Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
From remotely‐sensed solar‐induced chlorophyll fluorescence to ecosystem structure, function, and service: Part II—Harnessing data

Although our observing capabilities of solar‐induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) have been growing rapidly, the quality and consistency of SIF datasets are still in an active stage of research and development. As a result, there are considerable inconsistencies among diverse SIF datasets at all scales and the widespread applications of them have led to contradictory findings. The present review is the second of the two companion reviews, and data oriented. It aims to (1) synthesize the variety, scale, and uncertainty of existing SIF datasets, (2) synthesize the diverse applications in the sector of ecology, agriculture, hydrology, climate, and socioeconomics, and (3) clarify how such data inconsistency superimposed with the theoretical complexities laid out in (Sun et al., 2023) may impact process interpretation of various applications and contribute to inconsistent findings. We emphasize that accurate interpretation of the functional relationships between SIF and other ecological indicators is contingent upon complete understanding of SIF data quality and uncertainty. Biases and uncertainties in SIF observations can significantly confound interpretation of their relationships and how such relationships respond to environmental variations. Built upon our syntheses, we summarize existing gaps and uncertainties in current SIF observations. Further, we offer our perspectives on innovations needed to help improve informing ecosystem structure, function, and service under climate change, including enhancing in‐situ SIF observing capability especially in “data desert” regions, improving cross‐instrument data standardization and network coordination, and advancing applications by fully harnessing theory and data.
Direct numerical simulations of supercritical fluid mixing layers applied to heptane–nitrogen

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) are conducted of a model hydrocarbon–nitrogen mixing layer under supercritical conditions. The temporally developing mixing layer configuration is studied using heptane and nitrogen supercritical fluid streams at a pressure of 60 atm as a model system related to practical hydrocarbon-fuel/air systems. An entirely self-consistent cubic Peng–Robinson equation of state is used to describe all thermodynamic mixture variables, including the pressure, internal energy, enthalpy, heat capacity, and speed of sound along with additional terms associated with the generalized heat and mass transport vectors. The Peng–Robinson formulation is based on pure-species reference states accurate to better than 1% relative error through comparisons with highly accurate state equations over the range of variables used in this study (600 [les ] T [les ] 1100 K, 40 [les ] p [les ] 80 atm) and is augmented by an accurate curve fit to the internal energy so as not to require iterative solutions. The DNS results of two-dimensional and three-dimensional layers elucidate the unique thermodynamic and mixing features associated with supercritical conditions. Departures from the perfect gas and ideal mixture conditions are quantified by the compression factor and by the mass diffusion factor, both of which show reductions from the unity value. It is found that the qualitative aspects of the mixing layer may be different according to the specification of the thermal diffusion factors whose value is generally unknown, and the reason for this difference is identified by examining the second-order statistics: the constant Bearman–Kirkwood (BK) thermal diffusion factor excites fluctuations that the constant Irwing–Kirkwood (IK) one does not, and thus enhances overall mixing. Combined with the effect of the mass diffusion factor, constant positive large BK thermal diffusion factors retard diffusional mixing, whereas constant moderate IK factors tend to promote diffusional mixing. Constant positive BK thermal diffusion factors also tend to maintain density gradients, with resulting greater shear and vorticity. These conclusions about IK and BK thermal diffusion factors are species-pair dependent, and therefore are not necessarily universal. Increasing the temperature of the lower stream to approach that of the higher stream results in increased layer growth as measured by the momentum thickness. The three-dimensional mixing layer exhibits slow formation of turbulent small scales, and transition to turbulence does not occur even for a relatively long non-dimensional time when compared to a previous, atmospheric conditions study. The primary reason for this delay is the initial density stratification of the flow, while the formation of strong density gradient regions both in the braid and between-the-braid planes may constitute a secondary reason for the hindering of transition through damping of emerging turbulent eddies.
Sound scattering by anisotropic metafluids based on two-dimensional sonic crystals

Multiple-scattering theory is here employed to study the scattering of sound by a fluidlike cylinder characterized by an anisotropic mass density tensor. A derivation of the $t$ matrix associated to such acoustic material nonexisting in nature is here comprehensively derived, and the result is employed to study the pressure field produced by plane sound waves impinging the cylinder. It is also shown that an acoustic metamaterial or metafluid can be engineered to exactly match the dynamical properties of the anisotropic fluid by using a circular cluster made of a two-dimensional sonic crystal with a nonisotropic lattice.
Low molecular weight heparin treatment reduced apoptosis and oxidative cytotoxicity in the thrombocytes of patients with recurrent pregnancy loss and thrombophilia: Involvements of TRPM2 and TRPV1 channels

Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is known to be associated with increased thrombophilia and oxidative toxicity. However, the mechanism of thrombophilia apoptosis and oxidative toxicity is still unclear. In addition, the treatment of heparin induced regulator roles on intracellular free Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) and cytosolic reactive oxygen species (cytROS) concentrations in several diseases. TRPM2 and TRPV1 channels are activated by different stimuli, including oxidative toxicity. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) via modulation of TRPM2 and TRPV1 on calcium signaling, oxidative toxicity, and apoptosis in the thrombocytes of RPL patients.
A model of colour vision for predicting colour appearance in various viewing conditions

A previously published model of colour vision predicted the hues, lightnesses, saturations, and chromas of colours seen under a medium photopic level of illumination. This model has now been extended to provide, in addition, predictions of brightness and colourfulness, for both related and unrelated colours, at any level of illumination, whether photopic, mesopic, or scotopic. The model has also been extended to cover a wider range of stimulus intensities and the use of various backgrounds.
The Perceptions of Pre-Service Science Teachers' about Using Vee Diagrams and Electronic Portfolios in Physics Laboratuary Course.

The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions of pre-service science teachers about using vee diagrams and preparing electronic portfolios in physics laboratuary course. 103 first grade pre-service science teachers who took general physics laboratuary course were the participants of the study. Pre-service teachers constructed vee diagrams for presenting their experiment reports and prepared electronic portfolios about whole laboratuary process. This research was based on case study design. Electronic portfolio composed of foreword, diaries and epilogue parts, open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interviews composed of open-ended questions and holistic rubric prepared for grading vee diagrams of pre-service teachers were used as data sources. 12 pre-service teachers were selected purposefully by considering academic success and voluntariness for semi-structured interviews and document analyses of e-portfolios. Both descriptive and content analyses were used for analyzing data. The results show that pre-service teachers perceived that electronic portfolios and vee diagrams developed science process, metacognitive and social skills and identfying and preventing misconceptions. Keywords: Electronic portfolio, vee diagram, pre-service science teaching.
A Convex Approach to Decentralized Ha Control

We consider the design of a decentralized controller for a linear time invariant (LTI) system. This system is modeled as an interconnection of subsystems. For every subsystem, a linear time invariant controller is sought such that the overall closed loop system is stable and achieves a given H, performance level. The main idea is to design every local controller such that the corresponding closed loop subsystem has a certain input output (dissipative) property. This local property is constrained to be consistent with the overall objective bf stability and performance. The local controllers are designed simultaneously, avoiding the traditional iterative process: the two objectives are achieved in one shot. The application of this idea leads to consider the following new problem: “given an LTI system, parameterize all the dissipative properties which can be achieved by feedback”. The proposed approach leads to solve convex optimization problems, more precisely Linear Matrix Inequalities.
DYNAMIC BEHAVIOR OF THE FULL ROTORSTOP RUBBING: NUMERICAL SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION

The dynamic behavior of a rotor rubbing, especially rubbing fully with a motion-limiting stop is investigated by numerical and experimental methods. In the dynamic simulation, the sinuous excitation force with low frequency excites the large whirl of the unbalanced rotor and thus causes the rubbing between the rotor and the stop. The simple Coulomb friction model and the multiple segments linear spring model are used to reveal the nature of the rubbing forces. The torque equation of the rotor is built to extract the rotating speed during partial and full rubbing. The stable partial rubbing motion demonstrates that the stop limits the violent vibration amplitude of the rotor effectively. The rubbing experiments confirm the idea of using the inner type of stop to suppress the violent backward whirl with low frequency. When the amplitude of the excitation force exceeds a certain value, the full rubbing occurs with serious continuous friction. During full rubbing, the center of the rotor moves counter-clockwise and whips in the amplitude exceeding the rotor/stop gap dramatically. Moreover, the whip frequency is much higher than the frequencies of the excitation and the unbalance force. And then the rotor rotation is broken quickly by the stop. The predicted dynamical behavior is verified by the rubbing experiments. The relation between the stop/bearing stiffness ratio and such dynamical behavior as the initiation of the rubbing, the over-limit ratio and the contact-ratio is discussed.
Local space density and formation rate of planetary nebulae

