Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Integration Method of Resonant Switched-Capacitor Converters Based on Parasitic Inductance

The parasitic inductor can be used as resonant component to increase the power density in resonant converters. However, the parasitic inductance value of PCB copper traces is not large enough to achieve zero current switching in low and medium switching frequency conditions. To tackle this problem, a novel integration method to increase parasitic inductance value is proposed in this letter. The proposed method is based on direct coupling, which utilizes lateral structure and vertical structure to increase equivalent inductance between two parasitic inductors. The proposed method not only can achieve high efficiency, high power density, and very low profile design, but also can save the cost and space of discrete inductors for the designed prototype in low and medium frequency range. The comparison and design procedure of both lateral and vertical structures of the parasitic inductor are presented in details. Two 100-W prototypes employing gallium nitride devices are built to compare the discrete inductor solution with the proposed parasitic inductor integration method. The power density of the prototype using parasitic inductor is 62.5% higher than discrete inductance and has achieved a peak efficiency of 93.4%.
Identification of Wild Mushroom Based on Ensemble Learning

Yunnan Province has the most abundant wild mushroom resources in China. With the development of modern science and technology, wild mushroom resources have attracted more and more attention because of their potential edible, medicinal, and economic value. The identification of wild mushrooms is regarded as an important research field by more and more researchers. In this paper, we collected the data of wild mushrooms in multiple scenes as the training data of the base learners. The VGG16, Resnet18, and Googlenet models integrated by bagging algorithm are trained. Then they are used for integration learning. So that adapt to the complex scenes of wild mushroom recognition and improve the accuracy and generalization ability. Experiments have shown that, compared with a single CNN, our model showed better performance. With our 10% Holdout Validation Dataset, we saw that the accuracy of the integrated model is 93.1%, compared with the best single bagging integrated model 90.8%.
CRLH-TL Zeroth-Order Resonator Patch Antenna For LTE and Wireless Communication Applications

Many references have recently used the term metamaterial to refer to left-handed structures. Left-handed (LH) materials provide unique new properties when compared to traditional right-handed (RH) materials because they have negative permittivity and permeability at the same time. A Composite Right/Left-Handed (CRLH) transmission line (TL) structure comprised of a series inter-digital capacitor and a shunt inductor is used to implement the left-handed properties. This paper thoroughly examines the CRLH TL theory. The verification is carried out using a commercial software package. The observed simulation results agreed well with the theoretical prediction. A zeroth-order resonator (ZOR) CRLH antenna's resonate frequency is independent of its physical length, which is a unique feature. This allows to produce small, compact antennas. The ZOR CRLH antennas are designed, simulated, fabricated, and tested at low frequencies. The ZOR CRLH antenna is constructed in a systematic manner. To demonstrate the antenna performance, the radiation characteristics of the ZOR antenna are shown. The antenna laboratory's network analyzer was used to fabricate and measure the final design structures. For LTE and wireless communication applications, the measured and simulated results provide excellent performance.
Computational Model for Global Contour Precedence Based on Primary Visual Cortex Mechanisms

The edges of an image contains rich visual cognitive cues. However, the edge information of a natural scene usually is only a set of disorganized unorganized pixels for a computer. In psychology, the phenomenon of quickly perceiving global information from a complex pattern is called the global precedence effect (GPE). For example, when one observes the edge map of an image, some contours seem to automatically “pop out” from the complex background. This is a manifestation of GPE on edge information and is called global contour precedence (GCP). The primary visual cortex (V1) is closely related to the processing of edges. In this article, a neural computational model to simulate GCP based on the mechanisms of V1 is presented. There are three layers in the proposed model: the representation of line segments, organization of edges, and perception of global contours. In experiments, the ability to group edges is tested on the public dataset BSDS500. The results show that the grouping performance, robustness, and time cost of the proposed model are superior to those of other methods. In addition, the outputs of the proposed model can also be applied to the generation of object proposals, which indicates that the proposed model can contribute significantly to high-level visual tasks.
Electro-Thermal Performance Boosting in Stacked Si Gate-all-Around Nanosheet FET With Engineered Source/Drain Contacts

