Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fiber-based arrayed waveguide grating for spectral sensing

Microwave photonics can be used to conduct instantaneous spectral imaging of incoming microwave signals. Here, we demonstrate the use of a fiber-based arrayed waveguide grating (FAWG) to detect the microwave spectrum over a 25 GHz bandwidth with sub-2-GHz resolution. The received microwave signal, amplified by the device radio-frequency (RF) front end, is upconverted to the optical domain using an electro-optic modulator and sent through an array of optical fibers of different lengths. Like an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG), the different fiber lengths produce observable frequency dispersion. Fine frequency resolution is enabled by large path length differences among the optical fibers. Since fibers are susceptible to environmental fluctuations such as mechanical vibrations or temperature changes, active phase control is utilized to compensate for phase variations in real time. After optical filtering, the spectrum is captured by a linear IR camera that is placed at the Fourier-transform plane of the free-space optical-detection system. The FAWG has possible applications for microwave sensing as well as optical communications and can be adapted for different frequency ranges and resolutions. Here, it is discussed in the context of atmospheric sounding to measure remotely the temperature and water-vapor content.
Operational Modal Analysis of an Axial Compressor Rotor and Casing System for the Online Identification of a Digital Twin

Modal parameter identification can be a valuable tool in mechanical engineering to predict vibrational behaviour and avoid machine damage during operation. Operational modal analysis is an output-only identification tool motivated by the structural identification of civil engineering structures, which are excited by ambient conditions. This technique is increasingly applied in mechanical engineering in order to characterise the system behaviour during operation as modal parameters can vary under operating conditions. The following study investigates the application of operational modal analysis on an axial compressor under operating conditions. Since the modal parameters of the system change depending on the life history and during the operation of the system, a corresponding data analysis might allow us to identify the present status of the system. Eigenfrequencies and eigenvectors are studied for the use of structural health monitoring approaches. According to the analysis, eigenfrequencies represent robust parameters for the studied purpose. Eigenvectors are sensitive to damages but need further investigation, especially for rotating machinery. This study will help the user to set up a virtual model, which describes the system behaviour for different boundary conditions. This in turn, will provide an accurate prediction of the vibrational behaviour in order to assure a safe operation.
Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorders Measured by the Qualitative Checklist for Autism in Toddlers in a Large Sample of Polish Toddlers

This study aimed to assess some early symptoms of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) measured by a screening tool developed for an early detection of ASD. We investigated if the early symptoms were associated with toddlers’ age, gender or ASD familial risk status. We used the Polish version of the Quantitative Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (Q-CHAT) to assess 1024 children aged 16 to 36 months. The sample included four groups of participants: typically developing toddlers, toddlers with parent-reported ASD-specific concerns, toddlers at risk for autism due to having an older sibling with ASD, and toddlers with a developmental delay. We found that mean Q-CHAT scores were significantly higher in boys than in girls. We did not find any associations between Q-CHAT scores and age. We observed that toddlers with a familial risk for ASD and those with a developmental delay scored significantly higher than controls. We collated these results with previous studies that used the Q-CHAT and other instruments.
Association between MRI Findings and Histopathological Examination in Carcinoma Cervix: A Retrospective Study

Introduction: Staging of cervical cancer plays a major role in the treatment and prognosis of the patients. Preoperative Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is widely reviewed as a method to stage cervical cancer. Aim: To evaluate the role of MRI in the staging of cervical cancer in correlation with Histopathological Examination (HPE). Materials and Methods: A retrospective observational hospital- based study was done on 48 patients with Carcinoma Cervix attending the Velammal Medical College Hospital and Research Institute, Madurai, Tamilnadu. The patients, who had undergone MRI (on 1.5 Tesla Unit) of abdomen and pelvis from June 2018 to July 2019 were included in the study. Tumour location, size, vaginal, parametrial extension, pelvic sidewall involvement, pelvic and retroperitoneal lymphadenopathy, spread to adjacent pelvic organs and distant organs following retroperitoneal lymphadenopathy were reviewed from reports, and histopathology reports were analysed. International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) staging was done for all the cases. HPE findings and MRI findings were assessed for correlation. IBM SPSS version 22.0 was used for statistical analysis. Descriptive analysis was carried out, and values were represented as mean with standard deviation for quantitative variables, frequency and proportion for categorical variables. Results: The mean age was 54.46±9.29 years. The majority 42 (87.5%) of the patients had Squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix on HPE. The majority 23 (47.91%) of the patients had stage IB carcinoma of the cervix. MRI revealed pelvic lymphadenopathy in 04 (8.33%) of cases, pelvic lymph nodal metastasis was seen in 02 (4.16%) of the HPE cases. Conclusion: MRI is useful in staging of Carcinoma cervix in stage IB or greater and for planning of treatment. Hence, MRI has the potential to be used as a one-stop-shop diagnostic tool for cervical cancer.
Long-Term Variations of Global Solar Radiation and Its Potential Effects at Dome C (Antarctica)

