuals

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory and chronic autoimmune disease that manifests as nerve lesions in the central nervous system. This study measured the serum levels of selenium (Se) in MS patients and normal individuals. Methods: Overall, 70 patients with MS and 70 thermally healthy individuals were selected for the purpose of the study. Their blood samples were poured into the buffer, and the serum was separated. Then, the serum levels of Se were measured using an atomic absorption device. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data, and a t-test of two independent groups was utilized for comparison. The significance level of the tests was 5%. Results: In this study, by examining the amount of Se in the serum of both normal groups and patients, it was observed that the amount of Se in patients with MS was significantly lower than that of normal people. The findings demonstrated that the Se serum levels in the two groups of MS patients and healthy individuals were 85±40 and 130±30 micrograms/liter, respectively. The observed difference in the amount of serum Se at the level above 5% was significant based on the t-test. Conclusion: The findings of this research showed that the serum levels of Se in MS patients were lower than in healthy individuals. Decreasing serum Se can play a decisive role in causing people to suffer from MS.
Dual-Polarization Hermite-Gaussian-Based NFDM Transmission System

The nonlinear frequency division multiplexing (NFDM) transmission scheme continues to attract high interests in optical communications due to its robustness against nonlinearity and dispersion. The use of Hermite Gaussian (HG) wave-carriers has been proposed and has been shown to out-perform conventional methods used by state-of-the-art single polarization NFDM systems due to their excellent time-bandwidth-product (TBP) efficiency. In this work, employing the Manakov model, we investigate and demonstrate, for the first time, a high-capacity dual polarization NFDM (DP-NFDM) transmission system based on HG wave-carriers, enhanced by a single parameter equalizer. We report here, a record high spectral efficiency of 12 bits/s/Hz for dual-polarization HG-based DP-NFDM systems.
Comparative study of meteorological and hydrological drought characteristics in the Pekalen River basin, East Java, Indonesia

Drought is known as a normal part of climate and including in a slow-onset natural hazard which may have several impacts on hydrology, agriculture, and socioeconomic. Drought monitoring, including its severity, spatial and duration is required and becomes an essential input for establishing drought risk management and mitigation plan. Many drought indices have been introduced and applied in regions with different climate characteristics in the last decades. This paper aims to compare standardized precipitation index ( SPI ) and rainfall anomaly index ( RAI ) along with standardized streamflow index ( SSI ) in Pekalen River Basin, East Java, Indonesia. The statistical association analyses, included the Pearson correlation ( r ), Kendal tau ( τ ), and Spearman rho ( r s ) were performed to examine the degree of consistency between monthly and annual drought index of SPI and RAI . Additionally, the comparative analysis was performed by overlapping both monthly and annual drought index from the SPI and RAI with the SSI at hydrological years. The study revealed that the characteristic of the annual drought index between the SPI and RAI exhibits pattern similarity which indicated by the high correlation coefficient between them. Further, the comparative analysis on each hydrological year showed that the SPI and RAI were very well correlated and exhibited a similar pattern with the SSI . Overall, the SPI shows better performance than the RAI for estimating drought characteristic either monthly or annual basis. Hence, the SPI is considered as a reliable and effective tool for analyzing drought characteristic in the study area.
Major features of the distribution of Antarctic foraminiferal

Abstract Benthic foraminifers collected in different regions of the high Antarctic (Weddell Sea, Mawson Sea, Davis Sea and some other locations in East Antarctic) on the shelf and upper part of the bathyal zone (2-2315m) were analyzed to determine regularities in their distribution. Most samples contained living organisms. The composition of the foraminiferal assemblages is influenced by many factors of water characteristics such as temperature, salinity, nutrient composition, availability of carbonate and variations in CCD, presence of near-bottom flows. The changes of water masses at different depths or mixing of the different water masses are clearly seen in the changes of the foraminiferal species composition. In some cases the local variations of water characteristics, seasonality and ice melting are also responsible for the foraminiferal distribution. Two faunas were identified: those of the shelf associated with the cold-water masses (−1° to 1.9°) and the upper slope with warmer water (−0.5°), the majority of the characteristic forms being circumantarctic. Species abundance displays two maximums at depths of 180–300m and 1500–2300m. At depths to 500, and even to 700m, both arenaceous and calcareous forms, especially miliolids, are abundant. Below this boundary some living calcareous forms were also found, though arenaceous ones were dominant. The presence of calcareous foraminifers at the majority of the stations in our material may be explained by the higher resistance of living calcareous forms to carbonate dissolution comparing the empty tests, dissolving more rapidly. The overall pattern of these our data and of data from previous studies allows to draw some general conclusions with regard to the Antarctic foraminiferal fauna: a high degree of endemism which, for the shelf depths of 2–50m, sometimes reaches 80%; the gigantism of many species; a wide range of vertical distribution of many species; introduction of deep water species of other oceans onto the shelf and the upper part of the bathyal zone; often high species diversity and high quantity abundance of many species in the community; abundance of circumantarctic species, often with a great number of species belonging to a single genus; the abundance (often predominance) of agglutinated forms compared to calcareous ones. Some taxonomic notes and morphological observations are given, as well as comparisons of some closely related Arctic and Antarctic forms.
A Preliminary Study on Crustal Anisotropy in Chia-Nan Area of Taiwan