In this article, we investigate the electro-thermal (ET) performance of stacked Si gate-all-around (GAA) nanosheet FET (NSHFET) by adopting the metal (M0) source/drain (S/D) engineered contacts such as M0-wrap around the Si S/D epitaxial regions and M0 filling through S/D trenched regions in addition to the conventional scheme where metal (M0) epi on the S/D. The device ET performance is enhanced by increasing the device on-state current (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${I_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) by more than 10% with better device lattice heat removal from the hot-spot location of the NSHFET. This results in decreased device self-heating by lowering lattice hot-spot temperature (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${T}_{L, max}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) and device effective thermal resistance (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{th, eff}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) by more than 11% compared to conventional M0-epi-based NSHFET design. The junction temperature difference between the nanosheet channels is also lowered, which decreases the inter-sheet threshold voltage (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}_{T}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) difference. The benchmarking study of the device designs reveals that M0-trench-based NSHFET gives the best performance from both electrical and thermal perspective for future sub-5-nm CMOS logic technologies.
Research on ADMM Reconstruction Algorithm of Photoacoustic Tomography With Limited Sampling Data

Photoacoustic imaging is a new non-destructive biomedical imaging method. When limited independent data is available, the restoration of the initial pressure rise distribution is often an ill-posed problem. In this paper, based on the study of photoacoustic effects, the sparse prior information of photoacoustic images is integrated into the reconstruction process by using the compressed sensing (CS) theory and the L2 norm optimization technique, combining the augmented Langrange weighting of the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) with the total variation (TV) minimization problem, and the reconstruction artifacts are effectively eliminated. The simulation data from the real numerical model show that compared with the common time reversal algorithm, interpolation algorithm and truncated back projection algorithm, the total variational regularization method based on ADMM can effectively improve the quality of reconstructed images under the condition of limited viewing angles and incomplete projection data.
Hybrid Precoding for Partial-Full Mixed Connection mmWave MIMO

We propose hybrid precoding algorithm for less-investigated partial-full mixed connection (PFMC) architecture in millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple input multiple output (MIMO). The RF chains and the antennas are divided into various subgroups with full connection existing between the RF chains and the antennas of a particular subgroup. We cast the hybrid precoding problem for the PFMC architecture as a matrix factorization problem and propose an algorithm based on alternating minimization with a view to minimize the Euclidean distance between the hybrid precoding sub-matrix for each subgroup and the corresponding sub-matrix of the fully digital optimal precoder. The proposed precoder is able to produce energy efficiency better than the precoders for FC and PC architectures and the existing precoder for the PFMC architecture.
Structure and Home Range Size of Mixed-Species Bird Flocks in a Bamboo Forest in Southwestern Amazonia

Abstract. Mixed-species flocks of birds are cohesive groups of two or more different species that are kept in formation by systematic behavioral interactions among the members of the flocks. Typically, mixed-species flocks form themselves around a nuclear species, which presents a specific pattern of movement during foraging, and a song that is recognized by the other species. In the understory of Neotropical forests, representatives of the family Thamnophilidae, in particular species of the genus Thamnomanes, have become adapted for the role of nuclear species in mixed-species flocks. In the present study, we describe the mixed-species flocks led by individuals of Bluish-slate Antshrike Thamnomanes schistogynus in a forest dominated by bamboo Guadua sp. in southwestern Brazilian Amazonia. We collected data within a 600 × 600 m grid subdivided into 36 1-ha plots, with a total area of 36 ha. Within this grid, we delimited the home ranges and core areas of the resident mixed-species flocks. We also identified the composition of each flocks, frequency, fidelity of its members and determined the relationship between mixed-species flocks and vegetation structure within the grid. We delimited the home ranges of eight mixed-species flocks. The mean home range, estimated using the Minimum Convex Polygon method, was 3.45 ± 0.17 ha, and estimated using the autocorrelated kernel density estimation method was 3.65 ± 0.15 ha, and the mean core area, 1.14 ± 0.03 ha. The home ranges of the mixed-species flocks led by T. schistogynus in southwestern Amazonia are among the smallest recorded in species of the genus Thamnomanes. We identified 71 different bird species in the mixed-species flocks with a mean of 41.1 ± 2.1. While the geographic distribution of the lead species T. schistogynus coincides almost exactly with that of the bamboo forests of southwestern Amazonia, our results did not indicate any systematic relationship or fidelity between the mixed-species flocks led by this species and the bamboo forest.
Phosphate-based treatments for conservation of stone

To overcome the limitations of currently available protectives and consolidants for carbonate stones (such as marble and limestone), in 2011 the use of calcium phosphate was proposed. The idea is forming calcium phosphates (ideally hydroxyapatite) as the reaction product between the substrate and an aqueous solution of a phosphate salt, that the stone is treated with. In this paper, the studies aimed at identifying the best treatment conditions (in terms of nature and concentration of the phosphate precursor, solution pH, reaction time, ionic and organic additions) are first briefly summarized. Then, the efficacy of the phosphate treatment in protecting marble from dissolution in rain and restoring cohesion of weathered marble and limestone is discussed. Some recent studies on the use of the phosphate treatment on alternative substrates and some future steps for research on the topic are finally outlined.
Epigenetic mechanisms of partial dosage compensation in an avian, female heterogametic system

