Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Visualization of Airy-beam large volumetric sensing photoacoustic microscopy based on K-wave

As an emerging nondestructive imaging technology recently, photoacoustic imaging (PAI), which is based on photoacoustic effect, combines the advantages: the high resolution and contrast of optical imaging and the high penetration depth of acoustic imaging. Thereinto, as a branch of photoacoustic imaging, photoacoustic microimaging inherited the advantages of photoacoustic imaging. The unique focusing mode of photoacoustic microimaging can meet the requirements of higher resolution in biological imaging, thus, it gained extensive applications in medical science field. However, on account of using high numerical aperture objective lens strongly focus on Gaussian beam, traditional photoacoustic microimaging system has shallow depth of imaging field, and its transverse resolution and signal-to-noise ratio deteriorate rapidly outside the focal point, limiting the velocity of large volume imaging. Owing to solve these problems, in this paper, we build a simulation platform for Airy beam photoacoustic microscopy based on K-Wave simulation toolbox. This platform uses Airy beam to inspire initial Photoacoustic signal in large volume and K-Wave simulation toolbox to simulate the propagation, recording and reconstruction process of Photoacoustic signal. As nondiffraction beam, Airy beam features the capacity of large depth of field, thus, its application could reach the requirement of large depth of field imaging of Photoacoustic microscopy system. Measuring the performances of the constructed Photoacoustic microscopy system, we constructed three-dimensional imaging of the blood vessel. By simulating A-Scan, B-Scan and C-Scan, we measured the performances of this system, such as axial resolution, transverse resolution and depth of field. Meanwhile, the three-dimensional imaging of the vertically tilted fiber also verified the three-dimensional imaging capability of the Airy beam photoacoustic microscopy simulation platform. The establishment of the simulation platform has a significance for the theoretical research of photoacoustic microscopy and its application in biomedicine.
Is the moral hazard in the Chinese labour market serious? Empirical evidence from a semi-parametric analysis

ABSTRACT In this study, we extend the principal-agent model of moral hazard by incorporating different percentage effort choices made by the manager. Applying the semi-parametric estimation method, we estimate an extended principal-agent model of moral hazard using longitudinal data on firms and managerial compensation collected from the China Center for Economic Research database. The estimated compensation contracts confirm the non-neglected conflicts between management and shareholders, especially for managers in non-CEO or lower positions and in medium or large firms. Moral hazard is serious in large firms in the natural resources and manufacturing, as well as commercial product industries. Most managers’ compensation in these firms can not induce more than effort.
Ultra-Compact Optical Switches Using Slow Light Bimodal Silicon Waveguides

Switches are essential components in several optical applications, in which reduced footprints are highly desirable for mass production of densely integrated circuits at low cost. However, most conventional solutions rely on making long switching structures, thus increasing the final device size. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an ultra-compact 2x2 optical switch based on slow-light-enhanced bimodal interferometry in one-dimensional silicon photonic crystals. By properly designing the band structure, the device exhibits a large group index contrast between the fundamental even mode and a higher order odd mode for TE polarization. Thereby, highly dispersive and broadband bimodal regions for high-performance operation are engineered by exploiting the different symmetry of the modes. Two configurations are considered in the experiments to analyze the dimensions influence on the switching efficiency. As a result, a photonic switch based on a bimodal single-channel interferometer with a footprint of only 63 ${\mu}$m2, a power consumption of 19.5 mW and a crosstalk of 15 dB is demonstrated for thermo-optic tunability.
Human Resource Professional Priorities and Challenges in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic

There has been a world alarming and warming situation due to global outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic taking along most important the human cost, mentally, physically with economic cost too. All of a sudden organization across have been alerted themselves to adapt toward this unforeseen unprecedented event and thereby find new solutions. Organizations around the world are taking measures as it’s important to stay at home for social distancing, this leading to drastic increase in economic loss, poor job satisfaction, reduced motivation and workplace depression crisis among organization’s employees with far reaching impacts. The sudden work culture shift has created new challenges for Human Resource (HR) professionals and in this time of global critical condition, the companies and organizations need their HR professionals to help the employees out of this badly driven health and economic crisis. The HR Professionals has been actively partnering with Business to solve some of the trickiest questions the business world faces today. This article discusses some of the priorities and challenges faced by HR professionals in helping the employees to adjust and cope with their changed work environment during COVID-19 pandemic.
Dual-Band Dual-Mode Textile Antenna/Rectenna for Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer (SWIPT)

This article presents a textile antenna for dual-band simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT). The antenna operates as a 2.4 GHz off-body communications antenna and a sub-1 GHz (785–875 MHz) broad-beam rectenna. Incorporated within the broadside microstrip antenna is a high-impedance rectenna for sub-1 GHz power harvesting. Utilizing antenna-rectifier co-design, the rectenna eliminates the rectifier matching network. The textile antenna is fabricated on a felt substrate and utilizes conductive fabrics for the antenna. At 2.4 GHz, the antenna achieves a realized gain of 7.2 dBi on a body phantom and a minimum radiation efficiency of 63%, with and without the rectifier. The rectenna achieves a best-in-class RF to dc efficiency of 62% from 0.8 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>/cm<sup>2</sup>, representing over 25% improvement over state-of-the-art textile rectennas and demonstrating that SWIPT does not detrimentally affect the energy harvesting or communications performance. The antenna/rectenna occupies an electrically small area of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.213\times 0.19\,\,\lambda ^{2}_{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. This antenna is the first dual-band, dual-mode antenna demonstrated on textiles for SWIPT applications and the first dual-band matching network-free SWIPT rectenna.
Buy them out before they are built: evaluating the proactive acquisition of vacant land in flood-prone areas

Summary Rising flood damages have prompted local communities to implement buyout and property acquisition programmes to eliminate repetitive losses for at-risk properties. However, buyouts are often costly to implement and are reactionary solutions to flooding. This study quantifies the benefits of acquiring vacant private properties in flood-prone areas rather than acquiring such properties after they are built up. Using a geodesign framework that integrates concepts and analytical approaches derived from geographical, spatial and statistical-based disciplines, we analyse vacant properties with high development potential that intersect current and future floodplain areas in Houston (TX, USA). We use geospatial proximity analysis to select candidate properties, land-use prediction modelling to estimate future development and sea-level rise and benefit–cost analysis to assess the economic viability of buyouts. The results indicate that cumulative avoided flood losses exceed the cost of vacant land acquisition by a factor of nearly two to one, and up to a factor of ten to one in selected areas. This study emphasizes the benefits of proactive property buyouts that focus on acquiring parcels before they are built up, while also avoiding the social and institutional problems associated with traditional buyout programmes.
Control of twisted-coiled actuators via multi-DOF PID

In the last decade, twisted coiled actuators (TCAs) made from nylon have drawn the attention of the community as an attractive electroactive mechanism mimicking the performance of human muscles, with notably favourable output power densities. The feasibility of the TCA, in terms of performance, size, safety, and scalability has been evaluated in previous studies, but they exhibit substantially non-linear behaviour, thereby requiring a sophisticated control system. Furthermore, it is desired that these actuators are able to rapidly actuate to match biological muscle levels of capability. To this end, the efficacy of a linear physics-based model of TCAs was tested to elucidate the relationship between temperature, force, and displacement in these actuators. The accuracy of this modelling approach is discussed in the context of position control theory using a two-degree- of-freedom proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller to switch between Joule heating and active cooling with a continuously controlled fan to enhance actuator response time. This model was subsequently employed to simulate the TCA response to heating and cooling in the MATLAB-Simulink® environment while referencing the experimental results reported by Takagi et al. as a benchmark. Results from this investigation indicate a 5% offset error, which is attributed to the non-linear nature of the TCA. Finally, results confirm that TCAs augmented with active cooling exhibit significantly improved cycle times relative to conventionally heat-controlled TCAs.
System Level Simulation of Microgrid Power Electronic Systems

