Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Research on Modeling the Nonlinear Response Function of TDI CMOS Imaging System

The camera response function (CRF) establishes a numerical mapping between focal plane radiance, camera imaging parameters, and the intensity of output images. It plays a significant role in areas such as high dynamic range imaging and image processing. To establish an accurate response model for time delay integration (TDI) complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) imaging systems, this article proposes a radiometric calibration method for TDI CMOS imaging systems based on complex real-world scene images. The study begins by conducting an extensive analysis of the data link within the TDI CMOS imaging system, which serves as the foundation for establishing its a priori theoretical response model. Subsequently, the problem of solving the CRF model is transformed into an overdetermined equation established through the least square method. The optimal solution for this equation is obtained by singular value decomposition, which leads to the derivation of a 3-D response function for the imaging system. Finally, under consistent optical radiation conditions, radiation calibration experiments are performed on various targets using a self-developed TDI CMOS imaging system. The CRF is obtained based on the captured experimental image data. Furthermore, this article's approach is compared with the widely adopted linear fitting method commonly used within the respective field. The experimental results show that the visually perceived quality, structural similarity, mean grayscale, mean gradient, entropy, and standard deviation of images synthesized using the CRF proposed in this article are closer to those of actual captured images. The proposed method demonstrates higher accuracy and can provide a reliable basis for applications such as radiation response calibration of on-orbit spaceborne payloads, selection of imaging parameters, and multiexposure fusion of remote sensing images.
A case report and review of literature on the role of automated red cell exchange in managing sickle cell crisis in India

Red cell exchanges (RCE) help in the treatment of complications of sickle cell anemia (SCA) by reducing the viscosity of blood and improving the oxygen-carrying capacity. We present a case of sickle cell crisis (SCC) managed with automated RCE and also reviewed the literature to assess the utilization and clinical efficiency of this therapy in India. A 19-year-old gentleman diagnosed with SCA presented with acute chest syndrome. Hemoglobin (Hb) was 8.8 g%, hematocrit (HCT) was 24%, and HbS was 90%. As there was worsening of symptoms with conventional management, the patient underwent two procedures of automated RCE. The clinical condition of the patient was improved, HbS was reduced to 16% and HCT was remained at 21% postprocedure. Articles on automated RCE in SCA conducted in India were reviewed and four articles were analyzed based on the search strategy. All the included articles concluded automated RCE as an effective procedure for complications of SCA. Common indication in India was SCA patients undergoing surgery as a prophylactic measure. Automated RCEs are promising as an acute treatment for indicated sickle cell complications. This therapy is underutilized in the Indian scenario, especially in patients with SCC.
Comparative transcriptome profiling reveals differential defense responses among Alternaria brassicicola resistant Sinapis alba and susceptible Brassica rapa

Alternaria blight is a devastating disease that causes significant crop losses in oilseed Brassicas every year. Adoption of conventional breeding to generate disease-resistant varieties has so far been unsuccessful due to the lack of suitable resistant source germplasms of cultivated Brassica spp. A thorough understanding of the molecular basis of resistance, as well as the identification of defense-related genes involved in resistance responses in closely related wild germplasms, would substantially aid in disease management. In the current study, a comparative transcriptome profiling was performed using Illumina based RNA-seq to detect differentially expressed genes (DEGs) specifically modulated in response to Alternaria brassicicola infection in resistant Sinapis alba, a close relative of Brassicas, and the highly susceptible Brassica rapa. The analysis revealed that, at 48 hpi (hours post inoculation), 3396 genes were upregulated and 23239 were downregulated, whereas at 72 hpi, 4023 genes were upregulated and 21116 were downregulated. Furthermore, a large number of defense response genes were detected to be specifically regulated as a result of Alternaria infection. The transcriptome data was validated using qPCR-based expression profiling for selected defense-related DEGs, that revealed significantly higher fold change in gene expression in S. alba when compared to B. rapa. Expression of most of the selected genes was elevated across all the time points under study with significantly higher expression towards the later time point of 72 hpi in the resistant germplasm. S. alba activates a stronger defense response reaction against the disease by deploying an array of genes and transcription factors involved in a wide range of biological processes such as pathogen recognition, signal transduction, cell wall modification, antioxidation, transcription regulation, etc. Overall, the study provides new insights on resistance of S. alba against A. brassicicola, which will aid in devising strategies for breeding resistant varieties of oilseed Brassica.
A CMOS AFE Array With DC Input Current Cancellation for FMCW LiDAR

