Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Description of Anomalous Noise Events for Reliable Dynamic Traffic Noise Mapping in Real-Life Urban and Suburban Soundscapes

Traffic noise is one of the main pollutants in urban and suburban areas. European authorities have driven several initiatives to study, prevent and reduce the effects of exposure of population to traffic. Recent technological advances have allowed the dynamic computation of noise levels by means of Wireless Acoustic Sensor Networks (WASN) such as that developed within the European LIFE DYNAMAP project. Those WASN should be capable of detecting and discarding non-desired sound sources from road traffic noise, denoted as anomalous noise events (ANE), in order to generate reliable noise level maps. Due to the local, occasional and diverse nature of ANE, some works have opted to artificially build ANE databases at the cost of misrepresentation. This work presents the production and analysis of a real-life environmental audio database in two urban and suburban areas specifically conceived for anomalous noise events’ collection. A total of 9 h 8 min of labelled audio data is obtained differentiating among road traffic noise, background city noise and ANE. After delimiting their boundaries manually, the acoustic salience of the ANE samples is automatically computed as a contextual signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The analysis of the real-life environmental database shows high diversity of ANEs in terms of occurrences, durations and SNRs, as well as confirming both the expected differences between the urban and suburban soundscapes in terms of occurrences and SNRs, and the rare nature of ANE.
Deficiency of Wnt10a causes female infertility via the β-catenin/Cyp19a1 pathway in mice

Wnt signaling is relevant for a wide range of biological processes, including reproductive function. The function of Wnt10a in female fertility, however, remains obscure. In the present study, we explored the structure and function of the female reproductive organs in Wnt10a knockout (KO) mice. The expression of β-catenin signaling was significantly lower in the ovaries of the Wnt10a KO mice compared with wild-type (WT) mice. In addition, the estrous cycles were disrupted, ovarian follicles were diminished, and endometria were thinner, accompanied by lower serum estrogen levels, and higher testosterone and progesterone levels in Wnt10a KO mice. The expression of the ovarian cytochrome P450 family 19 subfamily A member 1 (Cyp19a1) was significantly lower in Wnt10a KO mice. We detected no significant changes in the levels of the gonadotropins between WT and KO mice. Together, our findings indicate that deficiency of Wnt10a causes female infertility through β-catenin and Cyp19a1signaling pathways in mice.
The Resulting Effect of Flow Pulsations on Calibration Constant of Acoustic Path in Ultrasonic Flowmeters

The present paper compares, for the first time, the regimes of a pulsating turbulent flow in a smooth pipe in terms of 0.001 ≤ ω+ ≤ 0.0346 and 0.16 ≤ β ≤ 0.63 at Re ≈ 7000 with the uncertainty in estimating the flow rate by an ultrasonic flowmeter. It was revealed that the classification of pulsating flow regimes according to the dimensionless angular frequency ω+ does not have a direct relation with the K parameter equal to the ratio of the phase-average calibration constant in pulsating flow to the corresponding value in steady flow. The results of data processing showed that K depends on the relative amplitude of pulsations β and the position of the chord of the ultrasonic beam trajectory (L/R is distance L from the pipe center to the chord to the pipe radius R). In the coordinates β and L/R, there is a rather wide area where the uncertainty in flow rate estimation of pulsating flows should not exceed 0.5%. An increase in β or L/R leads to an increase in measurement uncertainty, which in the limiting case β, L/R → 1 can reach 5% or more. Favorable and unfavorable areas of the pipe section were identified when scanning pulsating flows and the effectiveness of using multi-path scanning schemes was estimated to reduce the resulting effect of flow pulsations on flow measurement uncertainty.
Decoding the Synaptic Proteome with Long-Term Exposure to Midazolam during Early Development

