Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
3‐Methylcyclohex‐2‐en‐1‐one reduces the aggregation of Dendroctonus pseudotsugae barragani and corresponding mortality of Pseudotsuga menziesii in northern Mexico

Dendroctonus pseudotsugae is the most important forest insect pest of Douglas‐fir Pseudotsuga menziesii in North America. Two subspecies of Douglas‐fir beetle are recognized: D. pseudotsugae pseudotsugae, which inhabits southwestern Canada and western United States, and Dendroctonus pseudotsugae barragani, which occurs in northern Mexico. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of 3‐methylcylohex‐2‐en‐1‐one (MCH) in reducing aggregation of D. pseudotsugae barragani, and corresponding Douglas‐fir mortality by this insect. Two field experiments were conducted: the first consisted of three doses of MCH in bubble caps (plus a control treatment) applied within 16 0.5 ha plots. The second consisted of three doses of MCH disrupt micro‐flakes (plus a control treatment) applied within 16 1.0 ha plots. MCH bubble caps at 28.8 and 44.0 g AI/ha and MCH disrupt micro‐flakes at 185.3 and 741 g AI/ha significantly reduced the aggregation of D. pseudotsugae barragani. When applying MCH as bubble caps, only the highest dose (44.0 g AI/ha) significantly reduced the number of successfully attacked trees. However, MCH micro‐flake doses of 185.3 and 741 g AI/ha reduced the number of successfully attacked trees to zero.
Distributed Formation Flight for Fixed-Wing UAVs Based on Cooperative Moving Path Following under Wind Disturbances

This paper presents a distributed time-varying formation control protocol for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) based on cooperative moving path following (CMPF) method. The UAVs follow the moving point on a pre-planned or real-time generated geometric path while respective fixed-wing vehicle achieves time-varying formation in the presence of wind disturbances. Different from the previous studies on path following problem, the fixed-wing UAVs in this paper form a distributed time-varying formation based on partially information between neighbor interactions. Firstly, by considering the complete kinematics for fixed-wing vehicle model, tracking error dynamics with reference to the Serret-Frenet frame of moving virtual point are derived. The criteria of virtual target selection is relaxed to general moving point rather than the closest trajectory projection while the singularity problem is avoided. Secondly, distributed extended state observers (DESOs) are designed to reconstruct the local states and wind disturbances simultaneously. Thirdly, observer-based controllers are proposed in distributed architecture to realize cooperative time-varying formation flight with the mismatched wind disturbances compensated in output channel with minimum norm. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to verify the effectiveness of proposed method.
N-Type Nanosheet FETs without Ground Plane Region for Process Simplification

This paper proposes a simplified fabrication processing for nanosheet Field-Effect Transistors (FETs) part of beyond-3-nm node technology. Formation of the ground plane (GP) region can be replaced by an epitaxial grown doped ultra-thin (DUT) layer on the starting wafer prior to Six/SiGe1−x stack formation. The proposed process flow can be performed in-situ, and does not require changing chambers or a high temperature annealing process. In short, conventional processes such as ion implantation and subsequent thermal annealing, which have been utilized for the GP region, can be replaced without degrading device performance.
Effect of Dry Cupping on Muscle Strength, Anaerobic Power, Cognitive Function and Mood States of Athletes

Objective: Dry cupping (DC) is widely used to improve sports performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of DC on muscle strength, anaerobic power, cognitive function, and mood states of athletes. Methods: In this counterbalanced quasi-experimental study with randomized crossover design, 12 male athletes participated. After signing a consent form, they randomly experienced two conditions (10 min of DC or no treatment) in two sessions one week apart. Muscle strength using a back and leg dynamometer, power anaerobic using the 30-second Wingate test, mood states using the Profile of Mood States questionnaire, and cognitive function using the Tower of London test were measured after intervention. Data were analyzed using paired sample t-test considering a significance level of 0.05. Results: DC significantly increased mean power (t11=-2.625, p=0.024), with no significant effect on muscle strength (t11=1.106, p=0.293) and peak power (t11=-1.389, p=0.192). Treatment with DC had no significant effect on tension, depression, anger, vigor, confusion, calmness or happiness of subjects (p>0.05). In contrast, a significant decrease in mental fatigue (t11=2.209, p=0.049) and cognitive function (t11=-2.602, p=0.025) were observed after DC. Conclusion: DC can improve mean anaerobic power and cognitive function, and reduce fatigue of the athletes.
Bore optimisation and impedance modelling of brass musical instruments

