Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Assessment of SAOCOM L-Band PolInSAR Capabilities for Canopy Height Estimation: A Case Study Over Managed Forests in Argentina

This work presents the first results of canopy height mapping with L-Band SAOCOM data by means of Polarimetric SAR Interferometry (PolInSAR). For this study case, a colocated temporal series of SAOCOM fully polarimetric images covering the year 2021 was acquired, with a temporal baseline of 8 to 16 days between each acquisition. The study area corresponds to managed forests in Corrientes, Argentina, one of the main forest production regions in the country. Field measurements provided by forest owners were available in order to validate the obtained results, along with canopy height measurements from the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation mission. A multi-baseline PolInSAR approach was adopted, following the methodology proposed by previous works. The results show that this multi-baseline selection approach is more appropriate than a single-baseline one, given the high variability that SAOCOM presents in the spatial baseline between acquisitions, and the lack of orbital control over this parameter. The height maps obtained over a validation site yielded an average $R^{2}$ of 0.72 and a mean $RMSE$ of 2.35 m. , in agreement with the figures obtained in similar studies. This study presents, for the first time, canopy height maps of 8 and 16-day temporal baselines, L-band, orbital interferograms. The conclusions yielded by this research represent a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of SAOCOM PolInSAR capabilities for forest height mapping. It is also relevant to assess the suitability of the RVoG model to characterize the structure of these forests with L-band data retrieved by the Argentinean constellation.
Protective and Ameliorative Effects of Hydroethanolic Extract of Piper nigrum (L.) Stem against Antiretroviral Therapy-Induced Hepatotoxicity and Dyslipidemia in Wistar Rats

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has revolutionized the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS by overall improving their quality of life and increasing life expectancy. However, ART-associated hepatotoxicity and metabolic disorders in HIV/AIDS patients are growing concerns to clinicians, especially due to the long-term use of the drugs. This study reported on the phytochemical and pharmacological profile of hydroethanolic extracts of Piper nigrum stem (PNS) and evaluated its protective effect against tenofovir/lamivudine/efavirenz (TLE)-induced hepatotoxicity and dyslipidemia in Wistar rats. Cytotoxic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory assays were performed on PNS. Thirty-six rats divided into 6 groups of 6 animals/group were administered: distilled water, 17 mg/kg TLE, 17 mg/kg TLE and 100 mg/kg silymarin, 17 mg/kg TLE, and Piper extract (200 mg/kg, 400 mg/kg, or 800 mg/kg) orally for 28 days. The body weight of animals was recorded every 7 days. On Day 29, the rats were sacrificed, and blood samples were collected for hematological and biochemical tests. Portions of the liver and kidneys were collected for histological evaluation, while liver homogenates were prepared from the rest to measure antioxidant enzymes. PNS possessed in vitro cytotoxic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities. A significant decrease (p < 0.05) in the body weight of rats treated with PNS was observed. A significant high platelet count (p < 0.05) was observed in the PNS800 mg/kg group. A considerable decrease in alkaline phosphatase and triglycerides was observed in the silymarin and PNS group compared to the TLE-only group. The findings also show a significant increase in catalase and glutathione in the TLE-only group compared to the normal group, while SOD decreased. Histological observations revealed normal hepatic and renal tissues in the silymarin, and PNS-treated groups compared to the normal control, while leucocyte infiltration was observed in the TLE-only group. These results suggest that PNS extract possessed antioxidant activity that alleviated TLE-induced toxicity. Further studies are necessary to understand the pharmacokinetic interactions between ART and PNS.
Assessing Levels of Psychological Safety and Teamwork Satisfaction in Engineering Senior Capstone Teams

Developing a team into a learning organization has been shown to create high-performing teams. Amy Edmondson's work showed that forming a learning organization requires a psychologically safe environment. The current research comes from studies into industry and professional organizations, but there is little work showing if teams of university students are developing psychologically safe teams. The current study is a work-in-progress focusing on improving teamwork experiences in senior capstone teams. Driving the current study are two questions: What is the state of psychological safety and teamwork satisfaction in engineering capstone teams? What teamwork-related instruction do faculty provide their senior capstone teams? The data collected also help us determine if different student populations experience different levels of psychological safety on their capstone teams. The results help us establish a satisfactory level of psychological safety and teamwork satisfaction and they show that the majority of students actually work on teams with satisfactory levels of psychological safety and teamwork satisfaction. There is a gap in the psychological safety levels between male and female students. The race/ethnic analysis showed no gap between underrepresented minorities (URM) and Non-underrepresented minorities (Non-URMs). Future work includes surveying faculty regarding the amount of teamwork training is happening across all capstone teams at the given institution. Future work will also focus on assessing the impact of specific interventions to improve psychological safety in senior capstone teams and provide tools to faculty to implement more intentional teamwork interventions for their capstone teams.
A novel computational framework for the estimation of internal musculoskeletal loading and muscle adaptation in hypogravity

