Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The influence of prolonged running and footwear on lower extremity biomechanics

The effect of maximal isolated muscle and cardiovascular fatigue on lower extremity biomechanics during running has been investigated extensively. However, the majority of runners do not run to exhaustion regularly. Consequently, research and industry are interested in biomechanical changes over the course of a typical prolonged run and how footwear technology may affect them. This study investigated the influence of neutral and stability footwear worn during a 42-minute prolonged treadmill run on lower extremity biomechanics. Fourteen male rearfoot runners completed two prolonged running sessions where they ran for 21 minutes on a force instrumented treadmill in a neutral shoe (baseline run). Participants then changed into another neutral shoe of the exact same construction but a different color or into a stability shoe and ran for a further 21 minutes (intervention run). Three-dimensional kinematics and kinetics were measured at the beginning and end of each 21-minute running period. Main effects for time were observed at the hip, knee, and ankle during both the baseline and intervention runs. Particularly, increased knee flexion and rearfoot eversion observed during mid-stance may exhibit a strategy to reduce the effective mass and minimize joint loads applied to the foot and knee. No main effects for footwear condition were found in lower extremity biomechanics. However, individual responses to the neutral and stability shoe conditions were observed. Running shoe design should: (1) focus on both acute and prolonged changes in lower extremity biomechanics at the individual level, and (2) further investigate the use of materials/architecture that allow runners to stay within their initial (baseline) preferred motion path and/or provide greater support when preferred motion path changes throughout a prolonged run.
Evaluation of Oral Mucosal Lesions Using the IllumiScan® Fluorescence Visualisation Device: Distinguishing Squamous Cell Carcinoma

We evaluated whether fluorescence intensity (FI) and its coefficient of variation (CV) can be used to diagnose squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) through IllumiScan®, an oral mucosa fluorescence visualisation (FV) device. Overall, 190 patients with oral mucosal lesions (OMLs; SCC, 59; non-SCC OMLs, 131) and 49 patients with normal oral mucosa (NOM) were enrolled between January 2019 and March 2021. The FI of the images was analysed using image analysis software. After establishing regions of interest for SCC, non-SCC, and NOM, the average FI, standard deviation (SD), and CV were compared. There was a significant difference in the average FI for all pairs of comparisons. The SD was not significantly different between the SCC and NOM groups (p = 0.07). The CV differed significantly for NOM (p < 0.001) and non-SCC groups (p < 0.001) relative to the SCC group but was not different between NOM and non-SCC groups (p = 0.15). Univariate analysis of SCC and non-SCC groups showed significant differences for all factors, except age. However, multivariate analysis showed a significant intergroup difference only in the CV (p = 0.038). Therefore, analysing the CV in FV images of OML may be useful for the diagnosis of oral cancer.
Comprehensive Enhancement of Prepolymer-Based Flexible Polyurethane Foams’ Performance by Introduction of Cost-Effective Waste-Based Ground Tire Rubber Particles

Material innovations in polyurethane (PU) foams should ideally combine performance enhancement, environmental impact limitation, and cost reduction. These goals can be achieved by applying recycled or waste-based materials without broader industrial applications, implicating their low price. Herein, from 5 to 20 parts by weight of ground tire rubber (GTR) particles originated from the recycling of postconsumer car tires were incorporated into a flexible foamed PU matrix as a cost-effective waste-based filler. A two-step prepolymer method of foams manufacturing was applied to maximize the potential of applied formulation changes. The impact of the GTR content on the foams’ processing, chemical, and cellular structure, as well as static and dynamic mechanical properties, thermal stability, sound suppression ability, and thermal insulation performance, was investigated. The introduction of GTR caused a beneficial reduction in the average cell diameter, from 263.1 µm to 144.8–188.5 µm, implicating a 1.0–4.3% decrease in the thermal conductivity coefficient. Moreover, due to the excellent mechanical performance of the car tires—the primary application of GTR—the tensile performance of the foams was enhanced despite the disruption of the cellular structure resulting from the competitiveness between the hydroxyl groups of the applied polyols and on the surface of the GTR particles. The tensile strength and elongation at break were increased by 10 and 8% for 20 parts by weight GTR addition. Generally, the presented work indicates that GTR can be efficiently applied as a filler for flexible PU foams, which could simultaneously enhance their performance, reduce costs, and limit environmental impacts due to the application of waste-based material.
Evaluation of Spatial Distribution of Three Major Leptocorisa (Hemiptera: Alydidae) Pests Using MaxEnt Model