The intensive use of anesthetic and sedative agents in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) has raised controversial concerns about the potential neurodevelopmental risks. This study focused on midazolam (MDZ), a common benzodiazepine regularly used as a sedative on neonates in the NICU. Mounting evidence suggests a single exposure to MDZ during the neonatal period leads to learning disturbances. However, a knowledge gap that remains is how long-term exposure to MDZ during very early stages of life impacts synaptic alterations. Using a preclinical rodent model system, we mimicked a dose-escalation regimen on postnatal day 3 (P3) pups until day 21. Next, purified synaptosomes from P21 control and MDZ animals were subjected to quantitative mass-spectrometry-based proteomics, to identify potential proteomic signatures. Further analysis by ClueGO identified enrichment of proteins associated with actin-binding and protein depolymerization process. One potential hit identified was alpha adducin (ADD1), belonging to the family of cytoskeleton proteins, which was upregulated in the MDZ group and whose expression was further validated by Western blot. In summary, this study sheds new information on the long-term exposure of MDZ during the early stages of development impacts synaptic function, which could subsequently perturb neurobehavioral outcomes at later stages of life.
Life cycle energy and greenhouse gas emissions implications of polyamide 12 recycling from selective laser sintering for an injection‐molded automotive component

The selective laser sintering (SLS) process generates waste polymer powders, which can be recycled as feedstock for producing injection‐molded components. Recycling this powder has implications on the life cycle modeling of the SLS product, as well as the subsequent injection‐molded component. This study investigates the life cycle primary energy demand (PED) and global warming potential (GWP) of an automotive fuel‐line clip produced with recycled polyamide 12 (PA12) from an SLS process in comparison to the conventional polyamide 66 (PA66) counterpart, based on real‐world industry data. In addition, the life cycle PED and GWP of an SLS part are examined, with and without recycling PA12 from the SLS process. The results indicate a strong dependence on the approach to evaluate the environmental burden of waste PA12 from the SLS process (cut‐off, mass‐based allocation, economic allocation, and substitution). Compared with the PA66 fuel‐line clip, the recycled PA12 (rPA12) clip reduces the life cycle GWP by up to 26% (cut‐off) or increases by up to 68% (mass‐based allocation). For the SLS part, recycling PA12 powder provides a 42% reduction to its life cycle GWP (mass‐based allocation). Finally, from an expanded two‐part system perspective, the recycling of PA12 from the SLS process provides an 8% reduction in life cycle GWP. Similar trends are shown for the life cycle PED profiles. This study demonstrates the importance of recycling additive manufacturing (AM) wastes within a broader cascading system to improve the environmental performance of AM and the circular economy across industrial systems.
CORRELAÇÕES ENTRE OS PERFIS COMPORTAMENTAIS, FUNCIONAMENTO EXECUTIVO E EMPATIA NA PERTURBAÇÃO DO ESPECTRO DO AUTISMO: ORIENTAÇÕES PARA A INTERVENÇÃO1

RESUMO: A Perturbação do Espectro do Autismo (PEA) caracteriza-se por défices na comunicação e na interação social e por padrões repetitivos e restritos do comportamento, eventualmente explicados por alterações nas funções executivas (FE) e empatia. O objetivo desta investigação foi, assim, estudar as relações entre os comportamentos típicos da PEA, FE e empatia, de forma a estabelecer orientações de intervenção. O Questionário dos Comportamentos Típicos da PEA, o Inventário Comportamental de Avaliação das Funções Executivas – Pais e a Escala de Avaliação da Empatia foram aplicados a 75 crianças com PEA (9.67±1.29). Os resultados apontaram correlações positivas entre a sintomatologia da PEA e as FE, nomeadamente na regulação comportamental e na metacognição. A correlação positiva mais forte (p<.01) ocorreu entre a alternância e os comportamentos totais (r=.660), e padrões restritos e repetitivos (r=.665) e comunicação e interação social (r=.536). Todos os domínios e os subdomínios apresentaram associações com a iniciação e a planificação. Não se verificaram correlações entre os domínios e os subdomínios da PEA e empatia, apenas com alguns comportamentos específicos. Verificou-se que a empatia cognitiva estava associada à regulação comportamental. Esses resultados sugerem que as FE e a empatia têm um papel preponderante na melhoria dos défices sociais e não-sociais da PEA e a importância da intervenção individualizada centrada nas características da PEA, na empatia e nas FE, nomeadamente na regulação comportamental e na metacognição. A intervenção deve abranger não apenas os sintomas da PEA, mas também processos cognitivos subjacentes que possibilitam a melhoria dos comportamentos e uma maior adaptação a diferentes contextos e situações.
Spatiotemporal Distributions of Ambient Volatile Organic Compounds in China: Characteristics and Sources

Ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play a critical role in air quality as important precursors for the formation of ozone and secondary organic aerosols. The characteristics of ambient VOCs vary among different regions. In this study, characteristics and sources of VOCs from 33 sites in 32 major cities across China were compiled from field measurements and literature. The annual average VOC concentrations ranged from 6.7 to 75.0 ppbv and featured spatial variations, with a high value in northwestern China (62.7 ± 17.5 ppbv) but no significant difference among northern, central, southern, and southwestern China (32.0–36.0 ppbv). The VOC concentrations in Qingdao and Fuzhou were consistent with the background values for the region (7.6 ± 1.2 ppbv). VOC concentrations exhibited different seasonal variations across China. High concentrations occurred in winter and autumn, especially in cities in northern China, attributed to the combined contributions from weather and heating activities. The annual average chemical compositions of ambient VOCs across China were dominated by alkanes (36.5%–69.3%), followed by aromatics (7.7%–47.8%), alkenes (6.9%–53.4%), and alkynes (0.7%–15.0%). Chemical compositions also exhibited different seasonal variations across China, depending on the emission and consumption of VOCs. Vehicle exhaust, natural gas/liquefied petroleum gas, fuel combustion, and solvent usage were the dominant VOC contributors, followed by industrial, fuel evaporation, and biogenic sources. Listing VOCs as a mandatory monitoring pollutant for environmental monitoring stations in China and developing accurate source apportionment methods are critical to guide policy making and for understanding of the spatiotemporal distribution of ambient VOCs.
Concordance between Laboratory and Field Methods for the Assessment of Body Fat in Olympic Combat Athletes: Analysis of the Influence of Adiposity

Combat sports athletes competing in the same discipline exhibit notable and substantial differences in body weight, body composition (BC) and adiposity. No studies have considered the influence of adiposity levels in the agreement between different BC assessment methods. The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of adiposity in the agreement between different methods used to estimate relative body fat (%BF) in Olympic combat sport athletes. A total of 38 male athletes were evaluated using air displacement plethysmography and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) as laboratory methods, and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), near-infrared interactance (NIR) and anthropometry as field methods. All methods were compared to DXA. Agreement analyses were performed by means of individual intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for each method compared to DXA, Bland–Altman plots and paired Student t-tests. The ICCs for the different methods compared to DXA were analyzed, considering tertiles of %BF, tertiles of body weight and type of sport. For the whole group, individual ICCs oscillated between 0.806 for BIA and 0.942 for anthropometry. BIA showed a statistically significant underestimation of %BF when compared to DXA. The agreement between every method and DXA was not affected by %BF, but it was highest in athletes at the highest %BF tertile (>13%). The ICC between NIR and DXA was poor in 72–82 kg athletes. Our results indicate that field methods are useful for routine %BF analysis, and that anthropometry is particularly appropriate, as it showed the highest accuracy irrespective of the athletes’ adiposity.
Limiting Distributions of a Non-Homogeneous Markov System in a Stochastic Environment in Continuous Time

The stochastic process non-homogeneous Markov system in a stochastic environment in continuous time (S-NHMSC) is introduced in the present paper. The ordinary non-homogeneous Markov process is a very special case of an S-NHMSC. I studied the expected population structure of the S-NHMSC, the first central classical problem of finding the conditions under which the asymptotic behavior of the expected population structure exists and the second central problem of finding which expected relative population structures are possible limiting ones, provided that the limiting vector of input probabilities into the population is controlled. Finally, the rate of convergence was studied.
Exploring AMOC Regime Change over the Past Four Decades through Ocean Reanalyses

