Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estimation of Terrestrial Water Storage Variations in Sichuan-Yunnan Region from GPS Observations Using Independent Component Analysis

GPS can be used to measure land motions induced by mass loading variations on the Earth’s surface. This paper presents an independent component analysis (ICA)-based inversion method that uses vertical GPS coordinate time series to estimate the change of terrestrial water storage (TWS) in the Sichuan-Yunnan region in China. The ICA method was applied to extract the hydrological deformation signals from the vertical coordinate time series of GPS stations in the Sichuan-Yunnan region from the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China (CMONC). These vertical deformation signals were then inverted to TWS variations. Comparative experiments were conducted based on Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data and a hydrological model for validation. The results demonstrate that the TWS changes estimated from GPS(ICA) deformations are highly correlated with the water variations derived from the GRACE data and hydrological model in Sichuan-Yunnan region. The TWS variations are overestimated by the vertical GPS observations the northwestern Sichuan-Yunnan region. The anomalies are likely caused by inaccurate atmospheric loading correction models or residual tropospheric errors in the region with high topographic variability and can be reduced by ICA preprocessing.
Analysis of the influence of wind farms in full operating conditions on the torsional vibration of the shaft system of synchronous generators

The power oscillation induced by the large-scale integration of wind power into the power grid has become one of the important issues affecting the safe and stable operation of the power grid. Aiming at the dynamic interaction between wind farms and synchronous generators, based on the additional excitation signal injection method, the influence of DFIG and PMSG wind farms on the damping characteristics of each torsional vibration mode of synchronous generators under full operating conditions is analyzed. By applying an AC voltage signal at both ends of the field winding to stimulate rotational speed oscillation, observe the difference in the free response characteristics of rotational speed disturbances, identify the electromechanical coupling characteristics between the wind farm and the synchronous generator set, and reveal the influence of the wind farm type and operating conditions on the shaft system of the synchronous generator set. The mechanism of torsional vibration. Finally, the validity of the theoretical analysis is verified based on time-domain simulation.
Distributed Cooperative Clearing Model of Peak Regulation Ancillary Service Market Under Ubiquitous Power Internet of Things

As distributed energy resources (DERs) rapidly integrate into current power systems, new methods to effectively manage them need to be developed. Toward this end, a large number of geographically dispersed DERs are generally aggregated into a virtual power plant (VPP). Aiming at the problem of peak regulation mechanism integrating the traditional thermal power units and newly VPPs, the two-layer market clearing model for peak regulation ancillary service is proposed under the ubiquitous power internet of things in a cooperative scheme. According to the capacity of available peak regulation and the limitations, which is more in line with the actual peak regulation characteristics of thermal power units and VPPs, the upper-level clearing model is presented. Also, in order to avoid unfair power dispatching among DERs in VPP, the lower-level clearing model is designed in a distributed method, which regulates the VPP at a specific dispatched clearing command from the upper-level model while maintaining the utilization ratios of DERs at a consensus. The effectiveness of the proposed model is illustrated through simulations on the IEEE 123-bus test system.
Classification of anatomical landmarks from upper gastrointestinal endoscopic images⋆

In this paper, we propose a framework that automatically classifies anatomical landmarks of Upper GastroIntestinal Endoscopy (UGIE). This framework aims to select the best deep neural network in terms of both criteria of classification performances and computational costs. We investigate two lightweight deep neural networks that are ResNet-18, MobileNet-V2 to learn hidden discriminant features for multi classification task. In addition, because convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are data hungry, we examine various data augmentation (DA) techniques such as Brightness and Contrast Transformation (BaC), Geometric Transformation (GeoT), and Variational Auto-Encoder (VAE). Impacts of these DA schemes are evaluated for both CNN models. The experiments are conducted on a self collected dataset of 3700 endoscopic images which contains 10 anatomical landmarks of UGIE. The results show outstanding performances of both models thanks to DA techniques compared to the original data usage. The best sensitivity is 97.43% and specificity is 99.71% using MobileNet-V2 with Geometric Transformation based DA technique at a frame-rate of 21fps. These results highlight the best model which has significant potential for developing computer-aided esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) diagnostic systems.
Performance Evaluation of Quine-McCluskey Method on Multi-core CPU