Simple Summary Leptocorisa (Hemiptera: Alydidae) species, which are pests to rice cultivation, have changed their habitats owing to climate change, suggesting the precautionary evaluation of the distribution of these pests. In this study, we targeted three major pests in Leptocorisa species (L. chinensis, L. acuta, and L. oratoria) and evaluated their potential distributions. Most of the recorded regions of the Leptocorisa species are consistent with the result of potential distributions predicted, and the model predicted that climate change would expand their habitats mostly under the effect of minimum temperature and precipitation varied by seasons. The potential distributions of three species were expected to cover major rice cultivation areas regardless of climate change, suggesting a necessity for establishing a sustainable control strategy for the pests. Abstract We targeted three major Leptocorisa species (L. chinensis, L. acuta, and L. oratoria) and evaluated their potential distributions using MaxEnt. The results showed that most Asian countries and northern Australia would be suitable for at least one of these pest species, and climate change will expand their habitat northward. All of the developed models were evaluated to be excellent with AUC, TSS, and OR10%. Most of the recorded regions of the Leptocorisa species are consistent with the result of potential distributions predicted in this study. The results confirmed that the minimum temperature of the coldest month mainly influences the three Leptocorisa species distributions. The potential distributions of the three species cover major rice cultivation areas regardless of climate change, suggesting that it would be necessary to establish a sustainable control strategy for the pests.
Comparison of Phytoremediation Potential of Nerium indicum with Inorganic Modifier Calcium Carbonate and Organic Modifier Mushroom Residue to Lead–Zinc Tailings

At present, the application of phytoremediation technology in the ecological remediation of heavy metal tailings is receiving more and more attention. In this study, the physiological and biochemical response and tolerance mechanism of woody plant Nerium indicum to Pb and Zn under different proportions of inorganic modifier calcium carbonate (C1: 5%, C2: 10%, C3: 15%) and organic modifier mushroom residue (M1: 10%, M2: 20%, M3: 30%) was compared. The results showed that the pH value has a trend of C group > M group > CK group and organic matter has a trend of M group > CK group > C group. Phosphatase activity and catalase activity has a trend of M group > C group > CK group, but catalase was more vulnerable to the calcium carbonate concentration. Both modifiers can promote the transformation of Pb, Zn, Cu, and Cd in tailings to more stable organic bound and residual states. However, the stabilization effect of mushroom residue is better, and its stability is Pb, Zn > Cd, Cu. Both modifiers can increase the biomass of Nerium indicum and the modification effect of mushroom residue is better than calcium carbonate. Pb/Zn content and accumulation in Nerium indicum organs showed root > stem > leaf in all groups. Compared with the CK group, the enrichment coefficient of Pb/Zn in C1 and M1 groups decreased, while the translocation factor of Pb/Zn in C1 and M1 groups increased. With the increase in modifier concentration, the enrichment coefficient increases about 1.75~52.94%, but the translocation factor decreases rapidly (20.01~64.46%). Clearly, both the calcium carbonate and mushroom residue amendment could promote the growth ability of Nerium indicum in lead–zinc tailings and strengthen the phytoremediation potential.
Defending Cyber–Physical Systems Through Reverse-Engineering-Based Memory Sanity Check

