Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sensitivity of internal-tide generation to stratification and its implication for deep overturning circulations

The simple scaling relation for internal-tide generation proposed by Jayne and St. Laurent is widely used for parameterizing turbulent mixing induced by breaking of internal tides. Based on the internal-tide generation derived from a 0.1° ocean general circulation model, we show that depending on which stratification is used, this relation produces different vertical distributions of internal-tide generation. When using the buoyancy frequency at the seafloor, which is a common practice, the scaling relation produces, relative to the model, too strong internal-tide generation in the upper 2000 m and too weak internal-tide generation in the lower 2000 m. Moreover, the different vertical distributions in the different ocean basins, characterized by a generally decreasing internal tide generation with increasing depth in the Indo-Pacific but not-decreasing or even increasing internal tide generation with increasing depth in the upper 3000 m of the Atlantic, cannot be captured when using bottom stratification. These unsatisfactory features can be easily removed by replacing the buoyancy frequency at the seafloor by a buoyancy frequency averaged over a large part of the water column. To our knowledge, this sensitivity to stratification has not been explicitly quantified for the global ocean. Because of this sensitivity, the scaling relation of Jayne and St. Laurent should be used with an averaged stratification to ensure a more adequate representation of turbulent diffusivity due to tidal mixing and water mass transformation in the deep oceans.
Complex Feature Information Enhanced Speech Emotion Recognition

Speech emotion recognition (SER) helps machines behave and communicate in a more human-like way, thus has attracted extensive attention from industry and academia. Traditional SER algorithms usually discard the phase information in the speech spectrum. However, phase information plays an important role in many speech-related tasks according to recent speech-processing researches. In the SER area, the pre-trained Wav2Vec 2.0 model reached SOTA performance, still, no attention was paid to the complex information in speech. In this paper, we propose a novel framework utilizing both the real and the imaginary parts of the complex feature obtained by speech short-time Fourier transform to improve the SER performance. Specifically, we construct a deep complex neural network (DCNN) to handle the information in the speech complex feature, and then the DCNN is fused with the Wav2Vec 2.0 model to enhance the SER performance. Experiment results show that the proposed framework benefits from the compensation of DCNN and obtains nearly 1 percent performance improvement over model Wav2Vec 2.0 in terms of accuracy and F1.
Research on the interaction mechanism of multiple vortices in biological wake flow field

The vortex-ring interaction of synchronous jets has been paid more attention by predecessors, while the research of asynchronous jets (i.e. there is a time difference between the start of jets) of parallel dual nozzles has been studied less. Therefore, the interaction between vortex rings and the vortex structure evolution of the dual-nozzle asynchronous jets with different time differences (Δt) is studied in this paper. Numerical results obtained can be divided into four intervals: 1. Synchronous jets (Δt = 0); 2. Critical interval (Δt < 0.1t, where t is the jet time), having similar vortex structure evolution modes and dynamic characteristics as the synchronous jet; 3. Strong interaction interval (0.2t ≤ Δt ≤ 0.4t), in which the main vortex ring shows obvious acceleration, and the streamwise vortex structure is found in the wake; 4. weak interaction interval (Δt ≥ 0.6t), in which the interaction between vortex rings is much less strong and the streamwise vortex structure also appears in the wake. In addition, it is found that pressure on the nozzle outlet plane increases and the vortex dissipation in the downstream flow field slows down significantly due to the vortex-ring interaction on the condition of asynchronous jets.
Does Co-Supplementation with Beetroot Juice and Other Nutritional Supplements Positively Impact Sports Performance?: A Systematic Review

In the pursuit of enhanced athletic prowess in different disciplines, athletes constantly look for strategies to increase their physical performance, encompassing technical skills and dietary components, which inevitably, in most cases, include the incorporation of sports supplements. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of athletes using ergogenic aids. In this context, scientific evidence must play a prominent role in either endorsing or warning against the use of these products, ensuring the preservation of health while promoting the theoretically established positive benefits. In this vein, beetroot juice (BJ) stands out as a key supplement as an ergogenic aid to improve sports performance, given its demonstrated influence on both aerobic and anaerobic exercise. However, despite widespread global demand, there remains a lack of understanding regarding the potential synergistic effects of combining BJ with other supplements. Consequently, our study aims to determine whether the combination of BJ with another nutritional supplement can enhance its beneficial effects and, therefore, optimize physical performance in humans. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in two major databases—Web of Science and PubMed—from 1 January 2018 to 29 January 2023, using specific keywords. After the exclusion criteria, six articles were selected for analysis. Therefore, our study shows that the effectiveness of combining BJ with another supplement mainly depends on the duration of the chronic intervention, which is where the greatest benefits have been observed.
Sustainable Viticulture of Italian Grapevines: Environmental Evaluation and Societal Cost Estimation Using EU Farm Accountancy Data Network Data

