Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adaptive multiple-candidate hierarchical search for block matching algorithm

A new adaptive multiple-candidate hierarchical search for the estimation of motion vectors is presented. This technique can eliminate the undesirable problem of local minima in coarse-to-fine hierarchical block matching algorithms. Computer simulations show that the algorithm is very efficient as compared with the traditional coarse-to-fine hierarchical search. Also, it is close to the performance of the exhaustive full search, with a significant reduction on computation.
Practical Understanding of Cancer Model Identifiability in Clinical Applications

Mathematical models are a core component in the foundation of cancer theory and have been developed as clinical tools in precision medicine. Modeling studies for clinical applications often assume an individual’s characteristics can be represented as parameters in a model and are used to explain, predict, and optimize treatment outcomes. However, this approach relies on the identifiability of the underlying mathematical models. In this study, we build on the framework of an observing-system simulation experiment to study the identifiability of several models of cancer growth, focusing on the prognostic parameters of each model. Our results demonstrate that the frequency of data collection, the types of data, such as cancer proxy, and the accuracy of measurements all play crucial roles in determining the identifiability of the model. We also found that highly accurate data can allow for reasonably accurate estimates of some parameters, which may be the key to achieving model identifiability in practice. As more complex models required more data for identification, our results support the idea of using models with a clear mechanism that tracks disease progression in clinical settings. For such a model, the subset of model parameters associated with disease progression naturally minimizes the required data for model identifiability.
Flux generation and sustainment of a field reversed configuration with rotating magnetic field current drive

A new experimental device has been constructed to study the flux build-up and sustainment of a field reversed configuration (FRC) with a rotating magnetic field (RMF). Even though complete penetration was expected from RMF theory, the RMF field was observed to penetrate only a few centimeters inside the FRC separatrix. Despite the limited penetration, significantly larger toroidal currents (40 kA) were driven than in previous experiments (∼2 kA) with the same RMF field. The high currents and lack of deep penetration allowed the axial field to be the dominant field throughout the FRC. The radially inward pondermotive force arising from axial screening currents at the FRC edge had a significant influence on energy and particle confinement, reducing convective losses to the limit of observability. With only ohmic heating, the measured low ion temperatures (2 eV) left the ions unmagnetized while the electrons (∼40 eV) were well magnetized. No destructive instability was observed for the RMF driven FRC despite.
Altered Expression of Antimicrobial Peptides in the Upper Gastrointestinal Tract of Patients with Diabetes Mellitus

Antimicrobial peptides (AMP) are essential components of innate immunity with a broad range of antimicrobial activities against bacteria, viruses, and fungi. The aim of this study was to investigate AMP expression in the upper gastrointestinal tract in normal and pathological metabolic states in humans. Furthermore, we examined the correlation between vitamin D levels and AMP expression in the same cohort. Serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 were measured, and mRNA expression of β-defensins HBD-1, -2, -3, -4, α-defensins HD-5 and -6 and cathelicidin in the upper gastrointestinal tract epithelia were determined by quantitative RT-PCR in 31 individuals (10 with type 2 diabetes, 10 with insulin resistance, and 11 healthy controls). The majority of the cohort showed low vitamin D concentrations, which were negatively correlated with mRNA expression levels of HBD-3 in corpus mucosa. HBD-1 and HBD-3 mRNA were expressed in corpus mucosa, with the former significantly decreased in patients with diabetes. Hence, we conclude that type 2 diabetes is associated with reduced AMP expression in the upper gastrointestinal tract, which might contribute towards epithelial barrier dysfunction and increased bacterial translocation in these patients.
Real-time tunnel lining crack detection based on an improved You Only Look Once version X algorithm

