Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Morphological Variation and Its Environmental Correlates in the Taihangshan Swelled-Vented Frog across the Qinling Mountains

Simple Summary Amphibians have weak dispersal abilities and are sensitive to environmental changes, resulting in their disproportionately high risk of extinction, with many species’ populations rapidly declining. Therefore, it is critical for amphibian conservation to understand their adaptive potential by exploring how amphibians respond to environmental changes based on morphological variations. Our results showed that morphological traits of Feirana taihangnica significantly differed among ages. Along with the increase in annual mean temperature, snout-vent length showed an anti-hump trend, indicating no support for Bergmann’s rule. Mean ultraviolet-B of the highest and lowest months were positively and negatively correlated with head width, thigh length and tibia width, respectively. The present study can help understand the effects of environmental changes on morphological variations of this mountain frog species and its adaptive potential, providing important implications for species conservation. Abstract The Taihangshan swelled-vented frog (Feirana taihangnica), an endemic species to the Qinling Mountains, central China, has experienced a dramatic population decline over the last few decades. The aim of this work was to quantify morphological variation in F. taihangnica across the Qinling Mountains and examine environmental correlates of this variation of morphological traits. We implemented a hierarchical partitioning to estimate the independent contribution of each environmental variable on morphological variations. Temperature seasonality was the greatest contributor in variations of snout-vent length (SVL) and head width, and ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation of the lowest month was the most influential on both thigh length and tibia width. Then, we used generalized additive models to analyze the relationship between each environmental factor and morphological trait variations. Along the increasing of annual mean temperature, SVL decreased firstly and then increased, indicating no support for Bergmann’s rule. Furthermore, SVL was negatively correlated with annual precipitation, while positively with temperature seasonality. The mean UV-B of the highest and lowest months was positively and negatively correlated with head width, thigh length and tibia width, respectively. The results of this study help us to understand adaptive potential of this mountain frog species via morphological variations in the light of environmental changes.
Sample Mean and Sample Variance

It is of interest to know what the covariance of sample mean and sample variance is without the assumption of normality. In this article we study such a problem. We show a simple derivation of the formula for computing covariance of sample mean and sample variance, and point out a way of constructing examples of “zero covariance without independence. ” A small example is included to help teachers explain to students.
Bouncing Behavior of Rotating Cylinder on Wall in Water

The bouncing motion of a solid particle on a wall in the water is different from that in the air because the water influences the particle motion more than the air. In order to investigate such effect of the water on the solid particle, bouncing behavior of a cylinder in the water was studied by image processing. In the experiment, an apparent coefficient of restitution of the cylinder was not unique, that is, it was influenced by the velocity and the rotating angular velocity of the cylinder. The velocity fields of the water suggested that the water flow around the cylinder played an important role on the bouncing motion.
Exact solutions in Einstein's theory and beyond

In this thesis we present exact solutions of geometrical theories of gravity, i.e. those of a general relativistic type. In chapter 1, we give a short introduction into the calculus of exterior differential forms, introduce the Cotton 2-form, and investigate its properties (irreducible decomposition, number of independent components, conformal transformation, classification in three dimensions, analytic properties). In view of covariantly conserved quantities, we investigate the relation between the Cotton 2-form, the Bach 3-form, and the Chevreton tensor (a superenergy tensor of the electromagnetic field). Chapter 2 is devoted to gravity in three dimensions. For a model of Mielke and Baekler (MB), we find an exact BTZ-like solution with constant axial torsion. We determine its autoparallels, extremals, Killing vectors, and global charges. Furthermore, we derive from the MB-model a teleparallelism model, Einstein-Cartan theory, and topologically massive gravity. We show how the BTZ-solution with torsion reduces to solutions of the aforementioned subcases. In conclusion we construct a new perfect fluid solution of Einstein's field equation in three dimensions. In the last chapter we turn to four-dimensional metric-affine gravity. We devise a model which allows for the breaking of Lorentz invariance by means of a vector-like quantity (aether). Therefore we take a vector-piece of the nonmetricity. We set up a Lagrangian and derive the field equations. Constraints on the coupling parameters simplify the field equations considerably. We arrive at a quasi-Einstein equation and a wave equation for the aether field. Finally, we discuss a simple solution of this model found by Baekler.
Online Identification of Mechanical Systems Using the Simplified Output Error Model

