Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reducing protected lands in a hotspot of bee biodiversity: bees of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a federally protected area found in central southern Utah. Designated in 1996 by President William J. Clinton, it was recently reduced in size by President Donald J. Trump in a proclamation that turned the one large monument into three smaller ones. A long-term, standardized study of the bees had been conducted from 2000–2003, revealing 660 species. The bee communities of the area are characterized by being spatially heterogeneous; most of the bees occur in isolated areas, with only a few being both abundant and widespread. Here we examine what affect the recent resizing of the monument has on the number, and ecology, of the bees now excluded from monument boundaries. Using the new monument boundaries and the geographic coordinates associated with each bee, we derived new species lists for each of the three monuments, and compared them to each other, and to the excluded lands. All three monuments now protect unique faunas, with Bray–Curtis similarity values not exceeding 0.59%. Each monument now harbors species not found in the other two monuments. We found that 84 bee species are no longer protected by any of the three monuments. These 84 species were not concentrated in one area that is now excluded, but were scattered throughout the newly excluded lands. For some of the excluded bee species, there is no evidence that they are rare or imperiled, being widespread throughout the west. However, there is a concentration of bees in the southern and eastern former monument lands that represent range extensions from nearby hot deserts. In addition to numerous range extensions, the list of excluded bees also contains several undescribed species (newly discovered species that have not yet been named and described by taxonomists) and morphospecies (individuals that are morphologically distinct, but that require additional research before species designations can be made). This indicates that the bee communities housed in these excluded areas would benefit from additional scientific inquiry. The areas now excluded from monument protections house a greater proportion of the original GSENM bee community than any of the three new monument units. We conclude this paper by discussing what the smaller monuments might mean for bee conservation in this hot spot of bee biodiversity and suggest that bee communities here and elsewhere should be taken into account when conservation decisions are being made.
HDR Image Tone Mapping Approach based on Near Optimal Separable Adaptive Lifting Scheme

This paper proposes a Tone Mapping (TM) approach converting a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image into a Low Dynamic Range (LDR) image while preserving as much information of the HDR image as possible to ensure a good LDR image visual quality. This approach is based on a separable near optimal lifting scheme using an adaptive powerful prediction step. The latter relies on a linear weighted combination depending on the neighboring coefficients extracting then the relevant finest details in the HDR image at each resolution level. Moreover the approximation and detail coefficients are modified according to the entropy of each subband. The pixel's distribution of the coarse reconstructed LDR image is then adjusted according to a perceptual quantizer with respect to the human visual system using a piecewise linear function. Simulation results provide good results, both in terms of visual quality and TMQI metric, compared to existing competitive TM approaches.
Improved Common Mode Noise Models for Three Level T-Type Neutral Point Clamped Converters

Three level $T$-type based converter (3LT2C) is becoming an attractive option in several grid connected power electronic applications as it offers several advantages like high efficiency, lower active component count compared to other three level converters and superior output ac voltage quality. Common mode (CM) based noise modeling for 3LT2C has not been thoroughly explored in literature. This work presents an improved CM noise model for a grid connected 3LT2C with an LCL filter. It is shown that the 3LT2C has two high frequency CM noise sources which are responsible for ground leakage current injection. The effect of both CM noise sources on the overall CM model has been examined under different switching frequencies using sine triangle pulse width modulation (SPWM). Along with detailed analysis, extensive simulation results have been provided to validate the presented CM noise model.
Estimation of NRCS of Oil-Free and Oil-Covered Sea Surfaces at L-Band. Assessment with UAVSAR Data

This paper presents numerical simulations and analyses of EM (electromagnetic) scattering from oil-free and oil-covered sea surface. First, the influences caused by slicks on clean sea are studied and analyzed with the action balance function. Slicks on sea surface make significant impacts on the wind input, the nonlinear wave-wave interactions and the viscous dissipation. A damping model based on the action balance equation is introduced. And then, simulations are made by assuming the surface height spectra proposed by Elfouhaily et al. and Hwang, respectively. The two scale model (TSM) is used to calculate the normalized radar cross sections (NRCS) of oil-free and oil-covered sea surfaces. Additionally, an UAVSAR image which was collected during the Deep Water Horizon oil spill accident occurred in the Gulf of Mexico is served as a reference. The numerical comparisons between simulated results and measured data have shown that, for clean sea surface, the VV polarized NRCS simulated with Elfouhaily spectrum agree well with UA VSAR data, the HV polarized NRCS simulated with Hwang spectrum agree well with UA VSAR data. For polluted sea surface, the VV polarized NRCS simulated with Elfouhaily spectrum matches well with measured data. Overall, numerical simulations with Elfouhaily spectrum seem better than Hwang spectrum in our simulations.
A Privacy Analysis Method to Anonymous Graph Based on Bayes Rule in Social Networks