Individual distances of 50 nearby planetary nebulae are determined using a variety of methods, but excluding statistical methods or distance scales. These distances, together with a discussion of the sample completeness, are used to determine local PN formation rate. Together with the brightness of the nebula, its ionized mass is derived. The evolution of the ionized mass is discussed. As a by-product, the Zanstra temperature of the central stars of the optically thick nebulae is found. Interestingly this temperature indicates that the DA white dwarfs in the sample are considerably hotter than previously thought. Finally, with the help of the galactic bulge PN, a luminosity function for PN in the galaxy is derived.
Perceived Barriers Among Clinicians and Older Adults Aged 65 and Older Regarding Use of Life Expectancy to Inform Cancer Screening: A Narrative Review and Comparison

While cancer screening guidelines increasingly recommend incorporating life expectancy estimates to inform screening decisions for older adults, little is known about how this happens in practice. This review summarizes current knowledge about primary care clinician and older adult (65+) perspectives about use of life expectancy to guide cancer screening decisions. Clinicians report operational barriers, uncertainty, and hesitation around use of life expectancy in screening decisions. They recognize it may help them more accurately weigh benefits and harms but are unsure how to estimate life expectancy for individual patients. Older adults face conceptual barriers and are generally unconvinced of the benefits of considering their life expectancy when making screening decisions. Life expectancy will always be a difficult topic for clinicians and patients, but there are advantages to incorporating it in cancer screening decisions. We highlight key takeaways from both clinician and older adult perspectives to guide future research.
Simple Concatenated Codes Using Differential PSK

In this paper, binary linear block codes with very low encoding and decoding complexity are introduced for the use as outer codes in a serial concatenated coding scheme employing differential modulations as inner codes. Using extrinsic information transfer chart based analysis and optimization the performance of the new concatenated codes is found to be within less than 1 dB of the pertinent capacity limit for the additive white Gaussian noise channel. This compares favorably with more complex benchmark schemes using e.g. outer low density parity check codes proposed recently. For decoding without channel phase estimation a low-complexity noncoherent decoder is presented, which achieves performance close to that of a coherent decoder in channels with moderate phase noise. I. INTRODUCTION It has been shown in e.g. (1), (2), (3) that the serial concate- nation of an outer convolutional encoder with an inner rate-1 differential encoder (DE) improves the error rate performance compared to the stand-alone convolutional code. Furthermore, Divsalar et al. (4) proposed the concatenation of simple repetition codes with a binary DE (a.k.a. accumulator). These so-called repeat-accumulate (RA) codes achieve performances very close to the capacity limit. Similar results have recently been obtained in (5) and (6) using outer product and Hamming codes, respectively, and in (7) combining accumulate codes with higher order signal constellations. Whereas RA and related codes employ a binary DE and are often designed for binary modulation, the optimization of bi- nary outer codes for concatenation with non-binary differential encoding and modulation has recently been addressed in (8), (9). The advantages of non-binary DEs are that the bandwidth- efficient transmission is insensitive to phase ambiguities aris- ing from the symmetry of the signal constellation, or that phase synchronization can even completely be avoided if noncoher- ent decoding is applied. Howard and Schlegel (8) proposed the concatenation of the rate-2/3 single parity-check (SPC) code with 8-ary differential phase shift keying (8DPSK). Applying an extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart analysis (10) they showed that this design enables convergence of iterative decoding at a surprisingly low threshold signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and greatly outperforms designs with more complex convolutional codes. Due to the minimum Hamming distance of dmin =2 , a relatively high error floor occurs, which however is lowered through labeling optimization, cf. (8). Franceschini et al. (9) designed low density parity check (LDPC) codes for concatenation with DEs based on EXIT chart analysis. The obtained codes significantly improve the
Preservation of the Innate Immune Response to Clostridioides difficile Infection in Hospitalized Immunocompromised Patients