In this paper, we describe a procedure for designing an accurate simulation model using a price-wised linear approach referred to as the power semiconductor converters of a DC microgrid concept. Initially, the selection of topologies of individual power stage blocs are identified. Due to the requirements for verifying the accuracy of the simulation model, physical samples of power converters are realized with a power ratio of 1:10. The focus was on optimization of operational parameters such as real-time behavior (variable waveforms within a time domain), efficiency, and the voltage/current ripples. The approach was compared to real-time operation and efficiency performance was evaluated showing the accuracy and suitability of the presented approach. The results show the potential for developing complex smart grid simulation models, with a high level of accuracy, and thus the possibility to investigate various operational scenarios and the impact of power converter characteristics on the performance of a smart gird. Two possible operational scenarios of the proposed smart grid concept are evaluated and demonstrate that an accurate hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) system can be designed.
Learning Case Study of a Shallow-Water Model to Assess an Early-Warning System for Fast Alpine Muddy-Debris-Flow

The current climate change could lead to an intensification of extreme weather events, such as sudden floods and fast flowing debris flows. Accordingly, the availability of an early-warning device system, based on hydrological data and on both accurate and very fast running mathematical-numerical models, would be not only desirable, but also necessary in areas of particular hazard. To this purpose, the 2D Riemann–Godunov shallow-water approach, solved in parallel on a Graphical-Processing-Unit (GPU) (able to drastically reduce calculation time) and implemented with the RiverFlow2D code (version 2017), was selected as a possible tool to be applied within the Alpine contexts. Moreover, it was also necessary to identify a prototype of an actual rainfall monitoring network and an actual debris-flow event, beside the acquisition of an accurate numerical description of the topography. The Marderello’s basin (Alps, Turin, Italy), described by a 5 × 5 m Digital Terrain Model (DTM), equipped with five rain-gauges and one hydrometer and the muddy debris flow event that was monitored on 22 July 2016, were identified as a typical test case, well representative of mountain contexts and the phenomena under study. Several parametric analyses, also including selected infiltration modelling, were carried out in order to individuate the best numerical values fitting the measured data. Different rheological options, such as Coulomb-Turbulent-Yield and others, were tested. Moreover, some useful general suggestions, regarding the improvement of the adopted mathematical modelling, were acquired. The rapidity of the computational time due to the application of the GPU and the comparison between experimental data and numerical results, regarding both the arrival time and the height of the debris wave, clearly show that the selected approaches and methodology can be considered suitable and accurate tools to be included in an early-warning system, based at least on simple acoustic and/or light alarms that can allow rapid evacuation, for fast flowing debris flows.
Growth response of Oryza sativa seedlings to graphene oxide and its variability among genotypes

With the extensive utilization of graphene nanomaterials, they inevitably enter our environment. The potential phytotoxicity and environmental impact of graphene oxide (GO) have recently attracted much attention. We designed the experiment based on seed germination, seedling morphology, physio-biochemical properties, and antioxidant enzyme activities of five rice genotypes (9311, MH63, R527, K866, and Nipponbare) under six concentrations of GO (0, 5, 10, 50, 100, and 150 mg dm-3). We studied the effects of different concentrations of GO on germination index (GI), shoot length (SL) and root length (RL), adventitious root number, shoot and root fresh masses, root/shoot ratio, chlorophyll (Chl) content, malondialdehyde content, and activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POD). Graphene oxide treatments significantly enhanced seed germination and root growth and inhibited shoot growth of all genotypes. Furthermore, we found a significant genotype-dependent response to GO treatments. According to the relative increment trend of GI, SL, and RL, root/shoot ratio, antioxidant enzyme activities (CAT, POD, and SOD), and Chl content, ‘R527’ showed more tolerance to GO treatments than the other four genotypes. The ‘MH63’ and ‘K866’ were more sensitive than ‘Nipponbare’ and ‘9311’. It indicates that the GO-tolerant genotype might avoid free radicals damage from GO by increased antioxidant enzyme activities. Moreover, we should consider the genotype differences when evaluating the potential phytotoxicity of GO and environmental risk to ecosystems.
Genetic Consequences of Forest Fragmentation in a Widespread Forest Bat (Natalus mexicanus, Chiroptera: Natalidae)

