Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trends in Reproductive Indicators of Green and Hawksbill Sea Turtles over a 30-Year Monitoring Period in the Southern Gulf of Mexico and Their Conservation Implications

Simple Summary From 1990 to 2021, the number of hawksbill and green turtle nests has prominently increased thanks to the long-term protection of primary nesting sites in the Southern Gulf of México. However, despite not finding a statistical significance in the temporal trends, the size of nesting females, the clutch size, hatching, and emergence success are slowly decreasing in response to multiple conditions. Our study suggests that the protection efforts at nesting beaches show promising results. However, other ongoing natural and anthropic drivers are acting on sea turtle populations and their habitats and could dampen their recovery by reducing their reproductive output and hatchling production. Thus, because sea turtles are highly migratory animals moving between different countries, aside from protecting key nesting sites, restoring and monitoring crucial foraging habitats should be an immediate priority requiring international cooperation. Abstract Long-term monitoring programs of species at risk are efficacious tools to assess population changes, evaluate conservation strategies, and improve management practices to ensure populations reach levels at which they can fulfill their ecological roles. For sea turtles, annual nesting beach surveys are the most accessible method to estimating the population abundance and reproductive output, especially when these are done in primary nesting sites. However, little data exist on the long-term assessment of these parameters. Here, we present the trends of the nest abundance, female size, hatching, and emergence success of hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and green (Chelonia mydas) turtles at key nesting beaches in the southern Gulf of Mexico over 31 years (from 1990 to 2021). The nest abundance showed an increasing trend in both species as a result of the sustained protection and conservation effort, but there was no significant temporal trend in the annual female size, clutch size, hatching, and emergence success. However, these indicators showed decreasing mean values over the last decade and should be closely monitored. We suggest these decreases link to the combined effects of ocean warming and anthropogenic pressures affecting the sea turtle foraging grounds. Aside from protecting key nesting sites, protecting and restoring crucial foraging habitats should be an immediate priority requiring international cooperation.
Accurate approximation of the focal shift in the transformation of truncated Gaussian beams

An accurate approximation is presented of the focal shift in the diffraction field of a Gaussian laser beam that is focused by a thin lens that fills a circular aperture of any prescribed radius. The limiting cases of beam truncation by the aperture are discussed and formulas for nontruncated Gaussian beams and for uniform beams are obtained. The proposed formulas provide a convenient means for circumventing the transcendental equations in the focal-shift problem.
A Body-Wide RF Energy Harvester Based on Textile Surface Plasmonic Antenna Array for Wearable Wireless Power Transmission

This brief demonstrated a body-wide RF energy harvester based on textile spoof surface plasmon (SSP) antenna array for wearable wireless power transmission. This harvester includes four patch antennas and SSP waveguides to form an SSP antenna array integrated with clothing to harvest the incident RF energy. Then, a loop and rectifier are integrated and fabricated in the same plane to extract, combine, rectify and output DC power from the multi-path harvested energy in a contactless way and without a complex matching network. They are fabricated with a simple structure, entirely off-the-shelf flexible and textile materials, and a proven fabrication technique. Finally, it is worn on the body to output DC power of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$108.89~\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> when illuminated with a power density of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$7.96~\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>/cm2 at 2.4-2.45 GHz Industrial Scientific Medical (ISM) band. This design could be applied to power the potential wearable sensors wirelessly.
Optimization of the recovery efficiency in an axial HGMF cell with bounded flow field

This work presents a method to optimize the recovery efficiency of fine paramagnetic particles from a liquid suspension in an axial HGMF cell. The cell has the flow field bounded by a circular cylindrical wall. It has only one ferromagnetic wire mounted outside the flow field, parallel with its axis and in `paramagnetic capture mode'. The optimization criterion was deduced from the analysis of the particles' trajectories inside the magnetic active space. It is based on the relationship between the geometrical and operational parameters for which the filtration efficiency is 100%. The work also presents some experimental data which are in good agreement with theoretical results.
Temperature dependence of localized exciton transitions in AlGaN ternary alloy epitaxial layers

The optical properties of Ga-rich AlxGa1−xN (x=0.019, 0.038, 0.057, 0.077, and 0.092) ternary alloy epitaxial layers have been studied by means of temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL spectroscopy. The luminescence intensity of excitons in five epitaxial layers indicated a thermal quenching process with two activation energies. The two quenching activation energies were attributed to the delocalization of excitons and thermal dissociation of excitons. Anomalous temperature dependence of the PL peak energy was also observed in the epitaxial layers, which enabled the evaluation of the localization energy of the excitons. The localization energy increased as the 1.7th power of the PL linewidth, which reflected a broadening of the density of localized exciton states. In addition, the luminescence decay of the localized excitons for the five epitaxial layers became longer with decreasing emission energy. These observations suggest that the decay of excitons is caused not only by ra.
When is the Comaximal Graph Split?