Parameter identification used to obtain the analytical mathematical model of the mechanical system is requisite to allow high-performance control. The typical online indirect parameter identification method, which simultaneously estimates six parameters using the least square method with an adaptive filter, has achieved a good effect. Nevertheless, the drawbacks, such as the heavy computational burden and the adaptive filter invalidation, restrict its use for real-time identification. To address these issues, the simplified discrete-time output error model is proposed, which can be used to estimate four key parameters online instead of six. Furthermore, this article presents an adaptive filter parameter correction algorithm via the pole assignment to guarantee its stability and effectiveness. Finally, the proposed method can significantly reduce the calculation burden of typical identification method. The experimental results indicate that the proposed identification method maintains a high precision.
Silver Nanoparticles Conjugated with Colistin Enhanced the Antimicrobial Activity against Gram-Negative Bacteria

Colistin is a potent peptide antibiotic that is effective against Gram-negative bacteria. However, nephrotoxicity limited its clinical use. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have gained attention as a potential antimicrobial agent and nanodrug carrier. The conjugation of antibiotics and AgNPs has been found to increase the activity and decrease drug toxicity. In this study, colistin was conjugated with AgNPs (Col-AgNPs), which was confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectra. The optimized Col-AgNPs had the proper characteristics, including spherical shape, monodispersity, nanosized particle, high surface charge, and good stability. The powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) pattern supported the crystallinity of Col-AgNPs and AgNPs. The drug loading of Col-AgNPs was 11.55 ± 0.93%. Col-AgNPs had higher activity against Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) than AgNPs and colistin. The mechanism of actions of Col-AgNPs involved membrane disruption and genomic DNA damage. The Col-AgNPs and AgNPs were biocompatible with human red blood cells and renal cells at concentrations up to 16 µg/mL. Interestingly, Col-AgNPs exhibited higher cell survival than AgNPs and colistin at 32 µg/mL. Our results revealed that the Col-AgNPs could enhance the antimicrobial activity and cell biocompatibility more than colistin and AgNPs.
A new approach to design multicomponent metallic glasses using the mendeleev number

ABSTRACT Designing novel Multicomponent Metallic Glasses (MMGs) based on empirical parameters such as enthalpy of mixing ( ) and configurational entropy ( ) is a time-consuming exercise that requires various assumptions, limiting the capability to predict new MMG compositions. The current study involves constructing a modified Mendeleev Number ( ) element scale based on many important elemental properties that impact the glass forming phenomena. Machine learning (ML) was used to assess the competence of the proposed to predict MMGs. The ML findings demonstrate that proposed can be utilised as a salient attribute to predict MMGs with 87.8% cross-validation accuracy. Further, the mean square variation in the of the alloy constituents ( ) provides a delineated zone of glass forming multicomponent alloys. In summary, the research work presents a novel phenomenological coordinate system that can effectively predict new MMGs while avoiding the limitations of empirical parameters based design strategies.
Physical Activity and Mental Health Declined during the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Narrative Literature Review

(1) Introduction: Mental health (MH) and physical activity (PA) share a bi-directional relationship, but most studies report MH as the outcome. With diminishing pandemic-related MH, this review examines the impact of diminished MH on PA. (2) Methods: This narrative literature review included 19 empirical studies published since the COVID-19 pandemic. Electronic databases such as MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and CINAHL were searched for English language articles in peer-reviewed journals using equivalent index terms: “anxiety”, “depression”, “stress”, “mental health”, “exercise”, “activity”, “COVID-19”, “coronavirus”, and “2019 pandemic”. The search reviewed 187 articles with double-rater reliability using Covidence. A total of 19 articles met the inclusion criteria. (3) Results: MH themes that impacted PA were depression and/or anxiety (n = 17), one of which identified inadequate coping and excessive pandemic stress (n = 2). In addition, women are more likely to suffer diminished MH and reduced PA throughout the pandemic. (4) Conclusion: Current research suggests that individuals with pre-pandemic MH episodes are correlated with more effective coping skills and fewer adverse effects from COVID-19 than expected. As we emerge from this pandemic, equipping all individuals, especially women, with positive coping strategies may accelerate a seamless return to PA.
The Public Sentiment Analysis of Double Reduction Policy on Weibo Platform

Weibo platform is an indispensable transmission channel in education policy release and dissemination. The events and sentiments contained in education policies microblogs include the public sentiment and support the general management and guidance scientifically and efficiently. This study constructs a dataset based on the “Double Reduction Policy” relevant microblogs and comments. The policy events are extracted by Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model and Language Technology Platform (LTP). Based on the emotion dictionary, an attention-based BiLSTM model is constructed to classify the public sentiments. The experimental results reveal four themes: “industry impact,” “institutional supervision,” “public feedback,” and “policy implementation. ” The distribution conforms to the development trend of online public sentiments.
Modeling of Electrical Conductivity for Graphene-Filled Products Assuming Interphase, Tunneling Effect, and Filler Agglomeration Optimizing Breast Cancer Biosensors