ABSTRACT To solve slow speed and low accuracy of traditional detection methods of tunnel lining cracks, especially under the complicated situation of tunnel in operation, this work proposed an improved You Only Look Once version X (YOLOX) tunnel lining crack image detection algorithm. First, Mobilenetv3 was used to replace YOLOX’s CSPDarknet network. The Efficient Channel Attention (ECA) module was then added to the enhanced feature extraction network, and the IOU loss function was replaced by the generalised IOU (GIOU) loss function. A tunnel crack image data set was constructed and used to compare the performance of the improved YOLOX algorithm with that of five other algorithms. The improved YOLOX algorithm solves the shortcomings of the other five algorithms. The results showed that the improved YOLOX algorithm had 82.48% F1 score and 87.28% AP value, which is higher than that of the other five algorithms at varying degrees. In addition, the data size of the improved YOLOX model was 51.2 M, which is 75.27% compressed compared to the YOLOX model. The time was 16.52 ms, and the FPS was 60.52 frames/s. Therefore, the proposed improved YOLOX algorithm can realise the high-speed, high-precision, real-time dynamic detection of tunnel lining cracks in complicated environments.
Design and Optimization of Addendum Surfaces in Sheet Metal Forming Process

In the sheet forming process, addendum surfaces have an important influence on the formability of the workpiece. If the design of addendum surfaces is done manually with a CAD software, many corrections should be made according to the experimental or/and numerical results. This study proposes an automatic procedure for the design and optimization of addendum surfaces by using our fast Inverse Approach and two optimization algorithms. The present optimization procedure is applied to the Renault Twingo dashpot. The results show that the optimization calculation converges rapidly towards an optimal solution. The future work is to automatically (or semi-automatically) create the addendum surfaces with G1 continuity for the industrial workpiece with complex geometry.
Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease Of Use (PEOU) as Key Drivers of Mobile Banking Adoption. A Case of Zimbabwe

The traditional brick and mortar buildings labeled “Banks” are fast becoming a historical notion being replaced by electronic, paperless and virtual money. Globalisation has ushered a new era resulting in availability of mobile phones to the larger populace of the world despite physical location. Mobile networking has created a platform that has seen acquisition of mobile phones which in turn has accorded billions of people Self Service Technologies (SST). These services know no boundaries. This paper seeks to explore two determinant variables of the Technological Acceptance Model (TAM) which have become major variables in the implementation of mobile banking projects. Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) are arguably the cornerstones if mobile banking is to be successfully implemented, and hence adopted, in these financial services sector advancements. This Paper seeks to hypothetically explore the argument that PU and PEOU have the greatest impact on the implementation of mobile banking projects when considered in relation to other factors. The case of the mobile banking situation in Zimbabwe will be explored.
Worldwide Integration of Neutron Monitors

Cosmic rays, high-energy particles that reach Earth's atmosphere from outer space, provide a diagnostic tool to analyze processes of general astrophysical interest, such as the acceleration and transport of highly energetic charged particles in interplanetary space and at the Sun. Cosmic rays also directly affect the terrestrial environment and serve as indicators of solar variability and nonanthropogenic climate changes on Earth at present and in the distant past. In the 1950s a worldwide network of standardized cosmic ray detectors was developed to examine temporal and spatial variations in the space environment. Despite decades of progress, ground-based neutron monitors (NMs) remain the state-of-the-art instrumentation for measuring cosmic rays with gigaelectron volt energies, which cannot be measured in the same simple, inexpensive, and statistically accurate way by space experiments. Therefore, the worldwide network, which currently consists of about 50 standardized International Geophysical Year (IGY) and NM64 neutron monitors, perfectly complements cosmic ray observations in space. The continuous monitoring of cosmic ray intensity near Earth by neutron monitors since IGY 1957–1958 represents the longest continuous, high-time-resolution series of particle radiation measurements in space science.
An IPSO-FW-WSVM Method for Stock Trading Signal Forecasting

