Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reduced heart rate variability is associated with vulnerability to depression

Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) mirrors cardiac autonomic modulation, an index of well-being. Reduced HRV has been reported in depression, but few studies investigated HRV in individuals at-risk of or remitted from a full-blown depressive episode. The present study aimed at examining whether reduced HRV could be a potential indicator of vulnerability to depression. Methods: Self-reported psychological measures and three-minute resting-state ECG were collected in two at-risk populations [group with dysphoria (n = 27), group with past depression (n = 16)] and in a control group (n = 25). Time- and frequency-domain HRV parameters were computed. Analysis of covariance was conducted to detect between-groups differences for each measure. Results: Standard Deviation of Normal to Normal intervals (SDNN) and High Frequency (HF) power of HRV were found to be reduced both in individuals with dysphoria and in those with past depression as compared with controls. Whereas psychological measures did not significantly differ among individuals with past depression and controls, HRV was capable of discriminating between the two groups. Limitations: Past depression was assessed retrospectively with self-reported information. The inclusion of a group with depression would provide an overview about HRV during the illness course. Conclusions: The findings suggest that reduced HRV is likely to be implicated in the risk of developing full-blown depression, rather than being a mere correlate of current depressive state. The results suggest that HRV may improve the ability to early identify people at risk for depression who can benefit from targeted prevention by psychiatric and psychological interventions.
Detecting keV-Range Super-Light Dark Matter Using Graphene Josephson Junction

We propose a new dark matter detection strategy that will enable the search of super-light dark matter $m_\chi \simeq 0.1$ keV, representing an improvement of the minimum detectable mass by more than three order of magnitude over the ongoing experiments. This is possible by integrating intimately the target material, $\pi$-bond electrons in graphene, into a Josephson junction to achieve a high sensitivity detector that can resolve a small energy exchange from dark matter as low as $\sim 0.1$ meV. We investigate detection prospects with mg-scale and g-scale detectors by calculating the scattering rate between dark matter and the free electrons confined in two-dimensional graphene with Pauli blocking factors included. We find not only that the proposed detector can serve as a complementary probe of super-light dark matter but also achieve higher experimental sensitivities than other proposed experiments, i.e., in having a low detectable threshold provided the same target mass, thanks to the extremely low energy threshold of our Josephson junction sensor.
Ratio-consistent estimation for long range dependent Toeplitz covariance with application to matrix data whitening

We consider a data matrix $X:=R_M^{1/2}ZC_N^{1/2}$ where $R_M$ is a $M\times M$ Toeplitz matrix, $Z$ is a $M\times N$ random matrix of uncorrelated standardized white noise, and $C_N$ a $N\times N$ positive semi-definite matrix. The model $X$ can be interpreted as a multivariate stationary time series with a separable covariance function. When this series is short range dependent, two estimators $\hat{R}_M$ and $\hat{R}_M^b$ of $R_M$, constructed by toeplitzifying the sample covariance matrix $S=N^{-1}XX^*$, are commonly used to whiten the correlation $R_M$ in $X$. Both are proved to be consistent in spectral norm in previous articles under mild conditions. In this paper, we establish that when the time series is long range dependent, the above spectral norm consistency does not always hold, but a weaker {\it ratio consistency} for the unbiased estimator $\hat{R}_M$ still holds. It is shown that this ratio consistency is sufficient for the whitening procedure. For the biased estimator $\hat{R}_M^b$, such ratio consistency does not hold either, but a weaker {\it ratio LSD consistency} does. Numeric simulations are also provided to illustrate these new phenomena and their impact on applications such as the whitening procedure. Finally we apply our results to signal detection and high-dimensional PCA. Let $X=[YR_M^{1/2}]^*$ with $Y=A\mathbf{M}+\sigma^2\mathbf{N}$ a complex Gaussian signal plus noise model. Using the whitened sample covariance matrix $\underline{S}_w=M^{-1}X^*\hat{R}_M^{-1}X$, we estimate the number of signals and their strengths contained in $A$. Then we proceed PCA on $X$ to obtain a compressed data matrix formed with its principal components.
Quasi-Equivalence of Width and Depth of Neural Networks

While classic studies proved that wide networks allow universal approximation, recent research and successes of deep learning demonstrate the power of the network depth. Based on a symmetric consideration, we investigate if the design of artificial neural networks should have a directional preference, and what the mechanism of interaction is between the width and depth of a network. We address this fundamental question by establishing a quasi-equivalence between the width and depth of ReLU networks. Specifically, we formulate a transformation from an arbitrary ReLU network to a wide network and a deep network for either regression or classification so that an essentially same capability of the original network can be implemented. That is, a deep regression/classification ReLU network has a wide equivalent, and vice versa, subject to an arbitrarily small error. Interestingly, the quasi-equivalence between wide and deep classification ReLU networks is a data-driven version of the DeMorgan law.
Kelvin–Helmholtz Instability at Proton Scales with an Exact Kinetic Equilibrium

The Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (KHI) is a ubiquitous physical process in ordinary fluids and plasmas, frequently observed also in space environments. In this paper, kinetic effects at proton scales in the nonlinear and turbulent stage of the KHI have been studied in magnetized collisionless plasmas by means of hybrid Vlasov–Maxwell simulations. The main goal of this work is to point out the back-reaction on particles triggered by the evolution of such instability, as energy reaches kinetic scales along the turbulent cascade. Interestingly, turbulence is inhibited when KHI develops over an initial state that is not an exact equilibrium state. On the other hand, when an initial equilibrium condition is considered, energy can be efficiently transferred toward short scales, reaches the typical proton wavelengths, and drives the dynamics of particles. As a consequence of the interaction of particles with the turbulent fluctuating fields, the proton velocity distribution deviates significantly from the local thermodynamic equilibrium, the degree of deviation increasing with the level of turbulence in the system and being located near regions of strong magnetic stresses. These numerical results support recent space observations from the Magnetospheric MultiScale mission of ion kinetic effects driven by the turbulent dynamics at Earth’s magnetosheath and by the KHI in Earth’s magnetosphere.
Contribution of Dark Matter Annihilation to Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows near Massive Galaxy Centers

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are believed to be powered by ultrarelativistic jets. If these jets encounter and accelerate excess electrons and positrons produced by particle dark matter (DM) annihilation, the observed electromagnetic radiation would be enhanced. In this paper, we study GRB afterglow emission with the presence of abundant DM under the weakly interacting massive particle annihilation conditions. We calculate the light curves and spectra of the GRB afterglows with different parameters, i.e., DM density, particle DM mass, annihilation channel, and electron density of the interstellar medium. We find that the effect of DM may become noticeable in the afterglow spectra if the circumburst has a low electron number density ( ) and if the DM has a high number density ( ). According to the standard galaxy DM density profile, GRB afterglows with DM contribution might occur at distances of several to tens of parsecs from the centers of massive galaxies.
Weed Phytosociological and Floristic Survey in Agricultural Areas of Southwestern Goiás Region

The use of the Roundup Ready(r) technology and the cultivation of a second crop influence the floristic composition of weed communities in Brazilian Central-West region cropping systems. This study has aimed to diagnose the dominant weed species in southwestern Goias in areas of genetically-modified and conventional soybeans, using phytosociological and floristic surveys. Weed sampling was obtained by collecting all the plants present within a 0.5 m hollow frame, randomly thrown 20 times in each of thirty-five agricultural areas in the 2012/2013 harvest. Field survey was carried out in three periods: before desiccation for soybean sowing, before postemergence herbicide in soybean first application and before postemergence herbicide application in late harvest. A total of 525 m2 was inventoried and 3,219 weeds were collected, which included 79 species, 58 genera and 28 families. Families Poaceae, Asteraceae, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae, Amaranthaceae, were the most representative in the survey. Species Cenchrus echinatus, Glycine max, Chamaesyce hirta, Commelina benghalensis, and Alternanthera tenella stood out in importance. The RR+millet soybean treatment had the highest number of species (44), while the conventional soybean + sorghum treatment had the lowest number of species (18). The highest number of species was recorded in first sampling period. Treatments conventional soybean + maize and conventional soybean + millet showed higher similarity (70%), while treatments RR soybean + millet and conventional soybean + sorghum showed the least (51%). Species of difficult control were recorded in all cultivation systems analyzed.
Diffusion and Oxidation Enhancements Melt Laser Anneal Model

Welcome to the April 2013 edition of TCAD News. In this edition we present the new features and enhancements in the H-2013.03 release of TCAD Sentaurus, which includes a number of important new and updated features addressing the modeling challenges of 10nm FinFET, 3D memory and Si and wide bandgap power devices. For example, new models for melt laser annealing, dislocation engineering and diffusion in III-V semiconductors have been implemented in Sentaurus Process, along with significant robustness and speed improvements in 3D oxidation. A detailed article on Sentaurus Topography highlights important features to support the development of new types of memory cells. In device simulation, updates to band structure and mobility modeling of Ge and SiGe attest to the importance of these materials in future process nodes. The capabilities for simulating GaN and SiC power devices have also been improved. In interconnect reliability modeling, we continue to broaden the applications of Sentaurus Interconnet with the release of new models for creep and swelling, improved accuracy with second order finite elements and updates to fracture mechanics. Over the last two quarters Sentaurus Visual has become the visualization tool of choice for many customers, and in this release we add to its capabilities and flexibility.
STUDY ON THE CYMOTHOIDAE FROM CHINESE WATERS