The Quine-McCluskey method is an algorithm to minimize Boolean functions. Although the method can be programmed on computers, it takes a long time to return the set of prime implicants, thus slowing the analysis and design of digital logic circuits. As a result, it slows down the dynamic reconfiguration process of programmable logic devices. In this paper, we first propose a data representation for storing implicants in memory to reduce the cache misses of the program. We then propose an algorithm to find all prime implicants of a Boolean function. The algorithm aims to reuse the data available on cache, thus decreasing cache misses. After that, we propose an algorithm for step 2 of the Quine-McCluskey method to select the minimal number of essential prime implicants. The evaluation shows that our proposals achieve much higher performance than the original Quine-McCluskey method. The number of essential prime implicants is a low percentage, less than 50%, of the total prime implicants generated in step 1 of the method.
Analysis of Support Vector Regression Performance in Prediction of Lettuce Growth for Aeroponic IoT Systems

In aeroponics, an IoT-based monitoring system that can monitor the growth of lettuce is needed because the delay in harvesting lettuce can cause the lettuce to taste bitter when consumed and in addition, if the lettuce is harvested at a too young age, the dry weight of the plant is not optimal. However, monitoring can only be done on parameters that can be measured by sensors so a regression method such as SVR needs to be trained to predict the lettuce growth. The purpose of this study is to analyze the performance of SVR in the lettuce growth prediction process. The basic features for predicting are light intensity, air temperature, air humidity, and water temperature. Additional features are light accumulation and day of growth. Preprocessing steps are implemented to improve the performance of the SVR model which are feature scaling using standard scaling and feature selection using Pearson correlation. The test results show that the optimized R-Squared value for the performance of SVR model in predicting growth targets leaf number, fresh weight, leaf width, and leaf length are 0.98 each.
Impact Behavior of Concrete Bridge Deck on Girders Due to Moving Vehicles

The purpose of this research is to interpret the behavior of highway bridge decks due to the impact of moving vehicles. First, the analytical theory is briefly presented, including the vehicle model, bridge model, road surface model, and numerical methods. Both the vehicle and the bridge are simulated as thre- dimensional constructs. The road profile is modeled using a stationary Gaussian random process that is described by a power spectral density (PSD) function. Newmark's direct integration method is used in the bridge dynamic analysis. The bridge deck free and forced vibration characteristics, including the impact factors of moment and shear with both single and multiple trucks traveling over a rough deck, are investigated. Then, the stiffness effects of the longitudinal girders are studied. Analytical results show that the dynamic loading of the bridge deck is significantly smaller than that of the longitudinal girders as the direction of the deck main internal forces is perpendicular to the vehicle travel direction. The research results are applicable to bridge deck design.
Low-cost drying methods for developing countries

Low-cost drying technologies suitable for rural farming areas are presented.Some of the important considerations with regard to their suitability include: 1.Low initial capital;2.easy-to-operate with no complicated electronic / mechanical protocol,and 3.effective in promoting better drying kinetics.The drying technologies that were selected include solar,simple convective and desiccant drying.A brief introduction on each drying technology has been presented followed by some technical details on their working operations.
HETEROGENEOUS CLASS S IZE E FFECTS: N EW EVIDENCE FROM A PANEL O F UNIVERSITY STUDENTS*

Using administrative records from a UK university, we present evidence on the effects of class size on students’ test scores. We estimate non-linear class size effects controlling for unobserved heterogeneity of students and faculty. We find that: (i) at the average class size, the effect size is � 0.108; (ii) the effect size is negative and significant only for the smallest and largest ranges of class sizes and zero in intermediate class sizes; (iii) students at the top of the test score distribution are more affected by changes in class size, especially when class sizes are very large. The organisation of university education remains in the spotlight both in academia and policy circles. Recent research has stressed the importance of higher education in providing positive externalities within firms (Moretti, 2004), within local labour markets (Glaeser et al., 1992) and in fostering economy wide growth as a whole (Aghion et al., 2007). Concurrently, most OECD countries have adopted supply side policies that have led to dramatic increases in university enrolment during the last decade. 1
Altered Ecology of the Respiratory Tract Microbiome and Nosocomial Pneumonia

Nosocomial pneumonia is one of the most frequent infections in critical patients. It is primarily associated with mechanical ventilation leading to severe illness, high mortality, and prolonged hospitalization. The risk of mortality has increased over time due to the rise in multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial infections, which represent a global public health threat. Respiratory tract microbiome (RTM) research is growing, and recent studies suggest that a healthy RTM positively stimulates the immune system and, like the gut microbiome, can protect against pathogen infection through colonization resistance (CR). Physiological conditions of critical patients and interventions as antibiotics administration and mechanical ventilation dramatically alter the RTM, leading to dysbiosis. The dysbiosis of the RTM of ICU patients favors the colonization by opportunistic and resistant pathogens that can be part of the microbiota or acquired from the hospital environments (biotic or built ones). Despite recent evidence demonstrating the significance of RTM in nosocomial infections, most of the host-RTM interactions remain unknown. In this context, we present our perspective regarding research in RTM altered ecology in the clinical environment, particularly as a risk for acquisition of nosocomial pneumonia. We also reflect on the gaps in the field and suggest future research directions. Moreover, expected microbiome-based interventions together with the tools to study the RTM highlighting the “omics” approaches are discussed.
Virtual Screening of Drug-Like Compounds as Potential Inhibitors of the Dengue Virus NS5 Protein