Cyber–physical systems (CPSs) are ubiquitous in critical infrastructures, where programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and physical components intertwine. However, multiple successful attacks targeting safety-related CPSs, in particular the PLCs, manifest their vulnerability toward malicious cyber attacks, which may cause significant damage consequently. Though several kinds of defending techniques exist in the literature, few of them can be practically and widely applied to real-world CPSs equipped with PLCs from leading vendors, primarily due to the lack of specific hardware or unrealistic defense assumptions. In this article, we propose PLC-READER, a practical memory attacks detection and response framework to secure the CPS. The core of PLC-READER includes: 1) a comprehensive semantic analysis solution specifically for PLC’s proprietary protocol based on software reverse engineering and network traffic difference analysis and 2) a fine-grained memory structure analysis solution to identify the critical memory data. Based on the results of such reverse engineering, PLC-READER further performs sanity checks for the PLC’s critical memory by periodically checking the hash values and dynamic checksum values of these memory data. We extensively evaluated PLC-READER against four types of 366 different memory attacks, with some newly developed ones which got six CVE IDs from Schneider and Rockwell, by analyzing three kinds of proprietary protocols and six kinds of memory structures in six kinds of real-world PLCs from three leading manufacturers. The results demonstrate that the PLC-READER can detect all memory attacks with an accuracy of 100% and perform corresponding emergency responses in time.
All-silicon and epitaxially grown III-V-on-silicon photodetectors for on-chip optical interconnection applications

In this paper we review our recent progress in two complementary approaches to photodetectors on silicon photonic chips for on-chip optical interconnection applications, namely epitaxially grown III-V-on-silicon and all-silicon microcavity-enhanced photodetectors, both for the 1550nm wavelengths. On the epitaxially grown III-V-on-silicon photodetectors front, we have demonstrated both normal-incidence and waveguide-butt-coupled p-i-n photodetectors. We simulate the silicon waveguide butt-coupling to the InGaAs absorption region and estimate the absorption efficiency using a three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method. We optimize the InGaAs absorption region in order to attain a bandwidth of 46 GHz. We also report our latest experimental demonstration of all-silicon microresonator enhanced linear-absorption photodetectors using defect-state absorption in pn-diode-integrated microresonators. Our initial experiments reveal the measured bandwidths to be exceeding 10 GHz.
Human optic sensitivity computation based on singular value decomposition

In this paper, a new definition for images named as the sensitivity parameter (SP) is introduced. SP is based on the decreasing rate of singular values in an image. It could be used in compressing images in a lower bit rate or in distinguishing robust image parts against watermarking. SP could also be used when we would want to make changes in pixel values but keep the quality of the image as it is.
Multitargeted molecular docking study of phytochemicals on hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fourth major cause of death worldwide, with a global diminishing survival rate of 19%. Irrespective of the advanced therapeutic strategies against this carcinoma, it persists as one of the most challenging diseases. Moreover, the low efficacy of existing treatment stratagem using synthetic drugs against HCC has led to the urgent investigation of natural alternatives that can result in a more efficient treatment with fewer health side effects than their synthetic counterparts. In this study, a total of 1259 phytochemicals were docked against 25 potential HCC protein targets with the help of PyRx, a virtual screening tool software. The pharmacokinetics and drug-like properties of these chemicals were examined through SWISS ADME webserver. Based on their binding affinity against each protein target, only 250 ligands were shortlisted further for toxicity analysis using the web tools ADMETlab 2.0 and Protox II. In accordance with the bioavailability radar and pharmacokinetic profile analysis, only two non-toxic phytochemicals: Sorgolactone and Alectrol, emerged as the most befitting drug candidates against HCC protein targets 6HH1 and 1ZXM, respectively. The findings of this study suggest that these two phytochemicals can be explored and exploited further for their use as potential HCC drug candidates.
Digitally Intensive Sub-sampling Mixer-First Direct Down-Conversion Receiver Architecture