This study is based on material collected by the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, from the vast continental shelf region of our seas covering the period from 1954—1981. Ten species of Cymothoidae belonging to 6 genera were identified and are described here. Seven species marked with an asterisk (*) are recorded for the first time from Chinese Waters: *1. Anilocra alloceraea Koelbel, 1878 2. Ceratothoa oxyrrhynchaena Koelbel,1879 *3. Ceratothoa imbricata (Fabricius, 1775) *4. Cymothoa eremita (Brunnich, 1783) *5. Cymothoa pulchra (Lanchester, 1902) *6. Mothocya renardi (Bleeker, 1857) 7. Nerocila phaiopleura Bleeker, 1857 *8. Nerocila japonica Schiodte et Meinert, 1881 9. Nerocila sundaica Bleeker, 1857 *10. Norileca indica (H. Milne-Edwards, 1840)
Field-scale denitrifying woodchip bioreactor treating high nitrate mine water at low temperatures

A field-scale woodchip bioreactor was installed at the Kiruna iron ore mine (northern Sweden) for the removal of NO3 in mine and process water originating from the use of ammonium nitrate based explosives. Over a period of two years, the woodchip bioreactor removed an average incoming NO3 concentration of 22.0±0.3 mg N L to below detection limits (0.06 mg N L) at bioreactor temperatures above 5°C and hydraulic residence times between 1.9-2.6 days. As the hydraulic residence time in the system was decreased to 1 day and/or the bioreactor temperature decreased to below 5°C, NO3 removal was incomplete. The bioreactor acted as an overall sink and source of NO2 and NH4 , respectively, with low level ammonium production (< l mg N L) observed during the test period. The direct application of a woodchip bioreactor for the removal of NO3 in leachate produced from waste rock deposits in subarctic climates is limited by the variability and timing of leachate production.
Bowman-Birk proteinase inhibitor from tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius) seeds: purification and biochemical properties

The present work describes the purification and characterisation of a Bowman-Birk-like trypsin and chymotrypsin inhibitor from the seeds of tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius). Simple purification steps of ion exchange, hydrophobic interaction, and size exclusion chromatography were applied to purify a 17.8 kDa tepary bean protease inhibitor (TBPI). Analysis of the amino acid profile of the TBPI revealed that aspartic acid, glutamic acid and serine as the dominant amino acids. Stoichiometry of the reactions of trypsin and chymotrypsin with TBPI showed a molar ratio of 1:1 between the inhibitor and these enzymes. A 50% reduction in antitrypsin activity was observed when the free amino groups of TBPI were chemically modified with 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene; however, antichymotrypsin activity was not altered by this modification. These results show that purified TBPI reacts distinctly with trypsin and chymotrypsin, indicating that it might have two different reactive sites.
On the well-posedness of a dispersal model for farmers and hunter-gatherers in the Neolithic transition

We study the reaction-diffusion model that consists of equations that govern the spatio-temporal evolution of sedentary and migrating farmers and hunter-gatherers in the Neolithic transition. Ecologically, the model stems from the fact that a lifestyle of agriculture and settlement, as it allows for a larger population, is evolutionary advantageous than hunting and gathering. Therefore, in our modelling framework, we assume that farmers do not migrate unless the population density pressure forces them. We prove the global well-posedness of the system and, in contrast to the previous modelling work on the transition from hunting and gathering to farming, we show numerically that for a suitable value of a “stay-or-migrate” threshold the model is capable of reproducing the rate of spread of farming that corresponds to the archeological findings in Europe.
DUV tip-enhanced Raman scattering for nano resonance Raman spectroscopy

DUV resonance Raman spectroscopy is a unique and powerful technique for structural analysis of biomolecules [1]. Through electronically resonant excitation, a specific vibrational mode out of complex Raman signatures is selectively enhanced and detected, enabling detailed structural analysis at the specific molecular vibrational site. In this contribution, we report our recent efforts aiming at evolving DUV resonance Raman spectroscopy as a nano-imaging and analysis tool with the spatial resolution beyond the diffraction limit of light. Our technique, tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS), uses a sharp metallic tip to enhance the Raman scattering from molecules sitting locally under the metallic tip [2]. Thanks to the surface plasmon resonances excited at the metallic tip, Raman scattering intensity from the excited molecule is enhanced by several orders of magnitude, enabling detection and analysis of molecules from a tiny nanoscale volume. Since the invention of TERS technique [3], a tremendous progress has been made in visible wavelength, while in UV, no much attention has been paid, because the surface plasmon is not supported in UV with the use of gold and silver, the predominant choice of material for plasmonics. We have recently reported that we can play with plasmon in DUV with aluminum [4,5], a material having higher plasma frequency down to DUV with a reasonably low loss character. We investigated localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPR) of aluminum nanostructures by fabricating different size of aluminum nanoparticles [5]. By shrinking the size of nanoparticle down to 50 nm, LSPR was realized in 270 nm in DUV wavelength, confirming that the aluminum is a promising material for DUV-TERS. Using aluminum-coated Si probe, we have successfully demonstrated plasmonic tip-enhancement of resonance Raman scattering at 266 nm excitation wavelength [4]. Raman scattering signal of adenine nanocrystal sample was strongly enhanced with the enhancement factor of more than 1,000 times (Fig.1). These results will open a way to realize molecular analysis and imaging with nanoscale spatial resolution in DUV resonance Raman spectroscopy using the tipenhancement effect.
Final Report: Deep Neural Networks