With the widespread popularity of social network platforms, privacy leakage has become a focus when users share personal information. As a result, there are so many different privacy preserving methods. However, one of the methods is to add noise to get a published graph, which cannot achieve the privacy preserving of social network completely. In this paper, we proposed a Bayesian privacy analysis model to identify nodes in a published graph. Firstly, we built a general privacy analysis model to explain the main idea of privacy analysis. Secondly, under this model, a privacy analysis method based on Bayes Rule is designed. Finally, experimental evaluation results showed that our method could identify one node of published graphs with some probability. Therefore, our model also provides guidance for designing better privacy preserving methods of social network.
Adaptive methods of time-dependent crowd density distribution visualization

The paper presents an analysis of visualization methods of crowd density visualization. Generated density maps take into account changes in time. Three methods have been implemented and tested. The first one uses motion detection based on the background subtraction. The second one is based on BLOBs (binary large objects) analysis. The third method uses interest points ie. points on the image that can be used by the object track the movement. The tests were performed using the PETS2009 video sequence database. The obtained maps were evaluated and the time consumptions were estimated.
Multipath Amplitude Estimation Based on Bayesian Inference in a Non-Gaussian Environment

Multipath amplitude estimation is addressed in this paper. However the received data is a mixture of real data and ocean noise which is complicated and is usually no longer follow Gaussian distribution or Laplacian distribution. To address this problem, an iterative algorithm based on Bayesian inference (BI) was proposed to estimate multipath amplitude with a zero-mean Gaussian mixture noise model (GMM). Numeric simulations illustrate the robustness and accuracy of the algorithm.
Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine Non-Uniform Demagnetization Detection Using Zero-Sequence Magnetic Field Density

Demagnetization in permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) results in a decrease in the motor average torque and could also increase the torque ripple and consequently vibration and acoustic noise, degrading the overall performance and reliability of the drive. Demagnetization detection can be therefore of tremendous importance. Use of hall-effect sensors has proven to be a viable option for demagnetization detection. Results reported using this method were based on the analysis of the flux density complex vector; the accuracy of this implementation strongly depends on the angle of the hall-effect sensor, being also sensitive to implementation issues such as offsets and gain variations of the sensors, PMs' temperature, manufacturing tolerances and stator current injection. This paper proposes the use of the zero-sequence component of the magnetic flux density for demagnetization detection. The use of this signal will improve the accuracy and reduce the sensitivity to implementation issues compared to the use of the flux complex vector.11This work was supported in part by the Research, Technological Development and Innovation of the Spanish Ministry Economy and Competitiveness, under grant MINECO-17-ENE2016-80047-R and by the Economic Development Agency of the Principality of Asturias (IDEPA) & ThyssenKrupp under grant SV-PA-17-RIS3-2.
Multilevel Rectifier Based On Cascaded Transformer With Single DC-link and Shared Legs

This work presents multilevel rectifiers with single dc-link based on the concept of cascaded transformer with shared-leg converters, isolated from the ac-side, and a three-phase bridge converter connected directly with the ac-side. The shared-leg converters are generalized for n-stages. This feature are an option to increase the number of levels per number of legs and also saves the transformers count in comparison with the conventional cascaded transformer topologies. The transformers turns ratios are considered to maximize the number of levels equally spaced from each other. Hence, the quality of the waveform synthesized by resultant voltages are improved, which permits to reduce the total harmonic distortion (THD) content of converter voltages/currents and, as a consequence, the THD of grid currents. Reduction in the number of controlled switches is proposed and the proposed topologies are compared with conventional ones. Power factor correction is also presented by means of the control strategy. System model description, pulsewidth modulation (PWM) technique and control strategy are presented. Simulation and Experimental results are presented and discussed for validation purposes.
Ka Band FEM Design Comparison with 45nm RFSOI CMOS and High Performance SiGe BiCMOS

45nm RFSOI NFET has similar FT/Fmax as high performance 130nm SiGe NPN and they are both potentially suitable for Ka Band FEM applications. In this paper, we evaluated the Ka band LNA, SPDT, and PA based on both processes. A 28GHz LNA designed with 45nm RFSOI does present a lower noise figure advantage of about 1.4dB compared to ~2dB noise figure of a LNA designed with SiGe NPN. For SPDT, due to low parasitic capacitance in SOI process, based on traditional stack solution, RFSOI process shows about 1dB IL advantage compared with SPDT designed with a bulk SiGe BiCMOS process. While in the high performance SiGe process, a transmission line based SPDT or other advanced topology can get better performance than traditional stack solution with larger area. For PA’s, the SiGe device has higher breakdown voltage than a single FET in 45nm CMOS process, so from power density point of view, SiGe has higher power density. But the SOI process provides the stack solution, so the RFSOI overall output power of a single PA without power combination is similar to one designed with the SiGe NPN.
A New K-NN-Centroid-Inspired Density-Based Clustering Algorithm