This article presents a low noise and wide linear dynamic 20-channel analog front-end (AFE) array for frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system. Each channel of the AFE array mainly consists of a shunt feedback transimpedance amplifier (SF-TIA) with a dc cancellation loop (DCL), a post amplifier, and an output buffer. The DCL is proposed to eliminate the dc current, comprising the dc current sunk to ground (dc-STG) and the dc current sourced from power supply (dc-SFP). In addition, the post amplifier, cascaded with an operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) and an SF-TIA, is proposed to decouple the relationship between gain and output common voltage, achieving both large gain and large output swing. Furthermore, the equalization technique is adopted to expand the bandwidth of the AFE array. The AFE array was implemented and fabricated in a 0.18-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> CMOS technology. Measurement results show that the AFE array achieves the maximum transimpedance gain of 107 dB and eliminates the dc current between −150 and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$250 ~\mu \text{A}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. With the maximum transimpedance gain, the measured bandwidth, the equivalent input-referred rms noise current, and the signal-to-crosstalk ratio (SCR) between adjacent channels are 165 MHz, 29.4 nArms, and −33.9 dB, respectively. The AFE array also achieves a linear dynamic range (DR) of 66 dB and the area of each channel is approximately equal to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.16\times1.3$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm2.
Causal relationship between the gut microbiome and basal cell carcinoma, melanoma skin cancer, ease of skin tanning: evidence from three two-sample mendelian randomisation studies

Objectives The present study used publicly available genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary data to perform three two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) studies, aiming to examine the causal links between gut microbiome and BCC, melanoma skin cancer, ease of skin tanning. Methods SNPs associated with exposures to basal cell carcinoma, melanoma skin cancer and ease of skin tanning from the genome-wide association study data of UK Biobank and MRC-IEU (MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit), and the meta-analysis data from Biobank and MRC-IEU were used as instrumental variables (IVs). The casual estimates were assessed with a two-sample Mendelian randomisation test using the inverse-variance-weighted (IVW) method, Wald ratio, MR-Egger method, maximum likelihood, weighted median, simple mode, and weighted mode. Results After the application of MR analysis, diffirent effects of multiple groups of gut microbiota was observed for BCC, melanoma skin cancer and ease of skin tanning. The relationships between the gut microbiome and BCC, melanoma skin cancer, ease of skin tanning were supported by a suite of sensitivity analyses, with no statistical evidence of instrument heterogeneity or horizontal pleiotropy. Further investigation is required to explore the relationship between between the gut microbiome and BCC, melanoma skin cancer, ease of skin tanning. Conclusion Our study initially identified potential causal roles between the gut microbiome and BCC, melanoma skin cancer, ease of skin tanning, and highlighted the role of gut microbiome in the progression of basal cell carcinoma, melanoma skin cancer, ease of skin tanning.
Salicylic acid alleviates the effects of cadmium and drought stress by regulating water status, ions, and antioxidant defense in Pterocarya fraxinifolia

Introduction Pterocarya fraxinifolia (Poiret) Spach (Caucasian wingnut, Juglandaceae) is a relict tree species, and little is known about its tolerance to abiotic stress factors, including drought stress and heavy metal toxicity. In addition, salicylic acid (SA) has been shown to have a pivotal role in plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. Methods The current study is focused on evaluating the impact of foliar application of SA in mediating Caucasian wingnut physiological and biochemical responses, including growth, relative water content (RWC), osmotic potential (Ψs), quantum yield (Fv/Fm), electrolyte leakage, lipid peroxidation, hydrogen peroxide, and antioxidant enzymes, to cadmium (Cd; 100 µM) and drought stress, as well as their interaction. Moreover, the antioxidant activity (e.g., ascorbate peroxidase, catalase, glutathione reductase, peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase activities) of the stressed trees was investigated. The study was conducted on 6-month-old seedlings under controlled environmental conditions in a greenhouse for 3 weeks. Results and discussion Leaf length, RWC, Ψs, and Fv/Fm were decreased under all treatments, although the effect of drought stress was the most pronounced. An efficient antioxidant defense mechanism was detected in Caucasian wingnut. Moreover, SA-treated Caucasian wingnut plants had lower lipid peroxidation, as one of the indicators of oxidative stress, when compared to non-SA-treated groups, suggesting the tolerance of this plant to Cd stress, drought stress, and their combination. Cadmium and drought stress also changed the ion concentrations in Caucasian wingnut, causing excessive accumulation of Cd in leaves. These results highlight the beneficial function of SA in reducing the negative effects of Cd and drought stress on Caucasian wingnut plants.
SecureReID: Privacy-Preserving Anonymization for Person Re-Identification