The input impedance of a brass musical instrument is a good representation of its resonance characteristics. Methods of calculating input impedance for a known instrument shape, or bore-profile, are reviewed, and an extension to existing theory for bent waveguides is given. These input impedance methods form the basis for consideration of the inverse problem; to find a bore-profile with given impedance characteristics. Such problems can be formulated as bore reconstruction – finding an unknown bore from its impedance, and performance optimisation – altering certain characteristics of a known bore. The inverse problem is solved by means of optimisation, using either genetic algorithms or the Rosenbrock direct-search method. A number of new techniques are used to improve convergence speed by minimising both the size of the search space and the number of design variables. These techniques are incorporated into an elegant object-oriented instrument representation, allowing convenient and flexible problem definition and forming the basis of an integrated application in C++. Experimental impedance measurements on a series of trombones are conducted, and typical results presented. These data are used to formulate optimisation targets. The optimiser is then used for bore reconstruction and performance optimisation to solve real-world trombone design problems.
Research on the influencing factors of accident severity based on the optimization of density clustering algorithm

In order to explore the causes of road traffic accidents and analyze the influencing factors of the severity of the accident, this paper is based on the traffic accident record data of Dallas in 2019. Firstly, it uses Python to preprocess and render the data, and initially analyze the relationship between the independent variables and the severity of the traffic accident. Based on the preprocessed 12,392 pieces of accident data, it is divided into general accidents and major accidents according to the severity; Secondly, the adaptive K-DBSCAN density clustering algorithm is introduced to cluster the effective density according to the severity, to eliminate the noise point data, and reflect the hot spots of traffic accidents in Dallas state; Finally, the parameters of the established XGBoost classification model are traversed, and the parameters with the highest accuracy are selected, the characteristics that have an important impact on the accident severity prediction results in the feature set such as road and environment are sought. The feature importance ranking is obtained, and practical suggestions and measures are put forward from the perspective of model prediction.
True 3D stereo display technology of digital railway location system

True 3D (three-dimension) display technology is the key technology of Digital Railway Location System (DRLS) based on virtual environment. Based on the principle of stereo perspective projection image generation, the true 3D display of virtual geographic environment of DRLS is realized on the microcomputer and projection platform. The realization method of stereo display based on OpenGL and hardware configuration scheme of DRLS are given. A realistic case for the stereo alignment location of a railway in western China verified that the alignment location in the virtual geographical environment based on stereo display stimulates the creativity of railway alignment designers. Meanwhile, the efficiency, quality and interest of railway location are improved.
Experimental Validation of the Model of Reverberation Time Prediction in a Room

It is well known that the uncertainty of input data has a great influence on the accuracy of room acoustics simulations. The aforementioned accuracy is significantly influenced by the selection of the acoustic properties of room-delimiting materials. Moreover, simulation errors are attributed to the fact that rooms can be very irregular and sound diffusion can be uneven, and thus sound absorption can be unevenly distributed over the surfaces. Therefore, a very important element is the validation of the simulation model of interior acoustics, even when we use ready-made software dedicated to interior acoustics for the simulation. In the article, the reverberation room model simulated in the ODEON program was subjected to validation. The program is based on a hybrid method combining the ray and virtual source methods. For the validation, appropriate measurements of the reverberation time in that room were carried out. The validation was undertaken using the criterion of correct validation, consisting of comparing the value of the comparison error and the value of the validation uncertainty.
Understanding of Pre-Service Teachers’ Employability Skills at Tribhuvan University

This study attempts to investigate the understandings of pre-service teachers towards the importance of employability skills for being employed It also explores the main causes of the absence of the employability skills of graduate pre-service teachers at Tribhuvan University. I adopted narrative inquiry research design to carry out this study. Using quota sampling technique, four female and four male pre-service teachers were selected through purposive non-random sampling procedure to collect data. In-depth-interview was administered to them as a tool to collect data in this study. The findings of this study show that the pre-service teachers lack higher order thinking skills; there is absence of employability skills in the curriculum of M.Ed. and they lack the personal and social skills and adequate communicative skills. It is concluded that the pre-service teachers are not competent and confident enough to deliver their knowledge and skills to the students due to the lack of employability skills despite the fact that they are bright students in their subject matter.
Prevalence of Smartphone Addiction during COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown and Its Impact on Online Learning in Kathmandu

The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown has encouraged students to use their smartphones in online classes and stay connected increasingly. Youths are using smartphone in COVID-19 pandemic more often than before. The present study aims to find prevalence of smartphone addiction during COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on BBA students' online learning in Kathmandu district. The questionnaire with Smartphone Addiction Scale- Short Version (SAS-SV) and smartphone using pattern was circulated through emails to collect data from four hundred students of 8 different BBA colleges in Kathmandu district using a convenience sampling method. After omitting incomplete data and exclusion criteria, overall 280 responses including 123 males and 157 females were recorded at a response rate of 70%. The result found the mean score of smartphone addiction of 34.67±9.29. Nearly half participants 48.93% (n=137) were found smartphone addicted. The study further revealed that gender was not associated with smartphone addiction but the time spent on smartphone in a day and age group was significantly associated with smartphone addiction. This study found that smartphone use is a contributing element to the success of online learning during COVID-19 pandemic. These results suggest the need to develop educational programme to educate the students to use smartphone effectively.
The choice of water supply pipe network and tubes material