An empirical model to predict hourly global solar irradiance under all-sky conditions as a function of absorbing and scattering factors has been applied at the Dome C station in the Antarctic, using measured solar radiation and meteorological variables. The calculated hourly global solar irradiance agrees well with measurements at the ground in 2008–2011 (the model development period) and at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). This model is applied to compute global solar irradiance at the ground and its extinction in the atmosphere caused by absorbing and scattering substances during the 2006–2016 period. A sensitivity study shows that the responses of global solar irradiance to changes in water vapor and scattering factors (expressed by water vapor pressure and S/G, respectively; S and G are diffuse and global solar irradiance, respectively) are nonlinear and negative, and that global solar irradiance is more sensitive to changes in scattering than to changes in water vapor. Applying this empirical model, the albedos at the TOA and the surface in 2006–2016 are estimated and found to agree with the satellite-based retrievals. During 2006–2016, the annual mean observed and estimated global solar exposures decreased by 0.05% and 0.09%, respectively, and the diffuse exposure increased by 0.68% per year, associated with the yearly increase of the S/G ratio by 0.57% and the water vapor pressure by 1.46%. The annual mean air temperature increased by about 1.80 °C over the ten years, and agrees with the warming trends for all of Antarctica. The annual averages were 316.49 Wm−2 for the calculated global solar radiation, 0.332 for S/G, −46.23 °C for the air temperature and 0.10 hPa for the water vapor pressure. The annual mean losses of solar exposure due to absorbing and scattering substances and the total loss were 4.02, 0.19 and 4.21 MJ m−2, respectively. The annual mean absorbing loss was much larger than the scattering loss; their contributions to the total loss were 95.49% and 4.51%, respectively, indicating that absorbing substances are dominant and play essential roles. The annual absorbing, scattering and total losses increased by 0.01%, 0.39% and 0.28% per year, respectively. The estimated and satellite-retrieved annual albedos increased at the surface. The mechanisms of air-temperature change at two pole sites, as well as a mid-latitude site, are discussed.
Stabilization of resistive wall mode and improved plasma performance in a low‐aspect‐ratio reversed field pinch by a single mode control power supply system

Stabilization of resistive wall modes (RWMs) is one of the important issues in magnetic fusion research. In the reversed field pinch (RFP), the number of unstable RWMs becomes smaller by lowering the aspect ratio (A), the ratio of the minor to major radius of the device. In REversed field pinch of Low‐Aspect ratio eXperiment (RELAX), whose aspect ratio is 2, unstable m/n = 1/2 RWM was stabilized by a single mode control power supply system with improvements of discharge performance. In this paper we report new results with modified power supply system in which magnetic boundary condition near the poloidal gaps is controlled. The modified power supply system is designed to stabilize the most unstable m/n = 1/2 mode by use of the saddle coil array covering the whole torus with eight (8) power supplies. The results show that the discharge duration is improved from ~ 3.0 ms to ~ 4.0 ms, limited by the capability of the iron core in RELAX device. Stabilization of the dominant RWM with the resultant improved plasma performance by a single mode control power supply system shows one of the advantages of a low‐aspect‐ratio RFP concepts.
The interference of optical zoom in human and machine classification of pollen grain images

Palynology can be applied to different areas, such as archeology and allergy, where it is constantly growing. However, no publication comparing human classifications with machine learning classifications at different optical scales has been found in the literature. An image dataset with 17 pollen species that occur in Brazil was created, and machine learning algorithms were used for their automatic classification and subsequent comparison with humans. The experiments presented here show how machine and human classification behave according to different optical image scales. Satisfactory results were achieved, with 98.88% average accuracy for the machine and 45.72% for human classification. The results impact a single scale pattern for capturing pollen grain images for both future computer vision experiments and for a faster advance in palynology science.
Does the Computed Tomography Hounsfield Units Change Predict Response to Perioperative Chemotherapy in Patients with Gastric Adenocarcinoma