The instrumental observation of earthquakes in Taiwan has been initiatedsince 1898.Up to 1997,about 170,000 earthquakes have been accumulatedin the earthquake catalog.It is interesting to review this 100 yearseismicity at the end of this century.In this paper,we illustrate the distributionsof these earthquakes using different plotting techniques,under differentcategories to exhibit the nature of their occurrences.Some interestingearthquake distribution patterns are discovered,which may not be noticedbefore.It is no doubt that Taiwan earthquakes are stimulated by tectonicmovement around the island.By ultilizing earthquake distributionfigures,we attempt to relate the seismicity to the tectonics.Four seismicsystems which may be drived from different tectonic interactions are takento describe their particular seismicity patterns.Many interesting featuresof the tectonic movement can be explained by a careful examination of theseismicity distributions.Besides,we also hope that these well documentedearthquake figures will be useful for other purposes or simply for generalscience education.
Research article GENETIC VARIABILITY AND ASSOCIATION ANALYSIS IN RICE

Genetic variability, character association and path analysis between yield and its contributing traits were studied in 49 Rice cultures. Analysis of variance revealed the existence of significant differences among genotypes for all characters studied. The magnitude of PCV and GCV was moderate to high for number of grains per panicle, test weight and grain yield. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as per cent of mean was observed for test weight and grain yield indicating the role of additive gene in expressing these traits. Grain yield was significant positively correlated with number of grains per panicle, panicle length and test weight. Path coefficient analysis indicated that number of grains per panicle, test weight and productive tillers per square meter were essential traits to be considered for realizing the improvement in yield.
Environmental aspects of molecular composition of humic acids isolated from lake sediments of a permafrost-affected area of the Arctic

: Humic substances are ubiquitous in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Humic acids (HAs) actively interact with organic and inorganic components of lake sediments. This interaction depends on the molecular structure and elemental composition of HAs. The presented research focuses on the investigation of the composition and molecular structure of humic acids isolated from lakes located in the Lena Delta in the Russian Arctic. The findings of the research are needed to estimate the potential capacity of humic acids to bind microelements, particularly toxic metals, in stable compounds. Surface sediment samples (0–10 cm) were collected from 8 lakes by Van Veen grab during the summer period of the “Expedition LENA 2019”. We analyzed elemental composition of the HAs samples. The results showed that the studied HAs of lake sediments are characterized by low nitrogen content and prevalence of aliphatic fragments in their molecular structure. Furthermore, it was found that the studied humic acids are less mature, showing mineralization processes dominant over humification, and have relatively low potential to complexation compared with soils of the Lena Delta as well as lake sediments of territories with more boreal climate conditions.
Keeping Memories Alive: A Decennial Study of Social Media Reminiscing, Memories, and Nostalgia