Since the agriculture sector, such as Italian grapevine production, exert a pressure on the environment to some extent, this research aims to evaluate the environmental impacts and estimate the societal costs of four current grapevine production systems (i.e., vine grapes cultivated to produce common or quality wine using organic and non-organic agricultural practices), based on the Italian Farm Accountancy Network Data. For these purposes, the Life Cycle Analysis and Shadow Price techniques have been used. The results revealed that the levels of environmental impacts differed considerably between every cultivation system. Hence, the agricultural land occupation indicator induced the highest external costs, followed by climate change, terrestrial acidification, and freshwater eutrophication among the four grapevine cultivation systems. Accordingly, the assessment offers valuable insights into organic and non-organic viticulture practices to produce consistent and high-quality wine, as well as helping farmers make informed decisions that may improve environmental and societal impacts, leading to cost-effective management of their vineyards. We conclude that organic vineyard farming represents a promising sustainable viticulture production but is also important in exploring consumer perceptions and behavior towards this kind of grapevine production.
Quantum Transport Study of Contact Resistance of Edge- and Top-Contacted Two-Dimensional Materials

We calculate the contact resistance for an edge- and top-contacted 2D semiconductor. The contact region consists of a metal contacting a monolayer of MoS2 which is otherwise surrounded by SiO2. We use the quantum transmitting boundary method to compute the contact resistance as a function of the 2D semiconductor doping concentration. An effective mass Hamiltonian is used to describe the properties of the various materials. The electrostatic potentials are obtained by solving the Poisson equation numerically. We incorporate the effects of the image-force barrier lowering on the Schottky barrier and examine the impact on the contact resistance. At low doping concentrations, the contact resistance of the top contact is lower compared to edge contact, while at high doping concentrations, the edge contact exhibits lower resistance.
None-radiative Method to Characterize Paper Substrates at mmWave

This paper used different lengths method to characterize paper substrate at mmWave. The contribution of dielectric loss, radiation loss, and ohmic loss are considered to obtain a precise loss tangent. Strip lines are used to reduce the radiation effect. The measurement results are verified by retro simulation. For demonstration, the 28 GHz band was considered. In experimental, the paper substrate presents a relative permittivity of εr = 2.79 ± 0.14 from 26 GHz to 30 GHz. In this frequency band, the obtained loss tangent is tanδ = 0.093 ± 0.014 The relatively stable characteristics of paper substrate around 28 GHz demonstrate its potential applications in mmWave.
Water harvesting techniques for sustainable water resources management in catchments area

Available quantity and quality of water resources in catchments area has been deteriorated, yet the management pertaining water resources has not been done in a proper way. Water harvesting techniques are alternative by which the water resources can be maintained to cope with the sustainable use of water resources in catchments area. We reviewed experiences of Indonesia in managing water resources in some of catchments area to come up with the recommendation of best practices of water resources management in general and particularly water harvesting techniques. Despite the available fresh water (15,500 m 3 capita -1 year -1 ) is more than double of the world available fresh water (600 m 3 capita -1 year -1 ), but its distribution is varies. In Java Island for example, where the population reaches to a number of 65% of the total population of Indonesia, but the water only available for 4.5% of the total national water availability. The fact that the available water of about 30,569.2 million m 3 year -1 in Java are not enough to cover the need and will be a deficit water in this island at least till 2015. The available water is also fluctuated during wet and dry seasons. For instance, the flow of Cimanuk River (West Java) is recorded as much as 600 m 3 second -1 during the wet season, but only 20 m 3 second -1 in the dry season. How to manage water in the area with water surplus and deficit is a crucial question to be answer. Water harvesting is becoming very important to cope with sustainable management of water resources. There are different techniques of water harvesting that have been successfully applied as part of water resources management in catchments area in Indonesia. Channel reservoir, on-farm reservoir or "Embung", infiltration ditches, infiltration well, water harvesting dikes, etc. Channel reservoir with cascade system is one of many rainfall and runoff harvesting techniques, which has been proven to be an effective method to reduce peak runoff, extend the time response to runoff generation and to some extend to increase available water for irrigation during the dry season. In Cibogo micro catchment in West Java for example, river flow can be reduced as much as 63% after construction of 2 channel reservoirs with cashcade system and also delay response time of the river flow up to 1 hour. This two important points are very significant to reduce the risk of flood in the down stream areas where the cities are generally situated. On-farm reservoir has also been applied by farmers for supporting their farming to extend cropping. Other water harvesting techniques such as infiltration ditches, infiltration wells, dams, water harvestinmg dikes are also discussed in this paper. Keyword water harvesting techniques, water resources management, channel reservoir, Embung, catchments area
Mitigation of Complexity in Charging Station Allocation for EVs Using Chaotic Harris Hawks Optimization Charge Scheduling Algorithm