Let R be a commutative ring with non zero unity. Let Ω(R) be a graph with vertices as elements of R whose two distinct vertices x and y are adjacent if and only if Rx + Ry = R. A graph (V, E) is said to be a split graph if V is the disjoint union of two sets K and S where K induces a complete subgraph and S is an independent set. We investigate the properties of R when Ω(R) is split.
Research Progress in the Treatment of Thoracolumbar Fractures

The thoracolumbar junction is the junction of the thoracic and lumbar spine and is subjected to high biomechanical stress. With the rapid development of the society, the morbidity of thoracolumbar spine increases every year. Thoracolumbar fracture may affect the stability of the spine and even result in paralysis via the compression of the spinal cord. As a result of advancements in modern medicine, the theoretical and practical aspects concerning thoracolumbar fracture have made great progress. However, due to the complexity of thoracolumbar fracture, controversy still exists in the treatment strategies and methods for thoracolumbar fractures. In order to provide reference for clinical practice, the research progress in the treatment of thoracolumbar fracture is reviewed in this paper.
Comparison of Tomo-PIV and 3D-PTV for microfluidic flows

Two 3D-3C velocimetry techniques for micro-scale measurements are compared: tomographic particle image velocimetry (Tomo-PIV) and 3D particle-tracking velocimetry (3D-PTV). Both methods are applied to experimental data from a confined shear-driven liquid droplet over a moving surface. The droplet has 200 μm height and 2 mm diameter. Micro 3D-PTV and Tomo-PIV are used to obtain the tracer particle distribution and the flow velocity field for the same set of images. It is shown that the reconstructed particle distributions are distinctly different, where Tomo-PIV returns a nearly uniform distribution over the height of the volume, as expected, and PTV reveals a clear peak in the particle distribution near the plane of focus. In Tomo-PIV, however, the reconstructed particle peak intensity decreases in proportion to the distance from the plane of focus. Due to the differences in particle distributions, the measured flow velocities are also different. In particular, we observe Tomo-PIV to be in closer agreement with mass conservation. Furthermore, the random noise level is found to increase with distance to the plane of focus at a higher rate for 3D-PTV as compared to Tomo-PIV. Thus, for a given noise threshold value, the latter method can measure reliably over a thicker volume.
How Do Career Development Courses Help Chinese Undergraduate Students Achieve Healthy and Quality Career Development?

Postsecondary institutions worldwide generally provide career development courses or similar courses to better prepare undergraduate students for healthy and quality future careers. Understanding whether these career development courses positively affect students’ career-related outcomes is crucial. Utilizing survey data collected from a large research university located in the eastern part of China, we found that students who have taken at least one career course exhibited career awareness and career planning abilities that were 0.096 and 0.147 units higher, respectively, than those of students who have not taken career courses, with other variables held constant. More specifically, an additional career course was statistically significantly associated with a 0.099, 0.084, and 0.175 unit increase in students’ career awareness, job search self-efficacy, and career planning ability, respectively. A student’s college major and annual family income seemed to be good predictors for a student’s career awareness, job search self-efficacy, and career-planning ability. Furthermore, the more career courses that a student took, the higher the career awareness, job search self-efficacy, and career planning ability that the student had. With these findings in mind, our study recommends postsecondary stakeholders to leverage such courses to help students better prepare for a healthy and quality career development.
Application of Ferroelectrics in Radiospectroscopy

Our results show that the application of ferroelectrics as ferroelectric resonators can significantly increase the sensitivity of electron paramagnetic resonance, nuclear magnetic resonance methods and provide a higher quality of magnetic resonance imaging. Ferroelectric resonators allow the possibility to observe natural paramagnetic impurities in electron paramagnetic resonance and to record impurities without special doping in nuclear magnetic resonance. Secondly, it is possible to investigate electron paramagnetic resonance in vivo because the ferroelectric resonator can be located outside the cavity. Finally, a ferroelectric resonator made the development of a portable and sensitive electron paramagnetic resonance spectrometer possible.
Effects of human chorionic gonadotropin-producing peripheral blood mononuclear cells on the endometrial receptivity and implantation sites of the mouse uterus