Introduction: Spaceflight is associated with substantial and variable musculoskeletal (MSK) adaptations. Characterisation of muscle and joint loading profiles can provide key information to better align exercise prescription to astronaut MSK adaptations upon return-to-Earth. A case-study is presented of single-leg hopping in hypogravity to demonstrate the additional benefit computational MSK modelling has when estimating lower-limb MSK loading. Methods: A single male participant performed single-leg vertical hopping whilst attached to a body weight support system to replicate five gravity conditions (0.17, 0.25, 0.37, 0.50, 1 g). Experimental joint kinematics, joint kinetics and ground reaction forces were tracked in a data-tracking direct collocation simulation framework. Ground reaction forces, sagittal plane hip, knee and ankle net joint moments, quadriceps muscle forces (Rectus Femoris and three Vasti muscles), and hip, knee and ankle joint reaction forces were extracted for analysis. Estimated quadriceps muscle forces were input into a muscle adaptation model to predict a meaningful increase in muscle cross-sectional area, defined in (DeFreitas et al., 2011). Results: Two distinct strategies were observed to cope with the increase in ground reaction forces as gravity increased. Hypogravity was associated with an ankle dominant strategy with increased range of motion and net plantarflexor moment that was not seen at the hip or knee, and the Rectus Femoris being the primary contributor to quadriceps muscle force. At 1 g, all three joints had increased range of motion and net extensor moments relative to 0.50 g, with the Vasti muscles becoming the main muscles contributing to quadriceps muscle force. Additionally, hip joint reaction force did not increase substantially as gravity increased, whereas the other two joints increased monotonically with gravity. The predicted volume of exercise needed to counteract muscle adaptations decreased substantially with gravity. Despite the ankle dominant strategy in hypogravity, the loading on the knee muscles and joint also increased, demonstrating this provided more information about MSK loading. Discussion: This approach, supplemented with muscle-adaptation models, can be used to compare MSK loading between exercises to enhance astronaut exercise prescription.
AC Loss and Thermal Analysis of a Curved DCT Super-Conducting Magnet for Carbon Ion Therapy

In this paper, a curved dipole magnet with Discrete-Cosine-Theta (DCT) coils which have compact ends and higher excitation efficiency, used for carbon ion therapy treatment facility is discussed. The dipole magnet has a bending angle of 90 degrees and a bending radius of 0.8 m. The magnet is ramped from 0 T to 2.9 T with a maximum rate of 1 T/s. However, the ramping magnetic field induces eddy current loss in metallic structure and ac loss in superconductor, resulting in temperature rise, and even quenching of the magnet. Therefore, a deep understanding of these effects is crucial for the design process. To mitigate the overall coil loss, reasonable structural design and conductor specifications are implemented. Furthermore, through finite-element analysis, the temperature distribution of the magnet under different cooling methods, such as LHe (Liquid Helium) bath and thermal conduction, are calculated in detail. Multiple reasonable cooling structures are also designed to ensure the safety of the magnet.
The Role of Feedback in Enhancing Students’ Learning Experience: An Evaluation of Student Perspectives and Attitudes

Feedback is a key element in the development of students’ understanding and evolution in their learning process. Students receive feedback in so many forms including peer feedback, instructor feedback and external feedback from employers or other industries. For this feedback to be valuable, students need to appreciate it, act on it, and consider it as part of the learning process. The literature shows that there is a discrepancy between instructors’ objectives for feedback and students’ perception of the effectiveness of feedback to improve learning. Mostly, students tend to focus on grades rather than reflect on the feedback and take actions to improve their learning. Even when instructors give detailed personalized comments in students’ delivered work, the students may not reflect and take actions unless the reflection is part of the grading process. This paper conducts a review of the types of feedback students receive in their undergraduate studies in five different programs: architectural engineering, civil engineering, engineering technology management, environmental engineering, and geological engineering. In addition, a survey is administered to students to understand feedback techniques used in engineering undergraduate programs. In the survey, students reflect on the types of feedback they received, and indicate which types of feedback they believe are most effective in their learning development. The survey also evaluates how the perception of effectiveness of the type of feedback is influenced by demographic factors. This paper discusses the first stage of the research project. The next stage includes developing an information session for students that is informed by the survey results and the literature. The information session aims to provide students an understanding of how to utilize different types of feedback. Students will then be interviewed a year later to determine if their perception and use of feedback has changed.
RHL-BEADLE: Bringing Equitable Access to Digital Logic Design in Engineering Education