Recent historical and anthropogenic changes in the landscape causing habitat fragmentation can disrupt the connectivity of wild populations and pose a threat to the genetic diversity of multiple species. This study investigated the effect of habitat fragmentation on the structure and genetic diversity of the Mexican greater funnel-eared bat (Natalus mexicanus) throughout its distribution range in Mexico, whose natural habitat has decreased dramatically in recent years. Genetic structure and diversity were measured using the HVII hypervariable domain of the mitochondrial control region and ten nuclear microsatellite loci, to analyze historical and contemporary information, respectively. The mitochondrial and nuclear results pointed to a differential genetic structuring, derived mainly from philopatry in females. Our results also showed that genetic diversity was historically high and currently moderate; additionally, the contemporary gene flow between the groups observed was null. These findings confirm that the effects of habitat fragmentation have started to be expressed in populations and that forest loss is already building barriers to contemporary gene flow. The concern is that gene flow is a process essential to ensure that the genetic diversity of N. mexicanus populations (and probably of many other forest species) distributed in Mexico is preserved or increased in the long term by maintaining forest connectivity between locations.
Event-triggered flocking control of multi-agent systems in presence of cyber attacks

We propose an event-triggered control system for multi-agent systems with the double-integrator network to achieve resilient flocking behavior in the presence of cyberattacks. The method can manage connectivity and increase the robustness of the topology graph via a three-state hybrid control. Each state of hybrid control has a distinct triggering condition. The developed event-triggered update rules can mitigate the influence of the noncooperative agents using the weighted mean subsequence reduced algorithm and reduce unnecessary communication among them. As a result, the performance of the system can effectively improve. Convergence of the velocity and orientation of the agents is guaranteed by using this type of control structure and resilient consensus protocol. We assume that the bound on the number of noncooperative agents in the neighbor sets of cooperative agents is known. The proposed scheme with the event-triggering rules can avoid Zeno behaviors inherently. Finally, a simulation example is worked out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Energetic state and the continuum of migratory tactics in brown trout (Salmo trutta)

Alternative migratory tactics, like partial migration, are common in many taxa. The proximate and ultimate drivers underpinning these strategies are unclear, though factors like condition and energetic status have been posited as important predictors. We sampled and PIT tagged 1882 wild brown trout prior to the first so-called decision window, and explored the links between migratory tactics (residency, autumn or spring migration) and body metrics (length and condition), lipids (triglycerides and cholesterol), and sex, in 150 randomly selected individuals. We found that more females adopted the autumn and spring migration tactic than males, while more males adopted the residency tactic than females, likely reflecting sex-biased benefits in anadromy. We also found that autumn migrants were in poorer condition prior to the presumed first decision window than spring migrants and residents. Lastly, we found that both condition and cholesterol were positively correlated to the timing of migration, such that individuals in poorer condition and/or with lower cholesterol migrated earlier. Collectively, these results suggest that energy depletion is an important factor in determining migratory strategy, including timing.
Mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet 1992–2016: reconciling results from GRACE gravimetry with ICESat, ERS1/2 and Envisat altimetry