Anonymization methods have gained widespread use in safeguarding privacy. However, conventional anonymization solutions inevitably lead to the loss of semantic information, resulting in limited data utility. Besides, existing deep learning-based anonymization strategies inadvertently alter the identities of pedestrians, rendering them unsuitable for re-identification (Re-ID) tasks. Beyond these limitations, we propose a joint learning reversible anonymization framework that can reversibly generate full-body anonymized images with little performance drop on Re-ID tasks. Despite these advancements, we reveal that the anonymization methods are vulnerable to model attacks, where attackers can utilize the anonymization model and public data to perform recovery and Re-ID tasks on anonymized images. To defend against the potential attack, we introduce the identity-specific encrypt-decrypt (ISED) architecture for enhanced security, where the anonymized images are encrypted using the specific key for each identity. It renders the images computationally inaccessible to attackers while allowing for seamless reversal without loss using the corresponding keys. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the anonymization framework can guarantee Re-ID performance while protecting pedestrian privacy. In addition, we provide both empirical and theoretical evidence to demonstrate the feasibility of model attacks and the effectiveness of our ISED strategy. Code is available at https://github.com/shentt67/SecureReID.
Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning

In today's society it is scientists and businesspeople who wield the most influence and power. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi believes this also gives them the responsibility to provide for the needs, not just of their workforce, but of the community in its largest sense. This book helps those in power towards a new understanding and vision of what it means to be a leader. The people interviewed here - including Peter Bijur (CEO of Texaco), Michael Markkula (co-founder of Apple Computer), Anita Roddick (founder of The Body Shop) and Ted Turner (vice chairman of AOL Time Warner) are recognised both for their success and because they care for more than success. Their case studies provide a blueprint for doing business that is good, not just in the material sense, but also on spiritual and ethical levels. Good Business shows leaders and managers - and employees - how to contribute to the development of an enjoyable life that provides meaning, to a society that is just and evolving, and ultimately to the sum of human happiness.
Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) for MPLS Label Switched Paths (LSPs)

One desirable application of Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) is to detect a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Label Switched Path (LSP) data plane failure. LSP Ping is an existing mechanism for detecting MPLS data plane failures and for verifying the MPLS LSP data plane against the control plane. BFD can be used for the former, but not for the latter. However, the control plane processing required for BFD Control packets is relatively smaller than the processing required for LSP Ping messages. A combination of LSP Ping and BFD can be used to provide faster data plane failure detection and/or make it possible to provide such detection on a greater number of LSPs. This document describes the applicability of BFD in relation to LSP Ping for this application. It also describes procedures for using BFD in this environment. [STANDARDS-TRACK]
The Peri-Implant Microbiome—A Possible Factor Determining the Success of Surgical Peri-Implantitis Treatment?

The objective was to assess the effect of peri-implantitis surgery on the peri-implant microbiome with a follow-up of one year. A total of 25 peri-implantitis patients in whom non-surgical treatment has failed to solve peri-implantitis underwent resective surgical treatment. Their peri-implant pockets were sampled prior to surgical treatment (T0) and one year post treatment (T12). The natural dentition was sampled to analyse similarities and differences with the peri-implantitis samples. Treatment success was recorded. The change in microbial relative abundance levels was evaluated. The microbiota was analysed by sequencing the amplified V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA genes. Sequence data were binned to amplicon sequence variants that were assigned to bacterial genera. Group differences were analysed using principal coordinate analysis, Wilcoxon signed rank tests, and t-tests. Beta diversity analyses reported a significant separation between peri-implantitis and natural dentition samples on T0 and T12, along with significant separations between successfully and non-successfully treated patients. Eubacterium was significantly lower on T12 compared to T0 for the peri-implantitis samples. Treponema and Eubacterium abundance levels were significantly lower in patients with treatment success on T0 and T12 versus no treatment success. Therefore, lower baseline levels of Treponema and Eubacterium seem to be associated with treatment success of peri-implantitis surgery. This study might aid clinicians in determining which peri-implantitis cases might be suitable for treatment and give a prognosis with regard to treatment success.
Generative AI Approach to Distributed Summarization of Financial Narratives

This paper presents our submission to the Financial Narrative Summarization (FNS) task at the FNP-2023 workshop. The FNS task involves the generation of concise summaries, not exceeding 1000 words, for annual financial reports composed in English, Spanish, and Greek. In our prior work, presented in FNP-2022, we introduced DiMSum [1], a novel framework designed to automatically identify crucial narrative sections within financial reports and quantify their weighted contributions. The field of Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) has recently witnessed significant advancements, prompting us to explore their utility in summarizing financial reports. Our investigation revealed that LLMs, when left to their own devices often struggle to effectively summarize complex financial documents, necessitating external guidance. In this study, we demonstrate how LLMs, when guided by the DiMSum framework, exhibit substantial improvements in the quality of financial report summarization. To the best of our knowledge, this research marks the first instance of applying LLMs to the FNS task, offering a novel approach to enhancing the summarization of financial reports.
Construct measurement for dynamic adaptive capability in Indonesian higher education