Purpose: We aimed to investigate whether Computed Tomography (CT) attenuation change is predictive of poor pathological response in patients with gastric cancer (GC) and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma who received perioperative fluorouracil (FU), leucovorin (LV), oxaliplatin, and docetaxel (FLOT) regimen. Methods: This trial was planned as a retrospective single-center study. In the neoadjuvant setting, patients received a regimen that includes docetaxel (50 mg/m2), oxaliplatin (85 mg/m2), and LV (200 mg/m2) with short-term infusional FU (2600 mg/m2 as a 24-hour infusion), on day 1 and administered every two weeks for four cycles. Patients were classified as response rates according to the CAP-TRG system (0-1 response or 2-3 response) after completing four cycles of the FLOT regimen. Results: In total, 108 patients with GC and GEJ adenocarcinoma were included in the study. In a univariate analysis, age, histologic grade, T stage, N stage, and change in attenuation were found to be the statistically significant factors (p = 0.034, p =0.038, p = 0.001, p =0.029, and p = 0.022, respectively). In a multivariate analysis, T4 tumors and a higher change in attenuation were found to be important factors associated with poor pathologic response (p = 0.027 and p = 0.038, respectively). Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that a higher decrease in CT attenuation and T4 tumors is associated with a poor response to perioperative FLOT chemotherapy in patients with GC and GEJ adenocarcinoma.
Autonomous Energy Management by Applying Deep Q-Learning to Enhance Sustainability in Smart Tourism Cities

Autonomous energy management is becoming a significant mechanism for attaining sustainability in energy management. This resulted in this research paper, which aimed to apply deep reinforcement learning algorithms for an autonomous energy management system of a microgrid. This paper proposed a novel microgrid model that consisted of a combustion set of a household load, renewable energy, an energy storage system, and a generator, which were connected to the main grid. The proposed autonomous energy management system was designed to cooperate with the various flexible sources and loads by defining the priority resources, loads, and electricity prices. The system was implemented by using deep reinforcement learning algorithms that worked effectively in order to control the power storage, solar panels, generator, and main grid. The system model could achieve the optimal performance with near-optimal policies. As a result, this method could save 13.19% in the cost compared to conducting manual control of energy management. In this study, there was a focus on applying Q-learning for the microgrid in the tourism industry in remote areas which can produce and store energy. Therefore, we proposed an autonomous energy management system for effective energy management. In future work, the system could be improved by applying deep learning to use energy price data to predict the future energy price, when the system could produce more energy than the demand and store it for selling at the most appropriate price; this would make the autonomous energy management system smarter and provide better benefits for the tourism industry. This proposed autonomous energy management could be applied to other industries, for example businesses or factories which need effective energy management to maintain microgrid stability and also save energy.
A proposal of structure and control overcoming conducted electromagnetic interference in a buck converter

This paper describes modelling a step-down chopper designed for a photovoltaic application to study its performance of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) in conducted mode. The EMC measurements attended at this stage have shown that the buck converter is a harmful device for its electromagnetic environment. Indeed, the fast-switching operation leads to higher levels of conducted and radiated electromagnetic interference (EMI) and subsequently facilitates the electromagnetic coupling with the surrounding environment. In this sense, we present a new proposal of structure and control based on a combination of two techniques, namely pseudo-random modulation and soft switching, thus minimizing the conducted electromagnetic emissions at the source. The usefulness of this new strategy, evaluated through a comparative study, lies in its efficiency compared to the classical PWM method, allowing both to reduce the rise of current and voltage gradients and spread the electromagnetic spectrum over a wide frequency range. The simulation results prove that a significant gain in EMC has been reached.
Application of Use Case Technique in Military Requirement Analysis

This thesis gives a detail account of the characteristic of the requirement analysis in military software and the superiority of use case technique in the communion between the software developer and the user.It expounds that use case analysis technology contributes to improve the efficiency and the quality of requirement analysis in military software,and it probes into the steps of use case analysis technology modeling,describes an effective method by use case technique about requirement analysis in military software.
Development of Immunochromatographic Strip for Detection of αB-VxXXIVA-Conotoxin Based on 5E4 Monoclonal Antibody

Given the application of αB-VxXXIVA-conotoxin (αB-CTX) in analgesics and cancer chemotherapeutics, and its threat to humans, it is urgent to develop a rapid, effective and accurate method for the analysis and detection of αB-CTX in real shellfish and medicine drug samples. In the present study, two different immunochromatographic strips were established for αB-CTX detection, based on the monoclonal antibody 5E4 against αB-CTX, and the visual limits of detection (vLOD) for the colloidal gold nanoparticles-based strip (AuNPs-based strip) and nanoflowers-based strip (AuNFs-based strip) were 4 μg/mL and 1.5 μg/mL, respectively. The developed AuNPs-/AuNFs-based strips have good specificity and accuracy, and the detection results were analyzed in less than 10 min, without using an instrument. In view of the excellent repeatability and usability, the established methods could be applied to detect and analyze the content of αB-CTX in real samples.
Sustainable Tourism Destination Image Projection: The Inter-Influences between DMOs and Tourists