Abstract GRACE and ICESat Antarctic mass-balance differences are resolved utilizing their dependencies on corrections for changes in mass and volume of the same underlying mantle material forced by ice-loading changes. Modeled gravimetry corrections are 5.22 times altimetry corrections over East Antarctica (EA) and 4.51 times over West Antarctica (WA), with inferred mantle densities 4.75 and 4.11 g cm−3. Derived sensitivities (Sg, Sa) to bedrock motion enable calculation of motion (δB0) needed to equalize GRACE and ICESat mass changes during 2003–08. For EA, δB0 is −2.2 mm a−1 subsidence with mass matching at 150 Gt a−1, inland WA is −3.5 mm a−1 at 66 Gt a−1, and coastal WA is only −0.35 mm a−1 at −95 Gt a−1. WA subsidence is attributed to low mantle viscosity with faster responses to post-LGM deglaciation and to ice growth during Holocene grounding-line readvance. EA subsidence is attributed to Holocene dynamic thickening. With Antarctic Peninsula loss of −26 Gt a−1, the Antarctic total gain is 95 ± 25 Gt a−1 during 2003–08, compared to 144 ± 61 Gt a−1 from ERS1/2 during 1992–2001. Beginning in 2009, large increases in coastal WA dynamic losses overcame long-term EA and inland WA gains bringing Antarctica close to balance at −12 ± 64 Gt a−1 by 2012–16.
Stochastic Geometry-Based Analysis of Heterogeneous Wireless Network Spectral, Energy and Deployment Efficiency

For quite a while, it has been evident that homogeneous network architectures, based on cells with a uniform radiation pattern, cannot fulfill the ever increasing demand of mobile users for capacity and service quality while still preserving spectrum and energy. However, only with the introduction of the Fourth Generation mobile communication networks to deal with the surging data traffic of multimedia applications, have smaller cells been widely used to break down service zone areas of macro base stations into multiple tiers, thus improving network performance, reducing traffic congestion, and enabling better management of spectrum and energy consumption in a macro network. In this paper, we present an analytical model for assessing the efficiency of bandwidth and energy usage, as well as of network deployment, taking into account overall network investment and maintenance costs. This paves the way to the improved planning of network coverage, and its capacity and reliability, thus preserving its spectrum and energy, as well as the environment. The analysis considers the downlink of an arbitrary heterogeneous cellular network by using tools of stochastic geometry that adopt the distribution of base stations in the form of a Poisson Point Process. The proposed analytical model is verified by the according software simulations using the ns-3 network simulator. The obtained results closely match the theoretically predicted values and boundaries, clearly indicating that, in all three analyzed aspects: spectral, energy, and deploymental, the efficiency of small-cell networks was higher with respect to traditional large-cell networks and increased even further for heterogeneous (two-tier in our tests) networks.
Prediction of Solid Waste Generation Rates in Urban Region of Laos Using Socio-Demographic and Economic Parameters with a Multi Linear Regression Approach

This paper aims to develop a predictive model for Laos to generate reliable statistics for urban solid waste from 1995 to 2050. The multi-linear regression (MLR) approach is used with six different socio-demographic and economic parameters, i.e., urban population, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, urban literacy rate, urban poverty incidence, urban household size and urban unemployment rate. Different reliable models are generated under four different scenarios. The value of R2 (a relative measure of fit) and value of performance indicators (an absolute measure of fit) such as mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) are calculated to assure the validity and accuracy of the results. Model 2 of Scenario 4 is estimated as the best model, where population and GDP per capita show statistical significance for estimating urban solid waste generation rate in Laos. The amount of municipal solid waste is estimated to be 0.98 million tons (MT) in the year 2030, 1.26 MT in the year 2040 and 1.52 MT in the year 2050, assuming that the present waste generation trends will be followed in the future. Moreover, the study provides an easy and detailed explanation of the work which will increase the interest of researchers, allow them to understand the MLR approach clearly and inspire them to use it for other developing countries where the scarcity of data is a major obstacle in the field of solid waste management. The drawback of the study is the limited availability of historical official and reliable data statistics in Laos for the dependent and independent variables.