We examine North Atlantic climate variability using an ensemble of ocean reanalysis datasets to study the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) from 1979 to 2018. The dataset intercomparison shows good agreement for the latest period (1995–2018) for AMOC dynamics, characterized by a weaker overturning circulation after 1995 and a more intense one during 1979–1995, with varying intensity across the various datasets. The correlation between leading empirical orthogonal functions suggests that the AMOC weakening has connections with cooler (warmer) sea surface temperature (SST) and lower (higher) ocean heat content in the subpolar (subtropical) gyre in the North Atlantic. Barotropic stream function and Gulf Stream index reveal a shrinking subpolar gyre and an expanding subtropical gyre during the strong-AMOC period and vice versa, consistently with Labrador Sea deep convection reduction. We also observed an east–west salt redistribution between the two periods. Additional analyses show that the AMOC variability is related to the North Atlantic Oscillation phase change around 1995. One of the datasets included in the comparison shows an overestimation of AMOC variability, notwithstanding the model SST bias reduction via ERA-Interim flux adjustments: further studies with a set of numerical experiments will help explain this behavior.
From #MuseumAtHome to #AtHomeAtTheMuseum: Digital Museums and Dialogical Engagement Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic

The novel coronavirus spurred a keen interest in digital technologies for museums as both cultural professionals and the public took notice of their uses and limitations throughout the confinement period. In this study, we investigated the use of digital technologies by museums during a period when in-person interaction was not possible. The aim of the study was to better understand the impact of the confinement period on the use of museum technologies in order to identify implications for future museum experience design. We compared museums across four countries – France, Japan, Luxembourg, and the United States – by conducting an international survey in three languages on the use of digital technologies during the early phase of the pandemic. Additionally, we analyzed the Facebook activity of museums in each country and conducted a series of interviews with digital museology professionals in academia and the private sector. We found that despite a flurry of online activities, especially during the early phase of the pandemic, museums confronted a number of internal and external challenges that were often incongruent with their ability to offer new forms of digital engagement. In general, digital solutions served only as a temporary substitute for the museum experience rather than as an opportunity to usher in a new digital paradigm for cultural mediation, and many cultural professionals cited a lack of digital training as a limiting factor in robust ICT implementation. We also argue that the most successful digital engagement came from those activities that promoted a sense of community or an invitation for self-expression by visitors. We conclude with a framework that describes a ‘virtuous circle of museum participation’, aiming to support public engagement with museums through the development of content that builds on the interconnectedness of on-site and online interactivity.
Non-Salient Fees in the Mortgage Market

This paper studies supply-side product pricing when consumers underreact to non-salient fees. Using comprehensive data on issued and offered mortgages in the UK, I document that lenders differ substantially in the fees they charge, and that borrowers appear less overall cost-sensitive to products with fees. In order to distinguish from demand factors such as unobservable preferences or product characteristics, I show that lenders pass on firm-specific funding cost shocks via fees, but not interest rates, consistent with strategic pricing of fees, and maintaining competitive prices in the salient price dimension, interest rates. I further find heterogeneity in pricing across lenders: those who rely on high fees tend to have higher funding cost, lower return on equity and larger branch networks, in line with a specialization equilibrium in which high-cost lenders are able to match with less cost-sensitive consumers.
Evaluation of Mesoscale Convective Systems in Climate Simulations: Methodological Development and Results from MPAS-CAM over the United States

