Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design and MEMS Microfabrication of an Optrode for Combined Optogenetics and Electrophysiology Studies

Optogenetics is a biological technique that uses light to control cells in living tissues, typically neurons, that have been genetically modified to express light-sensitive ion channels. Using this technique, neuroscientists can investigate the neural circuits underlying neurological diseases with a higher spatio-temporal resolution when compared to other known neuromodulation methods. As employed today, optogenetics requires methods for guiding sufficiently strong and precisely timed light to specific brain regions, while the experimental subject carries out behaviors of interest. For this role, miniaturized devices (namely optrodes) shall be properly engineered to hold the required components (e.g. light source, recording electrodes, etc) whilst complying with some surgical and biocompatibility issues. In this work, an optrode was designed and fabricated using an in-house MEMS microfabrication technology. The custom-made device featured (a) low impedance level with TiN-coated microelectrodes, (b) sufficient optical power delivery through on-chip-uLEDs, and (c) miniaturized dimensions with tolerable tissue damage during long-term animal experiments. In addition, different optrodes were fabricated to allow different experiment conditions (i.e. chronic or acute implantation, multi-site or multi-layer studies). A MEMS cavity for the on-chip-uLED was engineered on the optrode's shaft in order to further minimize the induced tissue damage during the surgical implantation. Last but not least, this customized optrode is also compatible with our in-house CMOS technology and can be further upgraded with additional electronic functionalities, as well as with the deposition of novel materials. After the microfabrication and system integration, in-vitro experiments on three different designs were performed to characterize electrically the electrode impedance, the control of uLED's light intensity and pulse frequency.
When Good Components Go Bad: Formally Secure When Good Components Go Bad: Formally Secure Compilation Despite Dynamic Compromise Compilation Despite Dynamic Compromise

—We propose a new formal criterion for secure compilation, giving strong end-to-end security guarantees for software components written in unsafe, low-level languages with C-style undeﬁned behavior. Our criterion is the ﬁrst to model dynamic compromise in a system of mutually distrustful compo- nents running with least privilege. Each component is protected from all the others—in particular, from components that have encountered undeﬁned behavior and become compromised. Each component receives secure compilation guarantees up to the point when it becomes compromised, after which an attacker can take complete control over the component and use any of its privileges to attack the remaining uncompromised components. More precisely, we ensure that dynamically compromised components cannot break the safety properties of the system at the target level any more than equally privileged components without undeﬁned behavior already could in the source language. To illustrate this model, we build a secure compilation chain for an unsafe language with buffers, procedures, and components. We compile it to a simple RISC abstract machine with built- in compartmentalization and provide thorough proofs, many of them machine-checked in Coq, showing that the compiler satisﬁes our secure compilation criterion. Finally, we show that the protection guarantees offered by the compartmentalized abstract machine can be achieved at the machine-code level using either software fault isolation or a tag-based reference monitor.
Getting To Implementation (GTI)-Teach: A seven-step approach for teaching the fundamentals of implementation science

Abstract Introduction: Implementation Science (IS) is a complex and rapidly evolving discipline, posing challenges for educators. We developed, implemented, and evaluated a novel, pragmatic approach to teach IS. Methods: Getting To Implementation (GTI)-Teach was developed as a seven-step educational model to guide students through the process of developing, conducting, and sustaining an IS research project. During the four-week online course, students applied the steps to self-selected implementation problems. Students were invited to complete two online post-course surveys to assess course satisfaction and self-reported changes in IS knowledge and relevance of GTI-Teach Steps to their work. Results were summarized using descriptive statistics; self-reported post-course changes in IS knowledge were compared using paired t-tests. Results: GTI-Teach was developed to include seven Steps: 1. Define the implementation problem; 2. Conceptualize the problem; 3. Prioritize implementation barriers and facilitators; 4. Select and tailor implementation strategies; 5. Design an implementation study; 6. Evaluate implementation; 7. Sustain implementation. Thirteen students, ranging in experience from medical students to full professors, enrolled in and completed the first GTI-Teach course. Of the seven students (54%) completing an end-of course survey, six (86%) were very satisfied with the course. Ten students (77%) responded to the tailored, 6-month post-course follow-up survey. They retrospectively reported a significant increase in their knowledge across all steps of GTI-Teach (1.3–1.8 points on a 5-point Likert scale) and rated each of the Steps as highly relevant to their work. Conclusions: GTI-Teach is a seven-step model for teaching IS fundamentals that students reported increased their knowledge and was relevant to their work.
Osteoporotic Vertebral Fractures: An Analysis of Readability and Quality of Web-Based information