Density-based clustering algorithms are well known for identifying clusters possessing very different local densities and existing in different regions of data space. However, the parameters required by most popular density-based clustering algorithms, such as DBSCAN, are hard to determine but have significant impacts on the clustering results. In this paper, we present a new density-based clustering algorithm in which the selection of appropriate parameters is less difficult but more meaningful. Experiments performed on several datasets show the effectiveness of our approach.
Analytical Calculation of Maximum Mechanical Stress on the Rotor of the Interior Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Machine

This paper investigates the analytical methods for estimating the mechanical stress on the rotor of interior permanent-magnet synchronous machines (IPMSM). By adopting the principle of stress concentration, an analytical method, which can provide an accurate calculation of the maximum mechanical stress (MMS) on the rotor of IPMSMs rather than an approximate worst-case estimation, is proposed. The case of hyperbola notches on a regular tension bar is used as an equivalent of the notches on the rotor of IPMSMs to simplify the non-local stress distribution to a localized stress concentration problem. A modified function of stress concentration factor (SCF) is developed based on the stress analysis of the IPM rotor notch using finite element analysis (FEA). The modified SCF function combined with the traditional equivalent ring method (ERM) of stress calculation provides an accurate solution of the concentrated MMS on the iron-bridge of IPMSM rotors. A 4-pole flat-type IPMSM rotor was used in this study. MMS at the iron bridges of the IPMSM were calculated for different rotating speeds and notch shapes. Analytically estimated MMS of the proposed ERM-SCF method were compared with the results obtained from the FEA and the other existing analytical methods, which showed that the proposed method has excellent accuracy for calculating the maximum stress on rotors of the IPMSM.
Experimental and Small-signal Analysis of Microwave Photonic Phase Shifter based on Slow and Fast Light using Linear and Nonlinear Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers

This paper investigates the performance differences obtained by using four different SOAs as microwave phase shifters. All performances are evaluated in terms of measured phase shift, radiofrequency gain penalty and 3 dB bandwidth. A microwave phase shift as high as 89.3° is achieved by slow and fast light effects in a high gain extra-nonlinear SOA. In the same SOA a different response of the phase from usual CPO is observed experimentally at low frequencies for particular operating points in saturated regime. This phenomenon is theoretically analyzed by means of a small-signal analysis.
Glutathione/pH-responsive nanosponges enhance strigolactone delivery to prostate cancer cells

Strigolactones (SLs) are carotenoid-derived plant hormones that exhibit anti-cancer activities. We previously demonstrated that two SL analogues, MEB55 and ST362, inhibit the growth and survival of various cancer cell lines. However, these compounds have low aqueous solubility and stability at physiological pH. Here, we generated SL-loaded glutathione/pH-responsive nanosponges (GSH/pH-NS) to selectively deliver SLs to prostate cancer cells and enhance their therapeutic efficacy. The SLs were readily incorporated into the GSH/pH-NS. The drug loading efficiency was 13.9% for MEB55 and 15.4% for ST362, and the encapsulation efficiency was 88.7% and 96.5%, respectively. Kinetic analysis revealed that release of MEB55 and ST362 from the GSH/pH-NS was accelerated at acidic pH and in the presence of a high GSH concentration. Evaluation of the effects of MEB55- and ST362-loaded GSH/pH-NS on the growth of DU145 (high GSH) and PC-3 (low GSH) prostate cancer cells revealed that the GSH/pH-NS inhibited the proliferation of DU145 cells to a greater extent than free MEB55 or ST362 over a range of concentrations. These findings indicate GSH/pH-NS are efficient tools for controlled delivery of SLs to prostate cancer cells and may enhance the therapeutic efficacy of these compounds.
Mal-Warehouse: A Data Collection-as-a-Service of Mobile Malware Behavioral Patterns