Trading signal detection is a very popular yet challenging research topic in the financial investment area. This paper develops a novel method integrating piecewise linear representation (PLR), improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO) and a feature-weighted support vector machine (FW-WSVM) to analyze the nonlinear relationships between trading signals and the stock data hidden in historical data. First, PLR is applied to generate numerous trading points (valleys or peaks) based on the historical data. These turning points’ prediction is formulated as a three-class classification problem. Then, IPSO is utilized to find the optimal parameters of FW-WSVM. Lastly, we conduct a series of comparative experiments between IPSO-FW-WSVM and PLR-ANN on 25 stocks with 2 different investment strategies. The experiment results show that our proposed method achieves higher prediction accuracy and profitability, which indicates the IPSO-FW-WSVM method is effective in the prediction of trading signals.
Plasmonic resonances in nanostructured gold/polymer surfaces by colloidal lithography

We investigate nanostructured surfaces consisting of a hexagonal lattice of polymeric pillars embedded in a gold matrix. These systems are prepared by a new fabrication technique based on plasma assisted deposition and colloidal lithography. A complete characterization of such surfaces is performed by angle resolved reflectance and transmittance measurements. Both delocalized and localized plasmonic modes can be identified: their reciprocal interplay allows to observe spectral features and to detect refractive index changes related to one of the sample interfaces by measurements performed with a light beam incident from the opposite side. This intriguing behaviour, together with ease of use and low cost of the deposition procedure, make this kind of nanostructures particularly interesting in biosensing applications.
Changes in plasma phospholipid fatty acid profiles over 13 years and correlates of change: European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Norfolk Study

ABSTRACT Background Little is known about changes in blood fatty acid compositions over time and the correlates of any changes in a general population. Objective The aim of this study was to estimate changes in 27 individual plasma phospholipid fatty acids and fatty acid groups over time, and to identify potential correlates of these changes. Methods Plasma phospholipid fatty acids were profiled at 3 time-points (1993–1997, 1998–2000, 2004–2011) among 722 participants in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Norfolk Study, UK. Linear regression models were used to estimate both 1) mean changes over time in 27 individual fatty acids and 8 prespecified fatty acid groups and 2) associations of changes in dietary and lifestyle factors with changes in the 8 fatty acid groups, mutually adjusted for dietary/lifestyle factors and other confounders. The prespecified fatty acid groups were odd-chain saturated fatty acids (SFAs), even-chain SFAs, very-long-chain SFAs, marine n–3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), plant n–3 PUFA, n–6 PUFAs, monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), and trans-fatty acids (TFAs). Results Adjusted for confounders, fatty acid concentrations decreased for odd-chain SFAs (annual percentage difference in mol percentage: −0.63%), even-chain SFAs (−0.05%), n–6 PUFAs (−0.25%), and TFAs (−7.84%). In contrast, concentrations increased for marine n–3 PUFAs (1.28%) and MUFAs (0.45%), but there were no changes in very-long-chain SFAs or plant n–3 PUFA. Changes in fatty acid levels were associated with consumption of different food groups. For example, a mean 100 g/d increase in fatty fish intake was associated with a 19.3% greater annual increase in marine n–3 PUFAs. Conclusions Even-chain SFAs and TFAs declined and marine n–3 PUFAs increased over time. These changes were partially explained by changes in dietary habits, and could potentially help interpret associations of baseline fatty acid composition with future disease risk.
The entropy core in galaxy clusters: numerical and physical effects in cosmological grid simulations