Introduction Vertebral compression fractures are among the most common fragility fractures with significant morbidity and mortality. With an aging population, the incidence of these fractures is on the rise. In this age of social and electronic media, there is a plethora of online information available. While access to healthcare information has increased, most of these websites remain beyond the comprehension of their target audience. Objective To assess the readability and quality of online information regarding osteoporotic vertebral fractures. Methods A search for the terms osteoporotic vertebral fractures, osteoporotic spinal fractures, and fragility spinal fractures was performed using the top five search engines. Eighty-three websites were identified and analyzed. Quality assessment was done using the DISCERN and Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) tools while readability was analyzed using the Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES), Flesch Kincaid Grade (FKG), and Gunning Fog Index (GFI). Results The mean DISCERN score was 39.55 while the mean JAMA was 2.2. Readability testing revealed a mean FRES score of 49.26 with 16 websites having a score of > 60, FKG 8.38, and GFI of 9.51. 33 websites had an FKG score of 8 or below 8. Conclusion The above results indicate that web-based information relating to osteoporotic vertebral fractures is of variable quality and readability. Although 40 % of websites are at the eighth grade or below level, only 16 % of websites are above the FRES score of 60, which makes online information difficult to comprehend by an average patient.
Design of an L-Valine-Modified Nanomicelle-Based Drug Delivery System for Overcoming Ocular Surface Barriers

The incidence of ocular surface disease (OSD) is increasing, with a trend towards younger ages. However, it is difficult for drugs to reach the deep layers of the cornea due to ocular surface barriers, and bioavailability is less than 5%. In this study, DSPE-PEG2000 was modified with L-valine (L-Val), and an HS15/DSPE-PEG2000-L-Val nanomicelle delivery system containing baicalin (BC) (BC@HS15/DSPE-PEG2000-L-Val) was constructed using thin-film hydration, with a high encapsulation rate, small particle size and no irritation to the ocular surface. Retention experiments on the ocular surface of rabbits and an in vivo corneal permeation test showed that, compared with the control, nanomicelles not only prolonged retention time but also enhanced the ability to deliver drugs to the deep layers of the cornea. The results of a protein inhibition and protein expression assay showed that nanomicelles could increase uptake in human corneal epithelial cells (HCEC) through energy-dependent endocytosis mediated by clathrin, caveolin and the carrier pathway mediated by PepT1 by inhibiting the overexpression of claudin-1 and ZO-1 and suppressing the expression of PepT1-induced by drug stimulation. These results indicate that BC@HS15/DSPE-PEG2000-L-Val is suitable for drug delivery to the deep layers of the ocular surface, providing a potential approach for the development of ocular drug delivery systems.
Variability and Nativeness in the Mediterranean Taxa: Divergence and Phylogeography of Genista etnensis (Fabaceae) Inferred from Nuclear and Plastid Data

Genista etnensis is a remarkable and well-known tree endemic to Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica (Mediterranean Basin). Nevertheless, its morphological variability and its native status throughout its range need to be further investigated. In this study, we aim to clarify some aspects of this infraspecific variability by molecular means. Sequences of one nuclear and five plastid markers were analyzed under maximum parsimony by using TCS software. Plastid data were also time-calibrated under a Bayesian Inference framework. Plastid data revealed strong isolation between the populations from the Cyrno-Sardinian biogeographical province, which are also the most diverse and presumably the most archaic, and those from Sicily and Southern Italy (in this latter area, the species is naturalized). The calibration analysis indicates that the last common ancestor between G. etnensis and its sister group G. fasselata dates back to the middle Pliocene or slightly later, when sclerophyllous Mediterranean vegetation spread, whereas G. etnensis itself might have originated in the middle Pleistocene. The current, rather unusual distribution of G. etnensis could be explained by long-range seed dispersal from the western part of the range or by anthropogenic introduction into Sicily, with extinctions of transported haplotypes in the region of origin. Interestingly, the Vesuvius population, introduced from Sicily in recent times and locally naturalized, shows private genotypes, and was richer in both genotypes and haplotypes than the Sicilian ones.
The Gamification of Arts and Culture: The expanded narrative and the virtual space from digital media to COVID

This paper considers how advances in technology towards the end of the twentieth century led both to new affordances in immersive experiences at the intersection of art, design, and technology (for example virtual reality), and came into their own during the COVID-19 pandemic through the creation of innovative, engaging works. The concept of an expanded narrative is presented as existing outside of the work itself, as the relationship between audience, artwork and the space in which it is presented – and by acknowledging how screen-based experiences become both accessible, affordable, and pervasive within society, this paper suggests a potential gamification of culture to bring art and entertainment to new audiences.
The Role of Metacognitive Strategy Monitoring and Control in the Relationship between Creative Mindsets and Divergent Thinking Performance