Sub-sampling radios are not considered as mixer-first receivers due to high-IF down-conversion and difficulty in providing the impedance matching at the RF port. These issues are addressed in this work by proposing a scheme for direct down-conversion sub-sampling RF front-end and also a scheme for impedance matching at the RF port by using subsampling frequency(fs) harmonics and an eight-path mixer. In the proposed scheme, the third harmonic of the fs is used for direct down-conversion to zero-IF. Hence, the proposed sub-sampling receiver architecture outperforms RF sampling receivers in terms of clock generation circuit power, thanks to the low operating clock frequency of the sub-sampling RF radio. The architecture is simulated and the performance is verified using technology scalable components like switches, capacitors, and inverters for the standard IEEE 802.15. 4. It is observed that the proposed digitally intensive architecture performance predicted by analytical equations is in agreement with post-layout Spectre RF simulations. The mixer-first architecture achieves a noise Figure of 8.6 dB, conversion gain of 21 dB, IIP3 of −1 dBm, and the input impedance is matched to 50 $\Omega$ antenna impedance.
Utilization of Construction Waste Recycled Powder as Filler in Asphalt Concrete

Processing construction waste into aggregate and reusing it in asphalt pavement is beneficial in terms of environmental protection and resource utilization. However, recycled aggregate (RA) possesses some property defects. Therefore, RA usually needs to be strengthened by modification technologies prior to use. In order to promote the convenient and low-cost utilization of construction waste, a new method of preparing construction waste into powder and using recycled powder (RP) as asphalt filler is proposed in this research. The property defects of RA and the applicability of RP used as filler were first analyzed based on their material characteristics. Then, asphalt concrete with RP was designed according to the Superpave method, and the engineering performance of the asphalt mixture was further investigated. According to the results, we recommend the use of acidic RP in combination with other highly alkaline fillers, such as Portland cement (PC), with a suitable blending ratio of RP to PC of 1:1. Preparing asphalt concrete with filler composed of RP and PC can achieve satisfactory engineering performance.
Is Long-Distance Travel Influenced by Regional Geography?: An Analysis of Tripmaking Between Sociogeographic Clusters of U.S. Counties

As long-distance travel volumes continue to grow, decision makers seek data to help manage the travel-related impacts. Household travel surveys offer the detail necessary for developing policy-responsive forecasting models and other analyses, but more efficient sampling plans are needed to capture long-distance travel in a more cost-effective manner. To support the development of sampling approaches for long-distance surveys, the objectives of this study were to (a) develop a sociogeographic cluster classification system for stratifying U.S. counties and (b) measure differences in long-distance travel behavior across these county classifications. Using fuzzy clustering techniques, U.S. counties were successfully classified into sociogeographic clusters for the purpose of analyzing tripmaking behavior. We measured mean household total trip rates, trip rates by mode (air, vehicle, other), and trip rates by purpose (leisure, work, other) using the weighted 2001 National Household Travel Survey. The results indicated that households within each county cluster pursue (a) statistically similar long-distance trip rates with other households in their cluster and (b) statistically different trip rates from households in other clusters. The differences in household long-distance trip rates also extended to the census region level, meaning census regions as well as sociogeographic cluster assignment were significant predictors of long-distance trip rates. Therefore, rather than collect a long-distance travel survey from a sampling framework focused on being nationally representative, these results suggest we might target data collection from regional sociogeographic clusters.
Self-Enhancement and the Medial Prefrontal Cortex: The Convergence of Clinical and Experimental Findings

Self-enhancement (SE) is often overlooked as a fundamental cognitive ability mediated via the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC). Here, we present research that establishes the relationship between the PFC, SE, and the potential evolved beneficial mechanisms. Specifically, we believe there is now enough evidence to speculate that SE exists to provide significant benefits and should be considered a normal aspect of the self. Whatever the metabolic or social cost, the upside of SE is great enough that it is a core and fundamental psychological construct. Furthermore, though entirely theoretical, we suggest that a critical reason the PFC has evolved so significantly in Homo sapiens is to, in part, sustain SE. We, therefore, elaborate on its proximate and ultimate mechanisms.
Soil microbial community and physicochemical properties together drive soil organic carbon in Cunninghamia lanceolata plantations of different stand ages