A process-oriented approach is developed to evaluate warm-season mesoscale convective system (MCS) precipitation and their favorable large-scale meteorological patterns (FLSMPs) over the United States. This approach features a novel observation-driven MCS-tracking algorithm using infrared brightness temperature and precipitation features at 12-, 25-, and 50-km resolution and metrics to evaluate the model large-scale environment favorable for MCS initiation. The tracking algorithm successfully reproduces the observed MCS statistics from a reference 4-km radar MCS database. To demonstrate the utility of the new methodologies in evaluating MCS in climate simulations with mesoscale resolution, the process-oriented approach is applied to two climate simulations produced by the Variable-Resolution Model for Prediction Across Scales coupled to the Community Atmosphere Model physics, with refined horizontal grid spacing at 50 and 25 km over North America. With the tracking algorithm applied to simulations and observations at equivalent resolutions, the simulated number of MCS and associated precipitation amount, frequency, and intensity are found to be consistently underestimated in the central United States, particularly from May to August. The simulated MCS precipitation shows little diurnal variation and lasts too long, while the MCS precipitation area is too large and its intensity is too weak. The model is able to simulate four types of observed FLSMP associated with frontal systems and low-level jets (LLJ) in spring, but the frequencies are underestimated because of low-level dry bias and weaker LLJ. Precipitation simulated under different FLSMPs peak during the daytime, in contrast to the observed nocturnal peak. Implications of these findings for future model development and diagnostics are discussed.
Protective role of foliar application of green-synthesized silver nanoparticles against wheat stripe rust disease caused by Puccinia striiformis

Abstract Green-synthesized nanoparticles have a tremendous antimicrobial potential to be used as an alternative to hazardous fungicides. In this study, the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) was performed by using Moringa oleifera leaf extract as a reducing and stabilizing agent. The synthesized AgNPs were subjected to different characterization techniques. UV-visible spectroscopy confirmed the surface plasmon resonance band in the range of 400–450 nm, and zeta analysis revealed that the synthesized AgNPs ranged 4–30 nm in size. Scanning electron microscopy depicted tiny fused rectangular segments and the crystalline nature of the synthesized AgNPs was confirmed using X-ray diffraction. Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) detector confirmed the presence of metallic silver ions. Fourier-transform infrared analysis revealed the presence of phenols as main reducing agents in the plant extract. Foliar application of different concentrations (25, 50, 75, and 100 ppm) of AgNPs was applied on wheat plants inoculated with Puccinia striiformis to assess the disease incidence against stripe rust disease. AgNPs at a conc. of 75 ppm were found to be more effective against wheat stripe rust disease. Furthermore, the application of AgNPs enhanced morpho-physiological attributes and reduced nonenzymatic compounds and antioxidant enzymes in wheat. The present study highlights the potential role of the green-synthesized AgNPs as a biological control of yellow rust disease.
Internal Atmospheric Variability and Interannual-to-Decadal ENSO Variability in a CGCM

The interactive ensemble coupling strategy has been developed speciﬁcally to determine how noise due to internal atmosphere dynamics impacts climate variability within the context of coupled general circulation models (CGCMs). In this study the authors investigate the impact of internal atmospheric variability on the ENSO variability using four CGCM simulations. In the control simulation, the interactive ensemble strategy is applied globally, thereby reducing the noise at the air–sea interface at each ocean grid point. In the second and third CGCM simulations, the interactive ensemble strategy is applied locally in the extratropics versus the tropics only, respectively. In addition, those results were compared with a standard CGCM. The results suggest that tropical internal atmospheric variability strengthens the interannual-to-decadal ENSO variability and leads to a broader spectral peak. However, the noise due to internal atmospheric dynamics plays different roles when the interannual and decadal ENSO variability is considered separately. There are noise-induced changes in the SST–zonal wind stress feedbacks from interannual to decadal time scales. The tropical atmospheric internal variability largely modiﬁes the frequency as opposed to the amplitude of the ENSO variability on interannual time scales. In contrast, tropical internal atmospheric vari- ability is effective in forcing decadal ENSO variability, resulting in a signiﬁcant decrease of decadal ENSO amplitude in the central tropical Paciﬁc in a CGCM when the noise is reduced. The authors argue that the decadal ENSO variability is directly affected by the low-frequency noise over the western part of the tropical Paciﬁc in a linear sense. On the other hand, the impact of extratropical atmospheric noise on the ENSO variability is weaker than the noise in the tropics.