Through analyzing various water supply pipe network and tubes properties and generalizing several matters need attention in choosing tubes,the choosing principle of water supply pipe network and tubes was proposed.The engineering practical examples proved that the choice of water supply pipe network and tubes was significance to the total water supply pipe network design and construction,running management.
The Effects of the Long-Term Freeze–Thaw Cycles on the Forms of Heavy Metals in Solidified/Stabilized Lead–Zinc–Cadmium Composite Heavy Metals Contaminated Soil

Heavy metals (HMs) exist in nature in different forms, and the more unstable the form of an HM, the higher its toxicity and bioavailability. The content of HMs in stable fractions can increase significantly through the stabilization/solidification (S/S) technology. Still, external environments such as freeze–thaw (F–T) cycles will affect the stability of HMs directly. Therefore, a long-term F–T study of S/S Pb–Zn–Cd composite HM-contaminated soil was conducted under six conditions (0, 3, 7, 14, 30, and 90 cycles) with each F–T cycle process up to 24 h. The improved Tessier method was employed, and the results show that the S/S technology makes HMs transform to a more stable fraction. Still, the transformation efficiency is different for each HM. More than 98% of lead and zinc were converted to stable forms, while for cadmium, there are only 75.1%. Meanwhile, the S/S HMs were rapidly transformed into unstable forms at 0–14 cycles, but after 14 cycles, the transformation speed was significantly reduced. Among stable forms, it is mainly that the carbonate-bound fraction of HMs changes to unstable forms, and the characteristic peaks of carbonate stretching vibration were found at 874 cm−1, and 1420 cm−1 by Fourier infrared spectroscopy proves the presence of carbonate-bound substances. As a result of this study, the change trend of contaminated soil with S/S HMs under the effect of long-term F–T cycle was revealed, and the crisis point of pollution prevention and control was found, which provides some theoretical basis for the safety of soil remediation project.
Strategy of Cooperative Hunting by Multiple Mobile Robots

A general scheme of cooperative hunting for a moving target by multiple mobile robots in continuous unknown environments is presented. Hunting consists of encircling the target and closing to it, and the encircling behavior is realized with reinforcement learning algorithm. States are clustered in order to reduce the state space, Q learning algorithm is used to get the table of Q values, then the available action is selected according to the Q value table. Hunting of mobile target is realized with synthesized behavior, obtained by summarizing the outputs of all behaviors weighted. Hunting effects in different conditions are verified by simulation, and the results show that environments, velocity relationships between hunter and prey, and the escaping strategies of prey all have their effects on the result.
High-Speed Railway Train Timetable Rescheduling in Case of a Stochastic Section Blockage

In this paper, the uncertain duration of the section blockade is considered for the high-speed railway train timetable rescheduling problem with the entire section blockade. The objective is to minimize the conditional value-at-risk of the train delay by retiming, reordering, etc. A two-stage stochastic mixed-integer linear programming model is established for the train rescheduling problem in a macroscopic view. Some model approximation methods with scenarios are applied to speed up the solution process. The proposed models are solved by the GUROBI commercial solver. Numerical experiments are performed based on the Beijing-Tianjin intercity railway to show the effectiveness of the proposed stochastic programming model. The experimental results showed that the proposed model with scenario reduction and order scenario reduction could get a high- quality solution with a shorter computation time.
Ambroxol: Insight into the Crystal Structure, Hirshfeld Surface Analysis and Computational Study

Abstract We report detailed studies of Form II of ambroxol, which crystal packing was examined in detail by a Hirshfeld surface analysis. Molecules in the crystal structure are primarily linked through the N–H···N and O–H···O hydrogen bonds and C–Br···π interactions. The Hirshfeld molecular surface is characterized by intermolecular contacts H···X (X = H, C, N, O, Br) and C/O/Br···Br. The overall topology of the energy distributions in the crystal structure of Form II of ambroxol was also established. The structure is mainly characterized by the dispersion interactions. The title compound was further studied by IR and UV-vis spectroscopy. Intermolecular N–H···N and O–H···O hydrogen bonds dictate the clearly revealed discrepancies between the experimental and calculated IR spectra in the region of 3000–4000 cm−1. The DFT/B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) calculations were performed to verify the structure of Form II of ambroxol as well as its electronic and optical properties. Molecular docking was applied to examine the influence of ambroxol on a series of the SARS-CoV-2 proteins. The molecule of ambroxol interacts much more efficiently with a series of studied proteins in comparison to Favipiravir, showing the best binding affinity with RdRp-RNA and nsp14 (N7-MTase).
Event-Triggered Switching Control Strategy for Mixed Traffic at Freeway On-Ramps: A Cyber-Physical Perspective