Previous research has shown that creative mindsets influence creativity. Compared with people with a fixed creative mindset, those with a growth creative mindset performed better in creative tasks. The underlying mechanism, however, is not completely understood. The present study has extended previous works to explore whether metacognitive strategy monitoring and control influence the relationship between creative mindsets and divergent thinking performance. The thinking aloud method was used to summarize four strategies in a divergent thinking task (an alternative uses task, AUT) in a pilot study: memory retrieval, splitting, property-based, and general use strategies. In the formal study, the creative mindsets scale, AUT, self-strategic utility judgment (i.e., an index of metacognitive strategy monitoring), and frequency of strategies usage (i.e., an index of metacognitive strategy control) were used to explore the relationships among creative mindsets, divergent thinking, and metacognitive strategy monitoring and control. The results indicated a positive correlation between a growth creative mindset and divergent thinking but a negative correlation between a fixed creative mindset and divergent thinking. More importantly, there were identified mediating roles of metacognitive monitoring and control of splitting and property-based strategies in the relationship between creative mindsets and divergent thinking. The findings reveal that creative mindsets are a critical predictor of divergent thinking, and metacognitive monitoring and control of abstract strategies mediate this association.
Telepathy: A Lightweight Silent Data Access Protocol for NVRAM+RDMA Enabled Distributed Storage

Recent developments in non-volatile memory and networking technologies raise new challenges and opportunities for architecting storage systems. In this paper we propose Telepathy, a lightweight data access protocol for NVRAM+RDMA-based distributed storage systems. Telepathy is a fully distributed protocol whose I/O writes can be coordinated by any server node, and I/O reads can be served by any of the replicas. Telepathy guarantees strongly-consistent reads while providing high I/O concurrency. Hybrid RDMA operations are used to transmit data directly and efficiently to the NVRAM of target servers. The correctness of Telepathy is verified with a formal proof of consistency, and its performance is validated with YCSB benchmarks on the Chameleon cluster. Telepathy can achieve low I/O latencies and high throughput, with low CPU utilization.
Smoothing Tie-Line Power Fluctuations for Industrial Microgrids by Demand Side Control: An Output Regulation Approach

This paper investigates the problem of how to effectively smooth the short-term tie-line power fluctuations for grid-connected industrial microgrids (IMGs) from demand side. A wide-area closed-loop control architecture is proposed by directly and continuously modulating load power consumption, e.g., the aluminum electrolysis load. To optimally design the load smoothing controllers, an output regulation approach combined with LQ optimal control is developed. In particular, dominant frequencies of wind power fluctuations are analyzed and incorporated into the exogenous system that models time-varying disturbances. Simulations are conducted for a real industrial microgrid in the Inner Mongolia, China, to validate the practical feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed smoothing control strategy. It is demonstrated that the demand side control based on output regulation is able to achieve not only zero steady error in rejecting the time-varying wind power disturbance but also guarantee the satisfactory dynamic performance of modulated loads for the grid-connected IMG.
Nexus Between FDI and Tourism: Empirical Evidence from Asian Countries

This research aims to look into the impact of foreign direct investment on tourism. Panel data from 46 Asian countries between 1998 and 2018 were collated for this study. The OLS, POLS, 2SLS, and GMM models were used in this study. A substantial correlation was found between between foreign direct investment and the number of international tourist departures in all models except the POLS model, and with the exception of the GMM model, there was a significant negative association between foreign direct investment and international tourism spending. In the POLS model, there is a significant positive relationship between foreign direct investment and international tourism receipts for passenger transport items, as well as expenditures for passenger transport items and international tourism receipts, and a significant negative relationship between foreign direct investment and international tourism receipts for passenger transport items. In the 2SLS model, there is a significant positive relationship with international tourism receipt. In the GMM model, there is a significant positive relationship between foreign direct investment and international tourism and a significant negative relationship between foreign direct investment and international tourism receipt, expressed in percentage of total exports.
EFGHNet: A Versatile Image-to-Point Cloud Registration Network for Extreme Outdoor Environment

We present an accurate and robust image-to-point cloud registration method that is viable in urban and off-road environments. Existing image-to-point cloud registration methods have focused on vehicle platforms along paved roads. Therefore, image-to-point cloud registration on UGV platforms for off-road driving remains an open question. Our objective is to find a versatile solution for image-to-point cloud registration. We present a method that stably estimates a precise transformation between an image and a point cloud using a two-phase method that aligns the two input data in the virtual reference coordinate system (virtual-alignment) and then compares and matches the data to complete the registration (compare-and-match). Our main contribution is the introduction of divide-and-conquer strategies to image-to-point cloud registration. The virtual-alignment phase effectively reduces relative pose differences without cross-modality comparison. The compare-and-match phase divides the process of matching the image and point cloud into the rotation and translation steps. By breaking down the registration problem, it is possible to develop algorithms that can robustly operate in various environments. We performed extensive experiments on four datasets (Rellis-3D, KITTI odometry, nuScenes, and KITTI raw). Experiments cover a variety of situations in which image-to-point cloud registration is applied, from image-based localization in off-road environments to camera-LiDAR extrinsic calibration in urban environments. The experiments demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the existing methods in accuracy and robustness.
Does Retirement Make People Happier?-Evidence From China