A flat distribution of low gas entropy in the core region of galaxy clusters is a feature commonly found in Eulerian cosmological simulations, at variance with most standard simulations of smoothed particle hydrodynamics fashion. From the literature, it is still unclear whether this difference is entirely due to numerical artefacts (e.g. spurious transfer from gravitational energy to thermal energy), physical mechanisms (e.g. enhanced mixing in Eulerian codes) or a mixture of both. This issue is related to many still open lines of research in the characterization of the dynamical evolution of the baryons in galaxy clusters: the origin of the cool-core/non-cool-core bi-modality, the diffusion of metals within galaxy clusters, the interplay between active galactic nuclei (AGN) and the intra-cluster medium, etc. In this work, we aim at constraining to what extent the entropy core is affected by numerical effects, and which are the physical reasons for its production in cosmological runs. To this end, we run a set of 30 high-resolution re-simulations of a ∼3 × 1014 M⊙ h−1 cluster of galaxies with a quiet dynamical history, using modified versions of the cosmological adaptive mesh refinement code enzo and investigating many possible (physical and numerical) details involved in the production of entropy in simulated galaxy clusters. We report that the occurrence of a flat entropy core in the innermost region of a massive cluster is mainly due to hydrodynamical processes resolved by the numerical code (e.g. shocks and mixing motions) and that additional spurious effects of numerical origin (e.g. artificial heating due to softening effects) affect the size and level of the entropy core only in a minor way. Using Lagrangian tracers we show that the entropy profile of non-radiative simulations is produced by a mechanism of ‘sorting in entropy’ which takes place with regularity during the cluster evolution. The evolution of tracers illustrates that the flat entropy core is caused by physical mixing of subsonic motions (mostly driven by accreted sub-clumps) within the shallow inner cluster potential. Several re-simulations were also produced for the same cluster object with the addition of radiative cooling, uniform pre-heating at high redshift (z= 10) and late (z < 1) thermal energy feedback from AGN activity in the cluster, in order to assess the effects of such mechanisms on the final entropy profile of the cluster. We report on the infeasibility of balancing the catastrophic cooling (and recovering a flat entropy profile) by means of the investigated trials for AGN activity alone, while for a sub-set of pre-heating models, or AGN feedback plus pre-heating models, a flat entropy distribution similar to non-radiative runs can be obtained with a viable energy requirement. Complementary analysis is presented also for a major merger cluster, obtaining similar results and achieving a generally good consistency with X-ray data for the entropy distribution in real galaxy clusters.
Sociodemographic Factors Associated with Emotional Distress, Transactional Sex and Psychoactive Substance Use during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The aim of this study was to identify the sociodemographic factors associated with emotional distress and determine if the quality of family relationships and the perception of social isolation can protect those who transacted sex or used psychoactive substances from emotional distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data for 426 people who transacted sex and 630 persons who used psychoactive drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic were extracted from a database of participants recruited from 152 countries. The extracted data were the dependent (emotional distress), independent (age, sex, education status, employment status, HIV status, the perception of social isolation, and the quality of family relationships), and confounding (country income level) variables. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine the associations between the dependent and independent variables after adjusting for confounders. Students who transacted sex (AOR:2.800) and who used psychoactive substances (AOR:2.270) had significantly higher odds of emotional distress. Participants who transacted sex, lived with HIV (AOR:2.582), or had the same/better quality of family relationships (AOR:1.829) had significantly higher odds of emotional distress. The participants who used psychoactive substances, had tertiary education (AOR:1.979), were retired (AOR: 2.772), were unemployed (AOR:2.263), or felt socially isolated (AOR:2.069) had significantly higher odds of emotional distress. Being a student was the only sociodemographic risk indicator common to both populations. The risk indicators and protective factors for emotional distress differed for both populations despite both being at high risk for emotional distress.
Revisiting Migraine: The Evolving Pathophysiology and the Expanding Management Armamentarium