In this study, the percolation inception, actual filler amount, and concentration of nets are expressed using the filler size and agglomeration, interphase depth, and tunneling size. A modified form of the power-law model is recommended for the conductivity of graphene–polymer products using the mentioned characteristics. The modified model is used to plot and evaluate the conductivity at dissimilar ranges of factors. In addition, the prediction results of the model are compared with the experimented values of several samples. A low percolation inception and high-volume portion of nets that improve the conductivity of nanoparticles are achieved at a low agglomeration extent, thick interphase, large aspect ratio of the nanosheets, and large tunnels. The developed equation for percolation inception accurately predicts the results assuming tunneling and interphase parts. The innovative model predicts the conductivity for the samples, demonstrating good agreement with the experimented values. This model is appropriate to improve breast cancer biosensors, because conductivity plays a key role in sensing.
Genetic Mechanism Study of Auditory Phoenix Spheres and Transcription Factors Prediction for Direct Reprogramming by Bioinformatics

Background: Hearing loss is the most common irreversible sensory disorder. By delivering regenerative cells into the cochlea, cell-based therapy provides a novel strategy for hearing restoration. Recently, newly-identified phoenix cells have drawn attention due to their nearly unlimited self-renewal and neural differentiation capabilities. They are a promising cell source for cell therapy and a potential substitute for induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in many in vitro applications. However, the underlying genomic mechanism of their self-renewal capabilities is largely unknown. The aim of this study was to identify hub genes and potential molecular mechanisms between differentiated and undifferentiated phoenix cells and predict transcription factors (TFs) for direct reprogramming. Material and Methods: The datasets were downloaded from the ArrayExpress database. Samples of differentiated and undifferentiated phoenix cells with three biological replicates were utilised for bioinformatic analysis. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened and the Gene Ontology (GO) terms and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment were investigated. The gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was conducted to verify the enrichment of four self-defined gene set collections, followed by protein-protein interaction (PPI) network construction and subcluster analysis. The prediction of TFs for direct reprogramming was performed based on the TRANSFAC database. Results: Ten hub genes were identified to be the key candidates for self-renewal. Ten TFs were predicted as the direct reprogramming factors. This study provides a theoretical foundation for understanding phoenix cells and clues for direct reprogramming, which would stimulate further experiments and clinical applications in hearing research and treatment.
Validating a Portable Device for Blinking Analyses through Laboratory Neurophysiological Techniques

Blinking analysis contributes to the understanding of physiological mechanisms in healthy subjects as well as the pathophysiological mechanisms of neurological diseases. To date, blinking is assessed by various neurophysiological techniques, including electromyographic (EMG) recordings and optoelectronic motion analysis. We recorded eye-blink kinematics with a new portable device, the EyeStat (Generation 3, blinktbi, Inc., Charleston, SC, USA), and compared the measurements with data obtained using traditional laboratory-based techniques. Sixteen healthy adults underwent voluntary, spontaneous, and reflex blinking recordings using the EyeStat device and the SMART motion analysis system (BTS, Milan, Italy). During the blinking recordings, the EMG activity was recorded from the orbicularis oculi muscles using surface electrodes. The blinking data were analyzed through dedicated software and evaluated with repeated-measure analyses of variance. The Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient served to assess possible associations between the EyeStat device, the SMART motion system, and the EMG data. We found that the EMG data collected during the EyeStat and SMART system recordings did not differ. The blinking data recorded with the EyeStat showed a linear relationship with the results obtained with the SMART system (r ranging from 0.85 to 0.57; p ranging from <0.001 to 0.02). These results demonstrate a high accuracy and reliability of a blinking analysis through this portable device, compared with standard techniques. EyeStat may make it easier to record blinking in research activities and in daily clinical practice, thus allowing large-scale studies in healthy subjects and patients with neurological diseases in an outpatient clinic setting.
Possible Impact of Spring Sea Ice Anomaly in the North Pacific on the Korean Summer Drought