The evolution of genetic sex determination is often accompanied by degradation of one of the proto sex chromosomes. Male heterogametic systems have evolved convergent, epigenetic mechanisms restoring the resulting imbalance in gene dosage between diploid autosomes (AA) and the hemizygous sex chromosome (X). Female heterogametic systems (AAf ZWf, AAm ZZm) tend to only show partial dosage compensation (0.5 < Zf:AAf < 1) and dosage balance (0.5<Zf:ZZm<1). The underlying mechanism remains largely elusive. Here, we quantified gene expression for a total of 15 male and female Eurasian crows (Corvus (corone) spp. ) raised under common garden conditions. In addition, we characterized aspects of the regulatory landscape quantifying genome-wide ATAC-seq and 5mC methylation profiles. Partial dosage compensation was explained by female upregulation of Z-linked genes accompanied by increased chromatin accessibility on the female Z chromosome. 5mC methylation was strongly reduced in open chromatin-regions and GC islands and showed chromosome-, but no sex-specific variation. With the exception of the pseudo-autosomal region (PAR), female upregulation of gene expression was evenly spread across the Z chromosome without evidence for regional epigenetic regulation, as has for example been suggested for the male hypermethylated region (MHM) in chicken. Our results support the hypothesis that partial dosage compensation in female heterogametic systems is subject to chromosome-wide, epigenetic control mediated by differential chromatin accessibility between the sexes.
Downregulation of let-7 by Electrical Acupuncture Increases Protein Synthesis in Mice

Background Our previous study found that acupuncture with low frequency electrical stimulation (Acu/LFES) prevents muscle atrophy by attenuation of protein degradation in mice. The current study examines the impact of Acu/LFES on protein synthesis. Method C57/BL6 mice received Acu/LFES treatment on hindlimb for 30 min once. Acu/LFES points were selected by WHO Standard Acupuncture Nomenclature and electric stimulation applied using an SDZ-II Electronic acupuncture instrument. Muscle protein synthesis was measured by the surface-sensing of translation (SUnSET) assay. Exosomes were isolated using serial centrifugation and concentration and size of the collected exosomes were measured using a NanoSight instrument. The mature microRNA library in serum exosomes was validated using a High Sensitivity DNA chip. Results Protein synthesis was enhanced in the both hindlimb and forelimb muscles. Blocking exosome secretion with GW4869 decreased the Acu/LFES-induced increases in protein synthesis. MicroRNA-deep sequencing demonstrated that four members of the Let-7 miRNA family were significantly decreased in serum exosomes. Real time qPCR further verified Acu/LFES-mediated decreases of let-7c-5p in serum exosomes and skeletal muscles. In cultured C2C12 myotubes, inhibition of let-7c not only increased protein synthesis, but also enhanced protein abundance of Igf1 and Igf1 receptors. Using a luciferase reporter assay, we demonstrated that let-7 directly inhibits Igf1. Conclusion Acu/LFES on hindlimb decreases let-7-5p leading to upregulation of the Igf1 signaling and increasing protein synthesis in both hindlimb and forelimb skeletal muscles. This provides a new understanding of how the electrical acupuncture treatment can positively influence muscle health.
A Proposal for a Data-Driven Approach to the Influence of Music on Heart Dynamics

Electrocardiographic signals (ECG) and heart rate viability measurements (HRV) provide information in a range of specialist fields, extending to musical perception. The ECG signal records heart electrical activity, while HRV reflects the state or condition of the autonomic nervous system. HRV has been studied as a marker of diverse psychological and physical diseases including coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, and stroke. HRV has also been used to observe the effects of medicines, the impact of exercise and the analysis of emotional responses and evaluation of effects of various quantifiable elements of sound and music on the human body. Variations in blood pressure, levels of stress or anxiety, subjective sensations and even changes in emotions constitute multiple aspects that may well-react or respond to musical stimuli. Although both ECG and HRV continue to feature extensively in research in health and perception, methodologies vary substantially. This makes it difficult to compare studies, with researchers making recommendations to improve experiment planning and the analysis and reporting of data. The present work provides a methodological framework to examine the effect of sound on ECG and HRV with the aim of associating musical structures and noise to the signals by means of artificial intelligence (AI); it first presents a way to select experimental study subjects in light of the research aims and then offers possibilities for selecting and producing suitable sound stimuli; once sounds have been selected, a guide is proposed for optimal experimental design. Finally, a framework is introduced for analysis of data and signals, based on both conventional as well as data-driven AI tools. AI is able to study big data at a single stroke, can be applied to different types of data, and is capable of generalisation and so is considered the main tool in the analysis.
When Scents Help Me Remember My Password