Dengue virus (DENV) is the causative agent of dengue fever. Annually, there are about 400 million new cases of dengue worldwide, and so far there is no specific treatment against this disease. The NS5 protein is the largest and most conserved viral protein among flaviviruses and is considered a therapeutic target of great interest. This study aims to search drug-like compounds for possible inhibitors of the NS5 protein in the four serotypes of DENV. Using a virtual screening from a ∼642,759-compound database, we suggest 18 compounds with NS5 binding and highlight the best compound per region, in the methyltransferase and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase domains. These compounds interact mainly with the amino acids of the catalytic sites and/or are involved in processes of protein activity. The identified compounds presented physicochemical and pharmacological properties of interest for their use as possible drugs; furthermore, we found that some of these compounds do not affect cell viability in Huh-7; therefore, we suggest evaluating these compounds in vitro as candidates in future research.
Decrease of Intracellular Glutamine by STF-62247 Results in the Accumulation of Lipid Droplets in von Hippel-Lindau Deficient Cells

Kidney cancer is one of the top ten cancer diagnosed worldwide and its incidence has increased the last 20 years. Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma (ccRCC) are characterized by mutations that inactivate the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor gene and evidence indicated alterations in metabolic pathways, particularly in glutamine metabolism. We previously identified a small molecule, STF-62247, which target VHL-deficient renal tumors by affecting late-stages of autophagy and lysosomal signaling. In this study, we investigated ccRCC metabolism in VHL-deficient and proficient cells exposed to the small molecule. Metabolomics profiling using 1H NMR demonstrated that STF-62247 increases levels of glucose, pyruvate, glycerol 3-phosphate while glutamate, asparagine, and glutathione significantly decreased. Diminution of glutamate and glutamine was further investigated using mass spectrometry, western blot analyses, enzymatic activities, and viability assays. We found that expression of SLC1A5 increases in VHL-deficient cells treated with STF-62247, possibly to stimulate glutamine uptake intracellularly to counteract the diminution of this amino acid. However, exogenous addition of glutamine was not able to rescue cell viability induced by the small molecule. Instead, our results showed that VHL-deficient cells utilize glutamine to produce fatty acid in response to STF-62247. Surprisingly, this occurs through oxidative phosphorylation in STF-treated cells while control cells use reductive carboxylation to sustain lipogenesis. We also demonstrated that STF-62247 stimulated expression of stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD1) and peripilin2 (PLIN2) to generate accumulation of lipid droplets in VHL-deficient cells. Moreover, the carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1A (CPT1A), which control the entry of fatty acid into mitochondria for β-oxidation, also increased in response to STF-62247. CPT1A overexpression in ccRCC is known to limit tumor growth. Together, our results demonstrated that STF-62247 modulates cellular metabolism of glutamine, an amino acid involved in the autophagy-lysosome process, to support lipogenesis, which could be implicated in the signaling driving to cell death.
Structural and Functional Analysis of Nonheme Iron Enzymes BCMO-1 and BCMO-2 from Caenorhabditis elegans

Carotenoid metabolism is critical for diverse physiological processes. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has two genes that are annotated as β-carotene 15,15′-monooxygenase (BCMO) and are 17 centimorgan apart on chromosome II, but the function of BCMO-1 and BCMO-2 remains uncharacterized. Sequence homology indicates that the two enzymes belong to the carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase family that share a seven-bladed β-propeller fold with a nonheme iron center. Here we determined crystal structures of BCMO-1 and BCMO-2 at resolutions of 1.8 and 1.9 Å, respectively. Structural analysis reveals that BCMO-1 and BCMO-2 are strikingly similar to each other. We also characterized their β-carotene cleavage activity, but the results suggest that they may not act as β-carotene 15,15′-oxygenases.
The Impact of the Voluntary Environmental Agreements on Green Technology Innovation: Evidence From the Prefectural-Level Data in China