Smartphones are pervasively used in many everyday life extents, and have been both targets and victims of malware. While there are many anti-malware applications available in mobile markets, so far there are no public services that collect mobile usage data, so as to observe malware effects on mobile devices. The main contribution of this paper is the Mal-warehouse, an open-source tool performing data collectionas-a-service for Android malware behavioral patterns. During its initial development and experimentation phase, the tool extracts mobile device statistics, including CPU, memory and battery usage, process reports, and network statistics for 14 Android malware applications from a target device. It then stores them in a classified manner on a cloud database. Despite the fact that the work at hand is still in an early stage, the detection model is enhanced with a preliminary detection module. Machine learning techniques are used as a proof-of-concept so as to evaluate the detection capabilities of the detection model, when compared to a clean snapshot of the target device. Mal-warehouse is publicly available, meaning that anyone can download and use it locally and then upload their findings to the cloud service for further evaluation and processing by others.
Stability Analysis for Two-Stage Cascaded DC-DC Converters System Based on Describing Function Method

Though the sub-module works stably alone, the cascaded DC-DC converters system may work unstably on account of the interaction among the sub-modules. Therefore, the stability analysis of cascaded DC-DC converters system is a hot issue. In this paper, at the beginning, the stability criterion for single DC-DC converter based on describing function method is reviewed. Following that, taking two-stage cascaded boost converters system as an example, the linearization of source converter or load converter is applied to analyze the stability of cascaded DC-DC converters system. What's more, the stability criterion for two-stage cascaded DC-DC converters system is proposed by combining the describing function method and linearization of source converter or load converter. Finally, the proposed stability criterion in this paper is verified by simulation and experimental results, which provides a novel stability analysis approach for cascaded DC-DC converters system based on describing function method.
Miniaturized Bandpass Filter Based on Capacitor-Loaded Half-Mode Substrate Integrated Waveguide (HMSIW) and Open-Circuit Stubs

A compact, wideband bandpass filter (BPF) based on half-mode substrate integrated waveguide (HMSIW) is proposed in this paper. The characteristics of the HMSIW is firstly investigated. Furthermore, two additional resonant modes and a broad stopband response at the high frequency band can be introduced by loading two open-circuit stubs. Combining HMSIW and two open-circuit stubs, a compact wideband BPF is designed and the numerical investigations are also carried out. Moreover, the bandwidth of proposed BPF can be adjusted by tuning the parameters of S_l and G_l, respectively. The simulated results show that the proposed BPF has wide bandwidth from 0.34 to 0.47 GHz (32.5%), low insert loss 2.24 dB, and return loss better than 10.9 dB in the passband. Besides, two transmission zeros (TZs) have been introduced on the right side of the passband which improve the stopband suppression and the selectivity.
Lake: A Digital Wizard of Oz Prototyping Tool

Mobile app designers aim to develop the best mobile software interfaces in the least amount of time, and rely on testing ideas with prototypes in lieu of building costly, fully functioning applications. Yet, designers cannot effectively prototype some complex app experiences, including augmented reality applications like Pokémon GO, because existing tools lack the needed features, or because prototyping in them is too time intensive to be feasible. To solve this problem, we introduce Lake, a mobile application prototyping tool that enables the creation of complex mobile applications with the same ease as paper prototyping. By leveraging the Wizard of Oz technique used in paper prototyping in our digital medium, we enable designers to prototype at the same low cost as paper, but at a much higher fidelity. Through a pilot study (N=6), we find that designers are able to gather organic in-context feedback from complex prototypes made with Lake.
Shielding effects of myelin sheath on axolemma depolarization under transverse electric field stimulation

Axonal stimulation with electric currents is an effective method for controlling neural activity. An electric field parallel to the axon is widely accepted as the predominant component in the activation of an axon. However, recent studies indicate that the transverse component to the axolemma is also effective in depolarizing the axon. To quantitatively investigate the amount of axolemma polarization induced by a transverse electric field, we computed the transmembrane potential (Vm) for a conductive body that represents an unmyelinated axon (or the bare axon between the myelin sheath in a myelinated axon). We also computed the transmembrane potential of the sheath-covered axonal segment in a myelinated axon. We then systematically analyzed the biophysical factors that affect axonal polarization under transverse electric stimulation for both the bare and sheath-covered axons. Geometrical patterns of polarization of both axon types were dependent on field properties (magnitude and field orientation to the axon). Polarization of both axons was also dependent on their axolemma radii and electrical conductivities. The myelin provided a significant “shielding effect” against the transverse electric fields, preventing excessive axolemma depolarization. Demyelination could allow for prominent axolemma depolarization in the transverse electric field, via a significant increase in myelin conductivity. This shifts the voltage drop of the myelin sheath to the axolemma. Pathological changes at a cellular level should be considered when electric fields are used for the treatment of demyelination diseases. The calculated term for membrane polarization (Vm) could be used to modify the current cable equation that describes axon excitation by an external electric field to account for the activating effects of both parallel and transverse fields surrounding the target axon.