Abstract Background Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) immune response is influenced by the innate and adaptive (humoral) immune systems. Our prior research found attenuated humoral responses to C difficile in immunocompromised hosts (ICHs) with CDI. We sought to evaluate whether the innate immune response to CDI was influenced by ICH status. Methods We conducted a prospective study of hospitalized adults with CDI (acute diarrhea, positive C difficile stool nucleic acid amplification testing [NAAT], and decision to treat), with and without immunosuppression and measured a panel of cytokines (granulocyte colony-stimulating factor [G-CSF], interleukin [IL]–10, IL-15, IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, and tumor necrosis factor–α) in blood and stool at CDI diagnosis. Results were compared with measurements from a cohort of asymptomatic carrier patients (ASCs) (NAAT positive, without diarrhea) with and without immunocompromise. Results One hundred twenty-three subjects (42 ICHs, 50 non-ICHs, 31 ASCs) were included. Median values for blood and stool cytokines were similar in ICH versus non-ICH CDI subjects. In blood, G-CSF, IL-10, IL-15, IL-6, and IL-8 were higher in both groups of CDI subjects versus the ASC cohort (P < .05). In stool, IL-1β and IL-8 were higher in both groups of CDI subjects versus the ASC cohort (P < .05). Median stool concentrations of IL-1β demonstrated significant differences between the groups (ICHs, 10.97 pg/mL; non-ICHs, 9.71 pg/mL; and ASCs, 0.56 pg/mL) (P < .0001). Conclusions In this small exploratory analysis, ICH status did not significantly impact blood and fecal patterns of cytokines in humans at the diagnosis of CDI, suggesting that the innate immune response to C difficile may be conserved in immunocompromised patients.
Study of microwave surface resistance of type‐II superconductors carrying transport current

We investigate the microwave surface resistance of an infinitely long type‐II superconductor in the critical state carrying transport DC current, in the absence and in the presence of external magnetic fields. Calculations include both different cooling processes and various current and field arrangements. Theoretical results in field‐cooled sample show that the microwave surface resistance exhibits an initial slow variation followed by a faster one above a threshold current value. This occurs when the current induced magnetic field generates fluxons of opposite directions on the two sample edges.
Goodness-of- fit tests for multivariate copula-based time series models

In recent years, stationary time series models based on copula functions became increasingly popular in econometrics to model nonlinear temporal and cross-sectional dependencies. Within these models, we consider the problem of testing the goodness-of-fit of the parametric form of the underlying copula. Our approach is based on a dependent multiplier bootstrap and it can be applied to any stationary, strongly mixing time series. The method extends recent i.i. d. results by Kojadinovic et al. (2011) and shares the same computational benefits compared to methods based on a parametric bootstrap. The finite-sample performance of our approach is investigated by Monte Carlo experiments for the case of copula-based Markovian time series models.
Did the Military Interventions in the Mexican Drug War Increase Violence?

We analyze publicly available data to estimate the causal effects of military interventions on the homicide rates in certain problematic regions in Mexico. We use the Rubin causal model to compare the post-intervention homicide rate in each intervened region to the hypothetical homicide rate for that same year had the military intervention not taken place. Because the effect of a military intervention is not confined to the municipality subject to the intervention, a nonstandard definition of units is necessary to estimate the causal effect of the intervention under the standard no-interference assumption of stable-unit treatment value assumption (SUTVA). Donor pools are created for each missing potential outcome under no intervention, thereby allowing for the estimation of unit-level causal effects. A multiple imputation approach accounts for uncertainty about the missing potential outcomes.
Testing the Reciprocal Relationship Between Social Networks and Purpose in Life Among Older Adults: Application of a Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine if there are longitudinal reciprocal effects between social network size and purpose in life among older adults. Methods: Using data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study, the sample included 1485 male and 2058 female adults 65 years and older. We first computed t-tests to assess gender differences in social network size and purpose in life. In order to examine the reciprocal effects between social network size and purpose in life over four time points (2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020), a RI-CLPM (Model 1) was computed. In addition to the main model, two multiple group RI-CLPM analyses (Model 2 and 3) were computed to test the moderated gender effect on the relationship with models estimating unconstrained and constrained cross-lagged parameters. Results: The results of the t-tests denoted significant gender differences in social network size and purpose in life. The results indicated that Model 1 fit the data well. The carry-over effects of social networks and purpose in life and spill-over effect from wave 3 purpose in life on wave 4 social networks were significant. There were no significant differences between the constrained and unconstrained models testing for moderated gender effects. Discussion: The findings of the study highlight the significant carry-over effect of purpose in life and social network size over four years and the positive spill-over effect from purpose in life on social network size at the subsequent wave, which only appeared at the last time point.
Observations of turbulence in a tidal current

This is a study of the longitudinal and vertical turbulent velocities which were measured both near the surface and near the bottom of an estuarine tidal current. The turbulence spectra, representing mainly the energy-containing eddies of the flow, were derived, and it was also possible to determine values for the Reynolds stresses at different depths and to make an estimate of the scales of the turbulence. The results are compared with similar observations in the open sea and certain features are discussed which resemble those of measurements of turbulent flow in laboratory experiments and in the atmosphere.