Migraine affects about one billion people worldwide yearly and is one of the most common neurologic illnesses, with a high prevalence and morbidity, particularly among young adults and females. Migraine is associated with many comorbidities, including stress, sleep difficulties, and suicidal ideation. Migraine, despite its widespread occurrence, is underdiagnosed and undertreated. Because of the complicated and primarily unknown mechanisms of migraine formation, several social and biological risk factors, such as hormone imbalances, genetic and epigenetic impacts, and cardiovascular, neurological, and autoimmune illnesses, have been proposed. Through the mid-20th century diversion of the now-defunct vascular theory, the pathophysiology of migraine has developed from a historical study of the "humours" to a distinct entity as a neurological disorder. The range of therapeutic targets has broadened significantly, increasing the number of specialized clinical trials. Understanding the biology of migraine through careful research has resulted in the identification of major therapeutic classes: (i) triptans, serotonin 5-HT1B/1D receptor agonists, (ii) gepants, calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonists, (iii) ditans, 5-HT1F receptor agonists, (iv) CGRP monoclonal antibodies, and (v) glurants, mGlu5 modulators, with further targets being explored. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the most recent literature on epidemiology and risk factors and exposes knowledge gaps.
Physical characteristics of subsonic jets in a cross-stream

This paper deals with local flow characteristics of subsonic turbulent jets in the presence of a cross-flow. For the various types of jet considered (a cylindrical jet and coaxial jets) the experimental results concern the axes and the velocity profiles in the plane of symmetry of the flow. In the case of the cylindrical jet, the shape of the universal axial velocity profile is defined, as are the law of velocity decay along the axis and the laws of variation of the thicknesses of the jet. Finally, the existence of a link between the axis equation and the law of axial velocity decay in the zone of similarity of the velocity profiles is established.
Performance evaluation of hybrid VLC using device cost and power over data throughput criteria

Visible light communication (VLC) technology has attained its attention in both academic and industry lately. It is determined by the development of light emitting diode (LED) technology for solid-state lighting (SSL). It has great potential to gradually replace radio frequency (RF) wireless technology because it offers unregulated and unlicensed bandwidth to withstand future demand of indoor wireless access to real–time bandwidth-demanding applications. However, it was found to provide intrusive uplink channel that give rise to unpleasant irradiance from the user device which could interfere with the downlink channel of VLC and hence limit mobility to users as a result of small coverage (field of view of VLC). To address this potential problem, a Hybrid VLC system which integrates VLC (for downlink) and RF (for uplink) technology is proposed. It offers a non-intrusive RF back channel that provides high throughput VLC and maintains durability with conventional RF devices. To deploy Hybrid VLC system in the market, it must be energy and cost saving to attain its equivalent economical advantage by comparing to existing architecture that employs fluorescent or LED lights with RF technology. In this paper, performance evaluation on the proposed hybrid system was carried out in terms of device cost and power consumption against data throughput. Based on our simulation, Hybrid VLC system was found to reduce device cost by 3% and power consumption by 68% when compares to fluorescent lights with RF technology. Nevertheless, when it is compared to LED lights with RF technology, our proposed hybrid system is found to achieve device cost saving as high as 47% and reduced power consumption by 49%. Such promising results have demonstrated that Hybrid VLC system is a feasible solution and has paved the way for greater cost saving and energy efficient compares with the current RF architecture even with the increasing requirement of indoor area coverage.
Pixel Antenna Optimization Using the Adjoint Method and the Method of Moving Asymptote

The pixel concept offers a convenient and efficient method for antenna design. To meet the given specified antenna requirements or constraints, heuristic algorithms are often used to optimize the connection states for the hardwires between pixels, which are usually assumed to have the binary states, “short” or “open”. An alternative optimization strategy is proposed in this work, where the Boolean constraints on the hardwires are first relaxed to continuously tunable resistances and the globally convergent method of moving asymptotes (GCMMA) is applied to optimize the resistances. To speed up the computation, the adjoint method is used to simplify the calculation of the gradient information required in GCMMA. Resistances that are found as being above or below a certain threshold are then judged as “open” or “short”, respectively. Finally, the remaining intermediate resistance states are binarized using the successive exhaustive Boolean optimization (SEBO) method. Four different optimization strategies are proposed in terms of the objective function implemented in GCMMA and whether the second-stage SEBO is iterative or not. Two broadband endfire pixel antennas having horizontal linear polarization and high radiation efficiency are designed and fabricated correspondingly to demonstrate the feasibility of our proposed methods.