Current authentication processes overwhelmingly rely on audiovisual data, comprising images, text or audio. However, the use of olfactory data (scents) has remained unexploited in the authentication process, notwithstanding their verified potential to act as cues for information recall. Accordingly, in this paper, a new authentication process is proposed in which olfactory media are used as cues in the login phase. To this end, PassSmell , a proof of concept authentication application, is developed in which words and olfactory media act as passwords and olfactory passwords, respectively. In order to evaluate the potential of PassSmell, two different versions were developed, namely one which was olfactory-enhanced and another which did not employ olfactory media. Forty-two participants were invited to take part in the experiment, evenly split into a control and experimental group. For assessment purposes, we recorded the time taken to logon as well as the number of failed/successful login attempts; we also asked users to complete a Quality of Experience (QoE) questionnaire. In terms of time taken, a significant difference was found between the experimental and the control groups, as determined by an independent sample t-test. Similar results were found with respect to average scores and the number of successful attempts. Regarding user QoE, having olfactory media with words influenced the users positively, emphasizing the potential of using this kind of authentication application in the future.
Micromechanical Characterisation of 3D Bioprinted neural cell models using Brillouin Microscopy

Biofabrication of artificial 3D in vitro neural cell models that closely mimic the central nervous system (CNS) is an emerging field of research with applications from fundamental biology to regenerative medicine, and far reaching benefits for the economy, healthcare and the ethical use of animals. The micromechanical properties of such models are an important factor dictating the success of modelling outcomes in relation to accurate reproduction of the processes in native tissues. Characterising the micromechanical properties of such models non-destructively and over a prolonged span of time, however, are key challenges. Brillouin microscopy (BM) could provide a solution to this problem since this technology is non-invasive, label-free and is capable of microscale 3D imaging. In this work, the viscoelasticity of 3D bioprinted neural cell models consisting of NG 108-15 neuronal cells and GelMA hydrogels of various concentrations were investigated using BM. We demonstrate changes in the micro- and macro-scale mechanical properties of these models over a 7 day period, in which the hydrogel component of the model are found to soften as the cells grow, multiply and form stiffer spheroid-type structures. These findings signify the necessity to resolve in microscopic detail the mechanics of in vitro 3D tissue models and suggest Brillouin microscopy to be a suitable technology to bridge this gap.
Mechanical intercellular communication via matrix-borne cell force transmission during vascular network formation

Intercellular communication is critical to the development and homeostatic function of all tissues. Previous work has shown that cells can communicate mechanically via transmission of cell-generated forces through their surrounding extracellular matrix, but this process is not well understood. Here, we utilized synthetic, electrospun fibrous matrices in conjunction with a microfabrication-based cell patterning approach to examine mechanical intercellular communication (MIC) between endothelial cells (ECs) during the assembly of microvascular networks. We found that cell force-mediated matrix displacements in deformable fibrous matrices underly directional migration of neighboring ECs towards each other prior to the formation of stable cell-cell connections. We also identified a critical role for intracellular calcium signaling mediated by focal adhesion kinase and TRPV4 during MIC that extends to multicellular assembly of vessel-like networks in 3D fibrin hydrogels. The results presented here are critical to the design of biomaterials that support cellular self-assembly for tissue engineering applications.
Development of a reproducible porcine model of infected burn wounds

Severe burns are traumatic and physically debilitating injuries with a high rate of mortality. Bacterial infections often complicate burn injuries, which presents unique challenges for wound management and improved patient outcomes. Currently, pigs are used as the gold standard of pre-clinical models to study infected skin wounds due to the similarity between porcine and human skin in terms of structure and immunological response. However, utilizing this large animal model for wound infection studies can be technically challenging and create issues with data reproducibility. We present a detailed protocol for a porcine model of infected burn wounds based on our experience in creating and evaluating partial thickness burn wounds infected with Staphylococcus aureus on six pigs. Wound healing kinetics and bacterial clearance were measured over a period of 27 days in this model. Enumerated are steps to achieve standardized wound creation, bacterial inoculation, and dressing techniques. Systematic evaluation of wound healing and bacterial colonization of the wound bed is also described. Finally, advice on animal housing considerations, efficient bacterial plating procedures, and overcoming common technical challenges is provided. This protocol aims to provide investigators with a step-by-step guide to execute a technically challenging porcine wound infection model in a reproducible manner. Accordingly, this would allow for the design and evaluation of more effective burn infection therapies leading to better strategies for patient care. Graphical Abstract