Neural networks have been of rising interest in recent years with successful examples such as GPT-3 and AlphaGo. This report is based on a review of literature surrounding Universal Approximation Theory, linear regions and connections to expressivity and learnability. We explore the generation of linear regions in shallow and deep ReLU networks and visualize the hyperplane slicing of the input space. We show numerical results for SVD classification and various Feedforward Networks on the MNIST data set.
Ecological correlates of threatened endemic island rodents

Abstract Some of the ecological correlates of threatened endemic island rodents across 31 main islands/archipelagos worldwide are studied. Overall, there were 83 entirely endemic genera and 197 endemic species, with the number of both endemic genera and species positively correlating with (log) island size. Twenty-seven rodent genera, and 49 species, endemic to islands, are threatened with extinction, with the Oriental region housing the highest numbers of endemic threatened taxa. There was a significant positive relationship between (log) island size and number of threatened endemic species. The number of endemic species per island was also significantly positively correlated with the number of threatened species per island. A logit model revealed that the probability of the presence of at least one threatened endemic species was 0% for islands below 1560 km2, and 80% for islands sized about 3120 km2. The mean body weight of endemic threatened taxa increased significantly with increases of (log) island size (r=0.144, n=12, p=0.0096), and was particularly high in the Caribbean islands. Our study indirectly supported the notion that species linked to habitat fragments (=islands of remnant habitat) are more prone to extinction than species able to traverse suboptimal habitats (=seas of unsuitable habitat). Our results also demonstrated that the number of threatened endemic species per island was dependent on the total number of endemic species in each island, thus showing that tropical islands may be more prone to include assemblages of threatened endemic rodent species than temperate islands. Endemic species inhabiting islands of about 1500 km2are of immediate conservation concern because of their high probability of becoming extinct in the years to come, given that their counterparts from even smaller islands are already extinct since decades or hundreds of years ago.
A preliminary survey of the abundance, diversity and distribution of terrestrial macroinvertebrates of Gcwihaba cave, northwest Botswana

Inventories of cave species and in-depth understanding of cave ecosystems are essential for informing conservation approaches for the unique and vulnerable cave fauna. Gcwihaba cave is the largest cave in Botswana but its ecology is poorly understood. This study set out to provide the first quantitative survey of the cave’s terrestrial macroinvertebrates. Macroinvertebrates were collected from sample sites at 10 m intervals into the cave from the cave entrance. At each site, macroinvertebrates on the cave floor were collected by quadrat sampling while macroinvertebrate from cave walls were collected by visual opportunistic searches. Moisture content, pH and electrical conductivity of the cave floor substrate were measured at each site to examine the influence of the floor properties on the distribution of macroinvertebrates on the cave floor. Twelve species in 10 families and 8 orders of terrestrial macroinvertebrates were collected. The occurrence of taxa varied across the sites, with most taxa occurring in the light and twilight sectors of the cave (within 30 m), whereas the dark sector (beyond 30 m) was dominated by cave cockroaches (Gyna sp.). The abundance of the cave cockroaches, darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae, Tenebrio sp.) and cave wasps (Sphecidae) positively correlated with floor substrate of high moisture content and high electrical conductivity, which became increasingly common with distance into the cave. The abundance of other taxa from the cave floor positively correlated with a floor substrate of high pH and low moisture, which was common near the cave entrance.
DESIGN OF IMPLANTABLE RECTANGULAR MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNA AT 5.8 GHZ BAND FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATION

The implantable devices are efficient tools to implant in the human body for monitoring physiological processes. These devices are multifunctional devices which sense a signal, process it and after that communicate it to the doctors. Basically in health monitoring system, the patient has no requirement to consult the doctor face to face. These systems are mainly useful in remote area. The main goal of this paper is to design rectangular microstrip patch antenna which is suitable at 5.8 GHz for biomedical application. The antenna design has a total size of 18× 30 × 1.28 mm and Roger 3010 material is used as substrate whose dielectric constant is 10.2 and height of 1.28mm. The simulation has been done using CST software and antenna parameters such as return loss, VSWR, radiation pattern, gain and directivity etc. are simulated through it. Keyword: Implantable rectangular microstrip patch antenna, microstrip line feed method, Roger 3010 Substrate material, Antenna parameters, CST Software.