The development of EV technology and EV migration is limited by various factors such as sizing of batteries, short driving ranges, optimal operations, and so on. The EV charging faces many difficulties such as waiting time, charging time, uneven charge scheduling, and uneven distributed charging stations. In Charging Station (CS), EVs usually spend much time in queues, mainly during peak hours of charging. Therefore, building a well-established charging station network should be derived from charging demand and proper charge scheduling to assist EVs for getting charged with less cost, less waiting time. Also, it should reduce the number of vehicles scheduling during the peak load time. This work aims to design a scheduling system for EV charging using an optimization strategy of Chaotic Harris Hawks optimization (CHHO) which reduces the total time spent on charging station and the distance of EV origin to destination. CHHO is authenticated using Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) simulation, and the performances are compared with algorithms Exponential Harris Hawk Optimization, Grey Wolf Optimizer, First in First Out and Random Allocation to demonstrate the efficacy of our technique. The proposed CHHO-based scheduling system yields better performance with the maximum remaining energy and significantly cuts the average travel time, and improves the utilization rate of EVs in charging stations compared to other algorithms. A detailed result and discussions on different case studies by varying number of vehicles and number of charging stations and the corresponding average waiting time were obtained and presented in this paper.
Radiated Sound Field Reproduction for Surrounding Loudspeaker Array Based on Higher-order Ambisonics

This paper proposes a radiated sound field reproduction method for a surrounding loudspeaker array. The conventional method controls the direction of the virtual sound image by a vector base amplitude panning (VBAP). The real sound source like human speech and musical instruments has a directivity pattern and should be considered to reproduce the sound field. However, the VBAP-based method cannot represent the directivity pattern because VBAP only controls the amplitude of an audio signal. In this paper, we propose the radiated sound field reproduction method for a surrounding loudspeaker array based on higher-order ambisonics (HOA). Based on HOA, the proposed method calculates the driving function of the virtual sound source by using the directivity pattern of the virtual sound source. Simulation results show that the proposed method achieves to represent the radiation sound with a normalized reproduction error of −20 dB in the target region.
The search for evidence-based features of effective teacher professional development: a critical analysis of the literature

ABSTRACT Scholarly efforts to identify core design features for effective teacher professional development have grown rapidly in the last 25 years. Many concise lists of design principles have emerged, most of which converge on a consensus of 5–7 presumably ‘effective’ features (e.g. collaborative tasks, active learning, focus on content). The proliferation and convergence of reviews create the impression that this consensus is based on strong evidence from large-scale, replicated, and rigorously controlled research studies. We critique the empirical foundation on which conclusions about evidence-based design features for teacher professional development have been based, by the same evidential standards that have been adopted within this field of scholarly work. We conclude that the empirical foundations for these lists are problematic and that claims to methodological rigour are misleading as they are based on flawed inferences. We further argue that the ambition to identify general features of effective professional development is also problematic, and reflect on why, despite its weaknesses and potentially adverse consequences for research and practice, we as a field continue to herald this consensus. We call for greater focus on the development, testing, and refinement of theories about teacher professional learning in order to advance understanding, policy, and practice in the field.
Adoption of an Educational-Animated Video to Enhance Learning

The adoption of innovative educational tools has become imperative to meet the evolving needs of learners in this rapid technology era. This study explores the factors influencing the adoption of animated videos as an educational tool to enhance the learning. The research is grounded in the integration of two essential frameworks: Task-Technology Fit (TTF) and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). A sample size of 155 participants underwent rigorous analysis employing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). This analytical approach allowed for a comprehensive examination of the relationships among variables and the identification of critical factors impacting the adoption of animated videos in education
Epidemiological Profile of Salivary Gland Tumors in Southern Iranian Population: A Retrospective Study of 405 Cases