Effective Drought Index (EDI) and change-point analysis have revealed two characteristics of summer drought in Korea. First, summer drought has been mitigated since 1997, and second, this weakness is related to an increase in spring sea ice in the North Pacific region. When sea ice in the North Pacific during spring is greater than usual, the cold flow moving south from the North Pacific increases. Because of this, air temperature and sea surface temperature anomalies become negative in the region of East Asia. If this situation continues to summer, summer drought occurs. In this case, western north Pacific high becomes weakened, and thus summer monsoon does not develop in East Asia, and the tropical cyclone (TC) track changes, thereby the frequency of its reaching the Korean Peninsula decreases.
PriRanGe: Privacy-Preserving Range-Constrained Intersection Query Over Genomic Data

Genomic data is being produced rapidly by both individuals and enterprises, and outsourcing this ever-increasing data into clouds is promising for cutting the cost of data owners and mining the wealth of genomic data at a larger scale. However, genome carries sensitive information about individuals, and it is challenging to securely and efficiently perform analysis on remotely hosted genomic databases. In this article, we present a privacy-preserving range-constrained intersection query scheme on genomic data. To achieve security and efficiency, we propose a protocol to fulfill range-constrained intersection query, named PriRanGe. With PriRanGe, a client can securely query genomic data in a specific range in a database while keeping this whole process private. The security of our design targets genomic database confidentiality, query range/result confidentiality, and access pattern protection, and the advantage in efficiency is due to most employed primitives are symmetric. We thoroughly evaluated our design by security proof, experimental analysis and comparison to the state-of-the-art works, all of which support the conclusion that this design is both secure and fast.
Measuring the Changes in Income Distribution of Pakistan

A continuous rise in income inequality is a highly debated theme as many changes in the structure of income distribution have happened in Pakistan. This study explores the changes in income distribution during 1998-2018 in Pakistan. The study has used PIHS 1998-99 Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement survey data for 2007-08, and 2018-19, collected and administrated by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition methodology is used for estimation. The findings of the study show that education and experience significantly increase the average income. Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition indicates that the wage gaps are; 0.172 between 1998-2007, -0.062 between 2007-2018, and 0.110 between 1998-2018, and significant at a 1% significance level. The wage gap was positive between 1998-2017 and 1998-2018, implying that the wage inequality increased in that period mainly due to the coefficient component, while the wage gap was negative between 2007-2018, showing the decrease in wage inequality due to the endowment component. Moreover, the endowment component of decomposition is negative for all years of interest and highly significant except for the wage gap during 1998-2007. The coefficients component is highly significant and positive for all the years, meaning that applying the coefficients of the labor force in 2007 and 2018 to the characteristics of the labor force in 1998. The interaction component is negative during 1998-2007 and 1998-2018 whereas positive during 2007-2018 and has a high p-value, except for 1998-2018. It is recommended that government policies should ensure an equitable distribution of income.
Characterization Of The Ruptured Site In Intracranial Aneurysms Based On CFD Computations

In case of diseased intracranial arterial walls focal or segmental dilatations may develop, which are referred to as cerebral aneurysms. If a rupture sets in, consequences are often devastating. In this work two patient-specific cerebral aneurysms are investigated by means of CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations. In both cases a rupture occurred during the medical examination without any manipulation. Hence, both configurations can be used in an attempt to characterize specifically the location of rupture. Unsteady hemodynamic simulations are carried out on high-quality block-structured grids. Besides velocity and pressure distribution, temporally averaged wall shear stresses (AWSS) as well as the oscillatory shear index (OSI) are analyzed. Neither elevated velocity nor pressure values are found within the area of interest. However, an oscillating flow motion is identified that may influence the endothelial cell layer. Increased AWSS and OSI appear mainly at the neck of the aneurysms and distal to the bifurcations, respectively, disqualifying them as driving factors regarding a rupture in the present configurations.
Study of HTS Nanobridge Josephson Junctions Made by FIB

Artificial bicrystal junctions are often used for Josephson junctions in high-temperature superconductor superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs). However, the junctions using bicrystal substrates are expensive and have large variations in their characteristics. Furthermore, the placement of SQUIDs on substrate is limited to only linear bicrystal junctions. On the other hand, the superconductor-constriction-superconductor (ScS) junction is a technique that is used to control the critical current of a superconductor thin film by focused ion beam (FIB) irradiation. We have fabricated ion damage junctions and nanobridge junctions, which are a kind of ScS junction, by FIB processing of YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) thin films. The ion damage junctions are fabricated by line scanning of YBCO thin films at normalization fluence, which sufficiently reduces the critical current. The nanobridge junctions are fabricated by narrowing the width of YBCO thin films using FIB. SQUIDs were fabricated to demonstrate the operation of both types of Josephson junctions. The nanobridge type showed relatively a larger modulation amplitude.