“Porter Hypothesis” believes that moderate environmental regulation can promote the growth of green technology innovation. Voluntary environmental agreements are a typical type of environmental regulation and theoretically promote green technology innovation. In 1964, Japan was the first country in the world to implement a voluntary environmental agreement, with good results. Subsequently, European Union countries began to implement the “fifth Environmental Action Plan” on 1 January 1993, which effectively combined voluntary environmental agreements with corporate self-regulation. The prior empirical work assists the idea that environmental regulation has diverse impacts on the environment. However, China’s voluntary environmental agreements have a short implementation time and lack of experience and need to be further explored in terms of policy proposal and technology implementation. The existing literature is based on a sample of units at the provincial level or national level are studied, utilizing multiple regression analysis methods, this study in China prefecture-level administrative units as investigation object, and choose the government environmental protection education, the government agreement propaganda, enterprise ecological ethics, information disclosure, market efficiency, and information technology support six elements as the key independent variables. This paper empirically examines the promotion effect of the voluntary environmental agreement on green technology innovation, finds the shortcomings of China’s voluntary environmental agreement regulation, and puts forward specific improvement strategies to promote the growth of green technology innovation more effectively. It is found that government environmental protection education, enterprise ecological ethics construction, market effectiveness, and information technology support have obvious promoting effects on green product innovation, green process innovation, and end management innovation. Government agreement publicity has no promotion function for green product innovation, green process innovation, and terminal governance innovation. The disclosure of protocol information has a promotion effect on green product innovation, but it lacks the promotion function on green process innovation, and end management innovation. The research believes that the deepening of the implementation of voluntary environmental agreements in China should give full play to the leading role of the government, implement progressive policies, deepen the internal coordination of environmental regulations, give play to the supervision role of the public and the media, learn from the experience of western countries, and promote green credit. The finding of the study opens up new insight for appropriate policymaking.
Protein Level Defense Responses of Theobroma cacao Interaction With Phytophthora palmivora

Species of the genus Phytophthora cause black-pod rot, which is the disease responsible for the largest losses in cocoa production in the world. The species Phytophthora palmivora affects cacao tree cultivation in all producing countries. However, proteomic level studies of the Theobroma cacao–P. palmivora interaction are incipient. Thus, the aim of this study was to analyze this pathosystem through comparative proteomics and systems biology analyses. The proteins were extracted from leaves of T. cacao PA 150 (resistant) and SIC 23 (susceptible) clones 48 h after inoculation with P. palmivora using inoculation with sterile distilled water as controls. There were differences in the protein profile between the control and inoculated treatments of both clones. Thirty-seven distinct proteins were identified on 88 spots of the PA 150 treatments, and 39 distinct proteins were identified on 120 spots of the SIC 23 treatments. The metabolisms of ATP, carbohydrates, and nitrogen compounds had higher percentages of proteins with increased accumulation after inoculation in both clones. Systems biology analysis demonstrated that the networks contain a higher number of proteins in the clusters corresponding to processes of photosynthesis and glucose metabolism, suggesting that they are the most affected by the infection. In addition, lipoxygenase (LOX), 2-methylene-furan-3-one reductase-like, and co-chaperonin CPN20 proteins and a probable CC-NBS-LRR protein may be involved in resistance to black-pod disease caused by P. palmivora.
Blocking VCAM-1 Prevents Angiotensin II-Induced Hypertension and Vascular Remodeling in Mice

Adhesion of monocytes to the vascular endothelium frequently leads to an inflammatory response, which contributes to hypertension and vascular remodeling. Vascular cellular adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) plays an important role in leukocyte adhesion and migration during inflammatory diseases. However, its role in angiotensin (Ang) II -induced hypertension and vascular dysfunction remains largely unknown. Wild-type (WT) mice were administered a VCAM-1 neutralizing antibody (0.1 or 0.2 mg/mouse/day) or IgG control and then infused with Ang II (490 ng kg−1 min−1) or saline continuously for 14 days. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) was measured with a tail-cuff system, pathological changes in the aorta were assessed by histological staining, and vascular relaxation was analyzed an aortic ring assay. Our results indicated that compared with saline infusion, Ang II infusion significantly upregulated VCAM-1 expression in the mouse aorta and serum. Moreover, Ang II infusion markedly increased arterial hypertension, wall thickness, fibrosis, infiltration of Mac-2+ macrophages, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and vascular relaxation dysfunction. Conversely, blockade of VCAM-1 with a neutralizing antibody substantially alleviated these effects. In vitro experiments further confirmed that the VCAM-1 neutralizing antibody inhibited Ang II-induced macrophage adhesion and migration and DNA damage and oxidative stress in endothelial cells (ECs). In conclusion, these results indicate that blockade of VCAM-1 exerts a protective effect against Ang II-induced arterial hypertension and dysfunction by regulating monocytes adhesion and infiltration into the endothelium and represents a novel therapeutic approach for hypertension.