To investigate whether people's happiness will increase after retirement, this paper empirically investigates 2012, 2015, and 2017 China General Social Survey (CGSS) data using Ordinary Least Squares, Binary logit, and Fuzzy regression discontinuity Design. The results all show that retirement will significantly increase the happiness of men in urban China. The paper also validates these findings by testing the continuity of the reference and covariates at the cut–off point, changing the model settings, and using a more rigorous sample classification method. In addition, the article further analyzes the heterogeneity of the study and finds that retirement brings more happiness to those who have a college degree or less and have multiple children. The better the health status, the smaller the effect of retirement on happiness. The more social interactions, the smaller the effect of retirement on happiness. The policy implication of this paper is that when implementing a delayed retirement policy, special care should be taken for groups with greater welfare impairment, and it needs to be introduced together with other supporting measures to reduce people's worries. This paper analyzes the relationship between retirement and happiness in China and makes suggestions for the implementation of a delayed retirement policy, enriching the theoretical and empirical work on the effects of retirement on people's happiness and contributing to the world's response to aging and welfare policies for the older person.
Didymella Segeticola is a new pathogen causing leaf spot disease on Zanthoxylum bungeanum

ABSTRACT Zanthoxylum bungeanum (family Rutaceae) is an economically important deciduous shrub that is widely distributed across Asia. The leaves of this plant are rich in chemical compounds and have a variety of biological activities. However, a spot disease was discovered on Z. bungeanum leaves in Zunyi, China, in 2020. In the present study, a fungal isolate (YY-815) was obtained from Z. bungeanum leaves with leaf spot symptoms and identified as Didymella segeticola based on its morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analysis. This isolate could cause leaf spot disease and be re-isolated, fulfilling Koch’s postulates. The fungicides boscalid, penthiopyrad and pydiflumetofen significantly inhibited hyphal growth of D. segeticola under in vitro conditions. This is the first study to report a leaf spot disease on Z. bungeanum caused by D. segeticola.
Load-Independent Wireless Power Transfer System for Multiple Loads Over a Long Distance

In this paper, a novel long-distance wireless power transfer (WPT) system using repeater coils is proposed to provide power supplies for the driver circuits in high-voltage applications, such as flexible alternative current transmission systems. Different from most of the existing wireless repeater systems where the load is only connected to the last coil and the repeater coils function solely as power relays, in the proposed system, multiple loads are powered by the repeaters. The repeater coils transfer power not only to the subsequent coils but also to the loads connected to them. Dual coil design is proposed for the repeaters with which load-independent characteristics are obtained with a suitable design of coupling coefficients. As a result, the load power can be easily adjusted without affecting each other. Load current characteristics and system efficiency have been analyzed in detail. The power transfer capability of the proposed system is illustrated for different coil quality factors and coupling coefficients. An experimental setup with 10 loads has been built to validate the effectiveness of the proposed long-distance WPT system. The maximum reachable system efficiency is about 84%.
Development of Fluorescent Aptasensors Based on G-Quadruplex Quenching Ability for Ochratoxin A and Potassium Ions Detection

G-quadruplexes have received significant attention in aptasensing due to their structural polymorphisms and unique binding properties. In this work, we exploited the fluorescence-quenching properties of G-quadruplex to develop a simple, fast, and sensitive platform for fluorescence detection of ochratoxin A (OTA) and potassium ions (K+) with a label-free fluorophore and quencher strategy. The quenching ability of G-quadruplex was confirmed during the recognition process after the formation of the G-quadruplex structure and the quenching of the labeled fluorescein fluorophore (FAM). The fluorescence-quenching mechanism was studied by introducing specific ligands of G-quadruplex to enhance the quenching effect, to show that this phenomenon is due to photo-induced electron transfer. The proposed fluorescence sensor based on G-quadruplex quenching showed excellent selectivity with a low detection limit of 0.19 nM and 0.24 µM for OTA and K+, respectively. Moreover, we demonstrated that our detection method enables accurate concentration determination of real samples with the prospect of practical application. Therefore, G-quadruplexes can be excellent candidates as quenchers, and the strategy implemented in the study can be extended to an aptasensor with G-quadruplex.