Since the ramp merging zone have consistently witnessed potential conflicts between on-ramp vehicles and mainline vehicles, ramp metering becomes a key element of advanced demand and traffic management strategy for freeways. Moreover, mixed traffic will be the main form of transportation in the next few years. At the same time, the control methods could be applied in homogeneous traffic might not be applied in mixed traffic. In summary, in order to improve the safety of the ramp merging zone, it is necessary to study the control algorithm of CAV. In this paper, we proposed an event-triggered switching control method to optimize the traffic situation of the mixed traffic in the merging zone. The method could avoid unnecessary braking and optimize traffic. Numerical simulation results show our method could be applied in mixed traffic situation. Impact of penetration rate and platoon length are also be researched.
Genetic diversity and population structure of Salix alba across river systems in Turkey and their importance in conservation management

ABSTRACT Background Salix alba is a pioneer species of river ecosystems throughout Turkey. Its genetic diversity and population structure across these ecosystems is currently unknown. Aims We investigated genetic diversity in Turkish S. alba to assess factors likely to shape the genetic structure of the species and to assist with conservation recommendations. Methods Six hundred and forty-six individuals from 10 major river systems in Turkey were genotyped using 15 microsatellite markers. Between one and five sub-populations were sampled from each river system with 23 sub-populations sampled in total. Results Populations contained moderately high levels of genetic diversity. Five genetic groups were detected by Bayesian clustering, with samples from particular river systems mainly assigned to particular genetic groups. This revealed a geographic structure, also detected by principal coordinate analysis, showing that particular river system populations in different parts of Turkey were genetically similar to each other but different from those in other parts of the country. Conclusion Genetic isolation caused by geographic distance (in part) and natural barriers among river systems appear to have shaped the genetic structure of populations. The results have important implications for the conservation of genetic resources within S. alba and restoration of degraded Turkish populations of the species.
Modeling the pressure–temperature–time evolution of in situ shock veins: A terrestrial case study from Vredefort

Numerical computing software (via MathWorks MATLAB) has been developed to understand the relationship between shock wave passage in geological targets (i.e., heterogeneous media) and the formation of shock veins and associated high‐pressure/temperature polymorphs. This approach takes into consideration the pressure due to the passage of the shock front, subsequent rarefaction unloading pressures, and associated heating and cooling rates. The model is applied to calculate pressure–temperature–time conditions for coesite‐ and stishovite‐bearing shock veins within metaquartzites of the Vredefort impact structure of South Africa. To constrain the model, the position of the host metaquartzites at the time of impact is first reconstructed. The developed code then passes the appropriate shock conditions through the target to re‐create the shock wave, while simultaneously forming and cooling the shock veins via 2‐D steady‐state conduction. We have found that (1) at the time of shock vein formation (2.4 s following the initial contact of the projectile), the shock front pressure was 13.8 GPa and the width of the shock wave was of 27 km; (2) the melt within the shock veins initially reached ~3000 °C, which corresponds to the melting temperature of the target rock at 13.8 GPa. Simulation results indicate that conditions reach the stishovite stability field within 2 ms of vein formation (~10–14 GPa; 2000–3000 °C), followed by coesite within 1.29 s (~3–10 GPa; 600–2000 °C). The dwell time of the modeled shock vein system is 4.35 s. The shock vein system is completely solidified 33.4 s after the initial shock front passage. The calculated P–T–t path of the model indicates that the polymorphs within the shock veins of the metaquartzites at Vredefort formed under their normal stability field conditions following rarefaction wave decompression.
A Comprehensive Review of Non-Energy-Based Treatments for Atrophic Acne Scarring

Abstract Scarring is a dire consequence of acne vulgaris. Particularly, atrophic acne scarring is highly prevalent among young adults, and its physical and psychological effects can persist throughout their lives if left untreated. This literature review will analyze various non-energy-based approaches to treating atrophic acne scarring, emphasizing recent advances within the last 5 to 10 years. To accomplish this, we performed a PubMed search for various acne scar treatments such as chemical peels, dermabrasion, microdermabrasion, subcision, microneedling, punch techniques, dermal fillers, and thread lifting. Our findings and analysis show that there is no panacean solution to treating atrophic acne scars, which explains the evolving trend towards developing unique combinatorial treatments. Although a fair comparison of each treatment approach is difficult to achieve due to the studies’ varying sample sizes, strength of evidence, treatment execution, etc, there still remains a level of consensus on what treatments are well suited for particular scar types.