Objective This research investigated the effects of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG)-producing peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) on the implantation rate and embryo attachment in mice. Methods In this experimental study, a DNA fragment of the HCG gene was cloned into an expression vector, which was transfected into PBMCs. The concentration of the produced HCG was measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Embryo attachment was investigated on the co-cultured endometrial cells and PBMCs in vitro. As an in vivo experiment, intrauterine administration of PBMCs was done in plaque-positive female mice. Studied mice were distributed into five groups: control, embryo implantation dysfunction (EID), EID with produced HCG, EID with PBMCs, and EID with HCG-producing PBMCs. Uterine horns were excised to characterize the number of implantation sites and pregnancy rate on day 7.5 post-coitum. During an implantation window, the mRNA expression of genes was evaluated using real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results DNA fragments were cloned between the BamHI and EcoRI sites in the vector. About 465 pg/mL of HCG was produced in the transfected PBMCs. The attachment rate, pregnancy rate, and the number of implantation sites were substantially higher in the HCG-producing PBMCs group than in the other groups. Significantly elevated expression of the target genes was observed in the EID with HCG-producing PBMCs group. Conclusion Alterations in gene expression following the intrauterine injection of HCG-producing PBMCs, could be considered a possible cause of increased embryo attachment rate, pregnancy rate, and the number of implantation sites.
An efficient parallel computation of unsteady incompressible viscous flow with elastic moving and compliant boundaries on unstructured grids

This paper presents the development and validation of a parallel unstructured‐grid fluid–structure interaction (FSI) solver for the simulation of unsteady incompressible viscous flow with long elastic moving and compliant boundaries. The Navier–Stokes solver on unstructured moving grid using the arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian formulation is based on the artificial compressibility approach and a high‐order characteristics‐based finite‐volume scheme. Both unsteady flow and FSI are calculated with a matrix‐free implicit dual time‐stepping scheme. A membrane model has been formulated to study fluid flow in a channel with an elastic membrane wall and their interactions. This model can be employed to calculate arbitrary wall movement and variable tension along the membrane, together with a dynamic mesh method for large deformation of the flow field. The parallelization of the fluid–structure solver is achieved using the single program multiple data programming paradigm and message passing interface for communication of data. The parallel solver is used to simulate fluid flow in a two‐dimensional channel with and without moving membrane for validation and performance evaluation purposes. The speedups and parallel efficiencies obtained by this method are excellent, using up to 16 processors on a SGI Origin 2000 parallel computer. A maximum speedup of 23.14 could be achieved on 16 processors taking advantage of an improved handling of the membrane solver. The parallel results obtained are compared with those using serial code and they are found to be identical. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Online English Learning Engagement among Digital Natives: The Mediating Role of Self-Regulation

Because of the recent pandemic, students have needed to become skilled, adaptable, self-regulating, and flexible toward online learning. However, few researchers considered digital nativity (DN) when studying self-regulation and learning engagement. This study explored how Chinese digital natives regulated themselves in English learning. A total of 408 college English students volunteered, and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS–SEM) was used to process the questionnaire’s tested four hypotheses. The results showed that: (1) DN is related to online self-regulated English learning (OSEL); (2) OSEL is related to online student engagement (OSE); (3) DN is not related to OSE; and (4) OSEL is the mediator between DN and OSE. As such, the current findings should encourage e-learning designers and educators to equip students with both computer literacy and self-regulated competence for sustainable English learning development.
An analytical model of gravity currents in a stable atmosphere

An analytical solution to the nonlinear equations of motion and thermodynamic energy for gravity currents propagating in stable atmosphere is found. This solution differs from the previous analytical studies in several aspects. In our solution the head of the gravity current is a strong vortex and the dynamics are non-hydrostatic. The solution has two regimes: (i) a supercritical regime when the Froude number Fr = (c – U)/Na is larger than 1 – in this case the cold front is local; (ii) a subcritical regime when Fr is smaller than 1. Here, ahead of the front there is a disturbance of nonlinear gravity waves. The scale of the wave and its amplitude increase as the Froude number decreases. We found that the square of the speed of the gravity current (relative to the synoptic wind) is proportional to the mean drop of potential temperature over the front area times the front height a. The constant of proportionality is function of the environmental conditions. The thermal, velocity and vorticity fields can be described by non-dimensional structure functions of two numbers: pa = 1/Fr and ka. The amplitude of the structure functions is proportional to (c – U) 2/a for the thermal field, to (c – U) for the velocity field, and to (c – U)/a for the vorticity field. The propagation is studied in terms of the vorticity equation. The horizontal gradient of the buoyancy term always tends to propagate the cold front. The nonlinear advection term in most of the cases investigated here tends to slow the propagation of the gravity current. The propagation of the disturbance of nonlinear gravity waves ahead of the front in regime (ii) in most of the cases is due to the buoyancy term. The nonlinear advection term tends to slow the propagation when the synoptic wind blows in the direction opposite to that of the front propagation, and increase the propagation when the synoptic wind blows in the direction of propagation.
THE IMPACT OF VILLAGE FUND IMPLEMENTATION ON THE EMPOWERMENT OF FARMERS IN KONAWEHA VILLAGE, SAMATURU DISTRICT, KOLAKA REGENCY