Aims Salivary gland tumors (SGTs) are a rare and diverse group of tumors that account for 3 to 10% of all head and neck malignancies. We aimed to conduct a comprehensive epidemiological analysis of SGTs in the south of Iran and compare the findings with previous reports from Iran and other parts of the world. Methods Using a retrospective study, 405 patients diagnosed with SGTs were observed over an eight-year period between April 2013 and October 2021 in Shiraz, Iran. Patients' demographic and clinicopathological features were obtained from patients' records. Quantitative and descriptive data analysis was performed using SPSS software. Results There were 302 benign (74.5%) and 103 (25.4%) malignant SGTs. Pleomorphic adenoma and Warthin's tumors were the most common benign SGTs (70.5% and 21.5%, respectively). The most common malignant SGTs were mucoepidermoid carcinoma and adenoid cystic carcinoma (26.2% and 22.3%, respectively). There was a statistically significant association between tumor origin and its malignancy status (p < 0.001). In addition, the results indicated that benign tumors were most commonly detected in the parotid gland (p < 0.05). The benign tumors were more frequently observed among the younger population (p = 0.006). Conclusion In summary, the findings of the current study were mainly consistent with the previous reports from Iran and the rest of the world. Benign tumors were the most prevalent type of SGTs, and the parotid gland was the most common site. While the majority of cases that developed from the major salivary glands were benign, all the minor SGTs were malignant. Older patients were more likely to develop malignant tumors compared to younger ones. This study provides insights into the prevalence, age-related incidence, gender distribution, and geographic variation of salivary gland tumors. This can be instrumental to develop a guideline for screening, diagnosis, and determining an optimal treatment.
ICESat waveform measurements of within‐footprint topographic relief and vegetation vertical structure

The Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) mission determines land surface vertical structure within laser footprints due to topographic relief and vegetation using received waveforms recorded by the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS). In low‐relief areas with tree cover the waveforms and derived elevation products provide useful biophysical parameters, including maximum canopy height, crown depth, the outer‐canopy ruggedness, and a measure of canopy cover. For areas where within‐footprint topographic relief is large compared to vegetation height, interpretation of the waveforms is complex. The contribution of canopy and ground to received waveforms is illustrated by comparing them with co‐located waveforms computed using an instrument model applied to high resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). The model includes representations of the transmit pulse's spatial and temporal distributions, and the receiver field‐of‐view sensitivity and temporal smoothing. This provides a means to validate GLAS waveforms, elevation products, and footprint geolocation.
IoT-Based Smart Ankle-Foot Orthosis for Patients with Gait Imbalance

This research aims to transform the conventional Ankle-Foot Orthosis (AFO), a specialized medical brace, into a smart device by integrating Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. The smart AFO device incorporates sensors, including a surface electromyogram (sEMG) and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). The sEMG sensor is employed to measure muscle activity, while the IMU sensor captures gait movements. The collected data is subsequently transmitted via a wireless network, first to the fog layer and finally to the cloud server. To facilitate predictive decision-making, the collected data underwent a comprehensive analysis. The analysis was carried out using a variety of machine learning algorithms, providing valuable insights. This process laid the foundation for employing predictive machine learning techniques to compare patient gait data with that of healthy individuals, resulting in the development of an accuracy metric. This metric effectively assesses the Smart AFO's capacity to predict the degree of improvement achieved by the patient. Among the tested models, the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) exhibited the highest accuracy rate, achieving an impressive 95.02% accuracy. To ensure the reliability of the results, the most accurate outcome is cross-checked by the doctor using a separate device. Upon the doctor's approval, the comprehensive report is securely transmitted to the patient's device, facilitating efficient communication between healthcare professionals and patients. This technology-driven approach enhances the monitoring and analysis of AFO usage, enabling personalized treatment plans and optimizing the overall patient experience.
pH-Dependent conformational stability of SpeB from Thermus thermophilus HB8: insights from molecular dynamics simulation

ABSTRACT N(1)-aminopropyl agmatine ureohydrolase (SpeB) is considered an essential enzyme for the growth and survival of thermophiles, it is involved in the biosynthesis of polyamines. The present study investigates the conformational stability and flexibility of Thermus thermophilus HB8 SpeB and its interactions with substrate, N1-aminopropyl agmatine at different physiological conditions to probe the optimal conditions that provide insights on biotechnological applications. As the 3D structure of SpeB is yet to be crystallized, it was modelled and validated using structural bioinformatics methods. To understand the conformational dynamics and also to assess the impact of pH and temperature variables on the tertiary structure of SpeB , atomistic molecular dynamics simulation (MDS) was employed. The MD investigation revealed that 300 K is not optimal for SpeB (apo form) at both acidic pH 4.5, and alkaline pH 8.5, since it exhibited decreased stability and compactness with higher residual flexibility. Further, the stable and strong binding of N1-aminopropyl agmatine with SpeB was observed at following conditions, neutral pH 7 at 353.15 K and alkaline pH 11 at 300 K. Thus, this in silico study provides significant insights into the structural investigations on SpeB along with optimal pH as well as temperature for its ideal enzymatic function. Highlights Structural and dynamic characteristics of T. thermophilus SpeB have been explored in detail Comparative Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to evaluate the effects of both pH and temperature on the structural stability of SpeB SpeB showed pH and temperature-dependent conformational changes that potentially affect substrate binding Structural stability of apo form of SpeB is not optimal at high temperature (363.15 K) in both acidic (pH 5.5) and neutral pH Stable and strong binding affinity of substrate molecule was observed in a neutral pH 7 at 353 K and alkaline pH 11 at 300K