Carbon sequestration in forest soil is critical for reducing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and slowing down global warming. However, little is known about the difference in soil organic carbon (SOC) among different stand ages and the relative importance of biotic and abiotic variations such as soil microbial community and soil physicochemical properties in the regulation of SOC in forests. In the present study, we measured the SOC of the topsoil (0-10 cm) in Chinese subtropical Cunninghamia lanceolata plantations of three different stand ages (young plantation of 6 years, middle-aged plantation of 12 years, and mature plantation of 25 years). We further measured microbial community composition by phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis and soil organic carbon physical fractions by wet sieving and density floating as well as other physicochemical properties. The effects of the main impact factors on SOC were investigated. The results showed that: the middle-aged plantation had significantly higher SOC (10.63 g kg−1) than the young plantation (5.33 g kg−1), and that of the mature plantation (7.83 g kg−1) was in between. Besides, the soil total PLFAs and all the functional groups (i.e., bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, Gram-positive bacteria, and Gram-negative bacteria) of PLFAs were significantly higher in the middle-aged plantation than in the young plantation and the mature plantation. Soil physicochemical properties, including physical fractions, differed among plantations of the three stand ages. Notably, the proportion of organic carbon protected within microaggregates was significantly higher in the middle-aged plantation (40.4%) than those in the young plantation (29.2%) and the mature plantation (27.8%), indicating that the middle-aged Cunninghamia lanceolata plantation had stronger soil organic carbon stability. Both soil microbial community and physicochemical properties exerted dominant effects on SOC and jointly explained 82.7% of the variance of SOC among different stand ages. Among them, total and all the functional groups of PLFAs, nitrate nitrogen, total nitrogen, and organic carbon protected within microaggregates had a significant positive correlation with SOC. These results highlight the important role of soil biotic and abiotic factors in shaping the contents of SOC in forests of different stand ages. This study provides a theoretical basis for forestry management and forest carbon cycling models.
Research on License Plate Recognition Method Based on HALCON

With the rapid development and continuous improvement of image processing technology, the intelligent management of traffic management system for vehicles has accelerated the speed of road safety information, in which the car license plate as the identification of vehicle identity, the identification of its character information is the key to the license plate recognition system. In order to solve the problem of the traditional license plate recognition algorithm such as long development period, this study adopts the HALCON as a programming platform, the acquisition of image preprocessing to enhance image contrast, through the affine transformation to complete correction of tilt of the image, and at the completion of the design after character segmentation OCR based on neural network classifier to complete accurate recognition of Chinese characters, letters and Numbers. The experiment shows that the system has the ability to adapt to the environment and can recognize the license plate information efficiently and accurately.
A Variable Radius Side Window Direct SLAM Method Based on Semantic Information

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) is a challenging and key issue in the mobile robotic fields. In terms of the visual SLAM problem, the direct methods are more suitable for more expansive scenes with many repetitive features or less texture in contrast with the feature-based methods. However, the robustness of the direct methods is weaker than that of the feature-based methods. To deal with this problem, an improved direct sparse odometry with loop closure (LDSO) is proposed, where the performance of the SLAM system under the influence of different imaging disturbances of the camera is focused on. In the proposed method, a method based on the side window strategy is proposed for preprocessing the input images with a multilayer stacked pixel blender. Then, a variable radius side window strategy based on semantic information is proposed to reduce the weight of selected points on semistatic objects, which can reduce the computation and improve the accuracy of the SLAM system based on the direct method. Various experiments are conducted on the KITTI dataset and TUM RGB-D dataset to test the performance of the proposed method under different camera imaging disturbances. The quantitative and qualitative evaluations show that the proposed method has better robustness than the state-of-the-art direct methods in the literature. Finally, a real-world experiment is conducted, and the results prove the effectiveness of the proposed method.