In this article, we present findings from an analysis of social media users’ own descriptions of having lived with social media for over a decade. In doing so, we draw upon the users’ reflections as related in data collected over 10 years. We present findings from a unique dataset of 36 stimulated-recall interviews, where we have studied the same group of informants in 2012, 2017, and 2022. While previous work on reminiscing, memories, and social media have relied on descriptions of practices as they are remembered, our approach has allowed us to follow and examine how users reflect upon their own practices over time. In this article, we focus on social media reminiscing practices and show how social media users seek and engage with previously posted social media content to reminisce and how their reflecting upon how their social media practices have evolved over time evoke ambiguous feelings. Drawing upon previous work and our own empirical material, we define and discuss social media nostalgia. We describe how social media users experience both personal social media nostalgia (referring to how I was), and historical social media nostalgia (referring to how it was) when reflecting upon past social media practices and demonstrate how social media users nostalgize as they interact with and through social media memories. Finally, we discuss our findings in relation to the interplay between reminiscing practices and technology and point to how social media memories represent a detailed insight into an ongoing social transformation of everyday life.
Decaffeinated coffee and green tea extract inhibit foam cell atherosclerosis by lowering inflammation and improving cholesterol influx/efflux balance through upregulation of PPARγ and miR-155 [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review]

Background: Foam cells are markers of atherosclerosis and characterise advanced atherosclerotic plaque, stimulated by inflammation caused by high lipid levels in macrophages. The combination of decaffeinated coffee and green tea extract (DCGTE) has been suggested to have a role in foam cell inhibition. Objective: we investigated the inhibiting role of DCGTE against foam cell formation, through modulation of the inflammation process and cholesterol metabolism in macrophage colony stimulating factor(MCSF) and oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL)-exposed macrophages. Methods: Coffee and green tea were extracted by filtration and infusion respectively, and underwent decaffeination using active carbon and blanching methods, respectively. Cells were administered 160/160 and 320/320μg/ml of DCGTE. Foam cell formation was observed using a light microscope after staining with Oil Red O (ORO), and the accumulation of lipids in macrophages with ELISA. Observations of lipid influx and efflux were determined through semiquantitative cluster differentiation 36 (CD36) and ATP binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) expression through Open Peer Review Reviewer Status AWAITING PEER REVIEW Any reports and responses or comments on the article can be found at the end of the article. Page 1 of 13 F1000Research 2021, 10:1175 Last updated: 22 NOV 2021
A review of salinity and sodicity in irrigation

Scarcity of fresh water has led to use of low quality waters (high sodicity and salinity) that were considered unsuitable for irrigation in the past. Mismanagement of irrigation using this water can increase the potential for soil degradation and limit crop production in the long-term. Irrigation using highly saline-sodic water requires appropriate management to avoid long-term development of sodicity and salinity problems. The main factors that control the sodicity and salinity problems are maintenance of sufficient leaching and avoidance of soil structure degradation due to sodicity. However, the management options are determined by complex factors such as soil type and condition, water quality, irrigation practice and crop type. The fundamental processes occurring within soil profile under irrigation with highly saline sodic waters, and the problems related to salinity and sodicity in the soil-water-plant system are complex. Modelling is an efficient tool to quantify and manage these problems. However, there has been limited research in modelling of irrigation under highly sodic and saline conditions.
Inhibition of VEGF-A expression in hypoxia-exposed fetal retinal microvascular endothelial cells by exosomes derived from human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells

: Objective: This study aimed to investigate the potential of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell (hucMSC)-derived exosomes (hucMSC-Exos) in inhibiting hypoxia-induced cell hyper proliferation and overexpression of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) in immature human fetal retinal microvascular endothelial cells (hfRMECs). Methods: Exosomes were isolated from hucMSCs using cryogenic ultracentrifugation and characterized through various techniques, including transmission electron microscopy, nanoparticle tracking analysis, bicinchoninic acid assays, and western blotting. The hfRMECs were identi ﬁ ed using von Willebrand factor (vWF) co-staining and divided into four groups: a control group cultured under normoxic condition, a hypoxic model group, a hypoxic group treated with low-concentration hucMSC-Exos (75 μ g/mL) and a hypoxic group treated with high-concentration hucMSC-Exos (100 μ g/mL). Cell viability and proliferation were assessed using Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and EdU (5-ethynyl-2 ′ -deoxyuridine) assay respectively. Expression levels of VEGF-A were evaluated using RT-PCR, western blotting and immuno ﬂ uorescence. Results: Hypoxia signi ﬁ cantly increased hfRMECs ’ viability and proliferation by upregulating VEGF-A levels. The administration of hucMSC-Exos effectively reversed this response, with the high-concentration group exhibiting greater ef ﬁ cacy compared to the low-concentration group. Conclusion: In conclusion, hucMSC-Exos can dose-dependently inhibit hypoxia-induced hyperproliferation and VEGF-A overexpression in immature fetal retinal microvascular endothelial cells.