The ability of universities and colleges to adapt and respond effectively to these dynamic changes has become an important determinant of their success and relevance in the modern world. This study aimed to develop a comprehensive construct measurement tool to assess the dynamic adaptive capability (DAC) of higher education institutions in Indonesia. We collected data from 41 private universities in Indonesia. The DAC measurement construct consists of four main dimensions, identifying opportunities, creating, modifying and altering, and adapting to the dynamics of change. Each dimension consists of several indicators, which are assessed using face validity and quantitative methods. This study used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to determine construct validity and reliability by evaluating composite reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE) values. The results of this study succeeded in validating and confirming the reliability of the DAC construct. The practical implications of these findings extend to organizations, notably higher education institutions seeking to increase their capacity to navigate a dynamic and uncertain business environment.
Collaborative Learning in the Edu-Metaverse Era: An Empirical Study on the Enabling Technologies

Computer-supported collaborative learning aims to use information technologies to support collaborative knowledge construction by practicing the relevant pedagogical approaches, especially in the distance learning setting. The enabling technologies are fast advancing, and the need for solutions during the COVID-19 global pandemic led to the emergence of the Edu-Metaverse, which is conceptualized as a collection of networked virtual worlds (i.e., the Metaverse) for learning. There is a great necessity to investigate how these more recent enabling technologies can support collaborative learning. This empirical study aims to collect both quantitative and qualitative results to fill the knowledge gaps. Specifically, 20 undergraduate students (three females and 17 males) taking the Game Design and Development course voluntarily participated in this study. The participants used three representative collaboration platforms (i.e., AltSpace, Gather, and ZOOM) in our laboratory for discussing three course-specific topics, simulating the undertaking of collaborative learning tasks in the distance learning setting. The results suggest that the participants were more engaged in the learning activities using the Metaverse platforms that offer avatar-mediated communications and collaborations (i.e., AltSpace and Gather). These platforms also gave the participants a stronger sense of copresence and belonging to the learning community. Potential improvements to the usability and the participants' feedback are also discussed in the article. We hope the results can contribute to the fast-growing use of the Metaverse-enabling technologies for educational purposes.
Intelligent Movie Recommendation System Based on Hybrid Recommendation Algorithms

With the continuous advancement of modern science and technology and the arrival of the artificial intelligence era, the problem of “information overload” has become increasingly prominent. The emerging recommendation systems not only provide users with an excellent user experience and convenience but also help businesses achieve greater profits. To cater to the personalized needs of users, this study has chosen a movie recommendation system based on a hybrid recommendation algorithm. This system reduces the time users spend on information searching and enhances their search efficiency, aiming to recommend movies that align with their preferences. Our hybrid recommendation algorithm has shown an accuracy rate of 81%, surpassing traditional CB, Item-Based CF, and User-Based CF algorithms. This recommendation system not only shortens the time users take to search for information but also improves their search efficiency.
Switching Logic for a Direct Hybrid Electric Powertrain

Hybrid electric aircraft with a powertrain based on fuel cells and batteries can reduce climate-active emissions in aviation. In a direct hybrid powertrain, the fuel cell and the battery are connected in parallel, without a DC/DC converter balancing their voltage levels. Switches make it possible to select different operational modes (fuel cell only, hybrid or battery charging) depending on the power demand during different flight phases. To exploit the high specific energy of hydrogen, the system should change from Hybrid Mode during take-off to Fuel Cell Mode in cruise. During descent, the battery can be charged if Charging Mode is selected. To avoid voltage and current peaks and consequent damage to components when switching between modes, certain conditions must be fulfilled. Those switching conditions were defined, and switching procedures for changing from one mode to the other during flight were developed and tested in a lab system. In a direct hybrid, the system voltage depends on the required power. When switching from Hybrid Mode to Fuel Cell Mode, a short reduction in power of 65% is necessary for the examined system to meet the switching requirements. It is also shown how this power loss can be reduced to 25% by distributed propulsion with a second powertrain or even eliminated by a change in the hybrid ratio.
Order Reduction Method for Doubly-fed Induction Generator Impedance/Admittance Model Based on Singular Perturbation Theory

With the rapid growth of wind power generation, the penetration of large wind farms in the power grid has increased significantly. A large-scale wind farm contains dozens or hundreds of wind turbines, the model order is high, the modeling analysis is difficult, and the analysis needs to be effectively reduced. In this paper, a singular perturbation theory reduction method for impedance/admittance model stability analysis of doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) is proposed. Firstly, the state space model under the working point of the DFIG model is obtained by using the LINMOD function of MATLAB, and then the state variables of the model’s state space equation can be analyzed on the fast and slow time scale, so as to reduce the order of singular perturbation theory. At the same time, the state space model after order reduction is transformed into impedance/admittance model. The model before and after order reduction has good consistency, and can be used for stability analysis of the system.