With the development of the Web 2.0 era, tourists can freely publish their destination experiences through online travel notes. This enables tourists to become important agents to project tourism destination image (TDI), impacting destination-sustainable development. Previous studies have compared the difference in the images projected by destination management organizations (DMO) and tourists through their published content. However, fewer studies have been done to explore the inter-influences between them on the diachronic process of TDI construction. From the perspective of “circle of representation” this question is researched through a case study of Chiang Mai, Thailand, regarding the market of mainland Chinese tourists. Through interviews and the collection of microblogs from the Thailand National Tourism Bureau and tourists’ travel notes from 2009 to 2021, we found that Chiang Mai has experienced four stages of TDI construction, during which the “Xiao Qingxin” image is evolutionally constructed and formed into the representation circle. The inter-influences between DMO and tourists, as well as the influencing factors in this process, are summarized. Our study supplements a dynamic diachronic analysis of TDI from the constructivism perspective. Relevant management and marketing applications for TDI and destination sustainability in the post-pandemic and Web 2.0 era are also provided.
Decarcerating Correctional Facilities during COVID-19: Advancing Health, Equity, and Safety

The conditions and characteristics of correctional facilities - overcrowded with rapid population turnover, often in old and poorly ventilated structures, a spatially concentrated pattern of releases and admissions in low-income communities of color, and a health care system that is siloed from community public health - accelerates transmission of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) responsible for COVID-19. Such conditions increase the risk of coming into contact with the virus for incarcerated people, correctional staff, and their families and communities. Relative to the general public, moreover, incarcerated individuals have a higher prevalence of chronic health conditions such as asthma, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease, making them susceptible to complications should they become infected. Indeed, cumulative COVID-19 case rates among incarcerated people and correctional staff have grown steadily higher than case rates in the general population. Decarcerating Correctional Facilities during COVID-19 offers guidance on efforts to decarcerate, or reduce the incarcerated population, as a response to COIVD-19 pandemic. This report examines best practices for implementing decarceration as a response to the pandemic and the conditions that support safe and successful reentry of those decarcerated.
Additive-Free Gelatine-Based Devices for Chondral Tissue Regeneration: Shaping Process Comparison among Mould Casting and Three-Dimensional Printing

Gelatine is a well-known and extensively studied biopolymer, widely used in recent decades to create biomaterials in many different ways, exploiting its molecular resemblance with collagen, the main constituent of the extra-cellular matrix, from which it is derived. Many have employed this biopolymer in tissue engineering and chemically modified (e.g., gelatin methacryloyl) or blended it with other polymers (e.g., alginate) to modulate or increase its performances and printability. Nevertheless, little is reported about its use as a stand-alone material. Moreover, despite the fact that multiple works have been reported on the realization of mould-casted and three-dimensional printed scaffolds in tissue engineering, a clear comparison among these two shaping processes, towards a comparable workflow starting from the same material, has never been published. Herein, we report the use of gelatine as stand-alone material, not modified, blended, or admixed to be processed or crosslinked, for the realization of suitable scaffolds for tissue engineering, towards the two previously mentioned shaping processes. To make the comparison reliable, the same pre-process (e.g., the gelatin solution preparation) and post-process (e.g., freeze-drying and crosslinking) steps were applied. In this study, gelatine solution was firstly rheologically characterized to find a formulation suitable for being processed with both the shaping processes selected. The realized scaffolds were then morphologically, phisico-chemically, mechanically, and biologically characterized to determine and compare their performances. Despite the fact that the same starting material was employed, as well as the same pre- and post-process steps, the two groups resulted, for most aspects, in diametrically opposed characteristics. The mould-casted scaffolds that resulted were characterized by small, little-interconnected, and random porosity, high resistance to compression and slow cell colonization, while the three-dimensional printed scaffolds displayed big, well-interconnected, and geometrically defined porosity, high elasticity and recover ability after compression, as well as fast and deep cell colonization.
Microalga Biofertilizer Triggers Metabolic Changes Improving Onion Growth and Yield

Seeking the development of nature-friendly agronomic techniques, the use of natural sources to promote plant growth and increase agricultural yield has gained relevance. In this context, the use of biofertilizers or biostimulants obtained from microalgae has been studied, as these microorganisms have in their composition a great diversity of bioactive molecules. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of microalga Asterarcys quadricellulare (CCAP 294/1) on organic onion production, verifying its action on metabolism, growth and yield of two cultivars. Thus, two experiments were carried out: (i) foliar applications on onion plants grown in pots in a greenhouse; (ii) foliar applications on field-grown onion under an organic system. Both experiments were undertaken using solutions with spray-dried microalga biomass at concentrations of 0.05, 0.15, 0.25 and 0.4 g L−1. Biometric variables, yield of bulbs and biochemical variables were evaluated indicating that the use of A. quadricellulare promoted plant growth and increases in bulb caliber and yield of both onion cultivars. The microalga biomass stimulated plant metabolism by increases in contents of chlorophyll, carotenoids, amino acids, and the nitrate reductase enzyme activity in leaves, also free amino acids and total sugar contents in bulbs, highlighting the biomass concentration of 0.25 g L−1.