This studend aim to determined the impact of implementing village funds on farmer empowerment in Konaweha Village, Samaturu District, Kolaka Regency. This research was conducted from May to June 2022 with a total of 76 farmers as respondents. The sampling technique used is simple random sampling, and the data analysis used is descriptive statistics and simple linear regression. The data collection process was carried out by means of surveys and questionnaires, interviews, literature studies, and documentation. The results showed that the use of the Village Fund was high, meaning that the role of the village government had implemented indicators from the Implementation of the Village Fund, namely Communication, Resources, Disposition and Bureaucratic Structure well. The farmer empowerment program from the implementation of village funds is high, meaning that the empowerment of farmers in Konaweha Village, Samaturu District, Kolaka Regency is related to good Village Fund management, where the role of the village government is needed to achieve farmer welfare, farmer access, farmer critical awareness, farmer participation and farmer control.
Gravity currents in horizontal porous layers: transition from early to late self-similarity

We investigate the evolution of a finite release of fluid into an infinite, two-dimensional, horizontal, porous slab saturated with a fluid of different density and viscosity. The vertical boundaries of the slab are impermeable and the released fluid spreads as a gravity current along a horizontal boundary. At early times the released fluid fills the entire height of the layer, and the governing equation admits a self-similar solution that is a function of the viscosity ratio between the two fluids. This early similarity solution describes a tilting interface with tips propagating as x ∝ t1/2. At late times the released fluid has spread along the boundary and the height of the current is much smaller than the thickness of the layer. The governing equation simplifies and admits a different similarity solution that is independent of the viscosity ratio. This late similarity solution describes a point release of fluid in a semi-infinite porous half-space, where the tip of the interface propagates as x ∝ t1/3. The same simplification of the governing equation occurs if the viscosity of the released fluid is much higher than the viscosity of the ambient fluid. We have obtained an expression for the time when the solution transitions from the early to the late self-similar regime. The transition time increases monotonically with increasing viscosity ratio. The transition period during which the solution is not self-similar also increases monotonically with increasing viscosity ratio, for mobility ratios larger than unity. Numerical computations describing the full evolution of the governing equation show good agreement with the theoretical results. Estimates of the spreading of injected fluids over long times are important for geological storage of CO2, and for the migration of pollutants in aquifers. In all cases it is important to be able to anticipate when the spreading regime transitions from x ∝ t1/2 to x ∝ t1/3.
Acoustic characterization of polyvinyl chloride and self-healing silicone as phantom materials

Phantoms are physical constructs used in procedure planning, training, medical imaging research, and machine calibration. Depending on the application, the material a phantom is made out of is very important. With ultrasound imaging, phantom materials used need to have similar acoustic properties, specifically speed of sound and attenuation, as a specified tissue. Phantoms used with needle insertion require a material with a similar tensile strength as tissue and, if possible, the ability to self heal increasing its overall lifespan. Soft polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and silicone were tested as possible needle insertion phantom materials. Acoustic characteristics were determined using a time of flight technique, where a pulse was passed through a sample contained in a water bath. The speed of sound and attenuation were both determined manually and through spectral analysis. Soft PVC was determined to have a speed of sound of approximately 1395 m/s and attenuation of 0.441 dB/cm (at 1 MHz). For the silicone mixture, the respective speed of sound values was within a range of 964.7 m/s and 1250.0 m/s with an attenuation of 0.547 dB/cm (at 1 MHz).
Neutron Compton scattering from water studied with the double-difference technique

A shortfall of the scattering intensity from protons has been observed in liquids (water, benzene, etc.) and solids (metal hydrogen systems, organic polymers, etc.) using neutron Compton scattering (NCS). The standard analysis of NCS data has been subject to severe criticism, e.g., it was claimed that it is the way the energy resolution function is incorporated in the data reduction scheme that leads to an underestimation of the scattering intensity. Here we present NCS experimental results utilizing a technique--referred to as double difference--which significantly improves the energy resolution function. Specifically, the ratio of the scattering cross-section density of H and D in mixtures of light and heavy water are presented. The experimental data reveal that the results published earlier remain unchanged upon the significant improvement of the energy resolution function.