The vast scope of digital design and the cost associated with purchasing and maintaining specialized lab equipment can pose a significant obstacle for pre-college students. This challenge is particularly significant for students from low-income and underrepresented minority backgrounds who often begin their higher education journey in community college programs with limited funding and access to engineering hardware. BEADLE, a project designed to promote equity in access to educational technologies, seeks to address this issue by providing an affordable platform that allows students to remotely access industry-grade hardware to learn and develop their skills in digital design as a step towards pursuing advanced digital design coursework in a university setting. The success of an advanced digital design course delivered using a remote Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) lab inspired the creation of an introductory digital logic curriculum for 2-year community college and high school students. The BEADLE curriculum is designed to prepare students for a junior-level course in computer engineering at a 4-year university, where digital logic is typically taken during the first two years. To evaluate the curriculum, we offered it to a sophomore class on digital logic design at a 4-year public university and collected pre-and post-assignment surveys to gauge understanding of the material. Reflection pieces were also used to evaluate the students' approach and level of comprehension. In this paper, we provide an overview of the BEADLE curriculum, and report on the results of its evaluation using a remotely accessible FPGA lab. Additionally, we highlight the various features integrated into the remote lab platform, aimed at enhancing students' understanding of the curriculum content.
Evolution of Coulomb stress and stress interaction among strong earthquakes along the Xianshuihe fault zone

Taking Xianshuihe fault zone as the study area,initially,we verified the Coulomb stress triggering of earthquakes with M≥6.7 along the fault zone since 1893,then using a more realistic model of multi-layered viscoelastic media,we calculated the Coulomb stress changes caused by viscoelastic relaxation of previous strong earthquake.In addition,we calculated inter-seismic stress accumulation caused by the tectonic loading generated by plate motions,the inter-seismic stress accumulation is modeled by introducing "virtual negative displacements" along 10 major faults segments in the region under study.On this basis,we further discussed the Coulomb stress accumulation caused by the co-seismic,post-seismic,and inter-seismic effect and its relationship with the regional seismic activity,and then simulated the evolution of Coulomb failure stress changes with time along the fault.The result shows that the occurrence of all of seven strong events on Xianshuihe fault since 1893 was driven by a series of previous strong earthquakes and tectonic stress loading,and co-seismic dislocation,viscoelastic relaxation and inter-seismic tectonic loading significantly affect the stress state on the fault.The study of the Coulomb stress changes along the fault zone can provide clues to reveal the law of earthquakes occurrence and find the fault segment at risk.
Retention of zearalenone during cooking of noodles made from a Japanese soft wheat

The precipitation during wheat anthesis can result in Fusarium head blight (FHB) in the ear of wheat and causes not only yield loss of grains but also mycotoxin accumulation in grains. Zearalenone is one of the major Fusarium toxins and known as an estrogenic mycotoxin. To assess the retention of zearalenone in processed foods of wheat, a patent flour sample prepared from Fusarium-damaged Japanese soft wheat was subjected to noodle cooking, and the contents of zearalenone before and after cooking were analyzed. The contents of zearalenone in raw noodle, boiled noodle, and broth were determined using an in-house validated analytical method with multifunctional cartridge clean-up and HPLC-fluorescence detection. In this sample, the substantial retention of zearalenone in the boiled noodle was 83%. More than two-times as much distribution of zearalenone as that in broth was observed in boiled noodle. As a result, it was shown that boiling was not effective to remove zearalenone from raw noodle.
Physical modelling of helical screw piles in sand

Empirical correlations between installation torque and uplift capacity of helical screw piles are frequently employed as a procedure for on site quality control of this type of foundation. In this work a theoretical relationship between uplift capacity and installation torque of deep helical screw piles in sand is proposed. The component of this relationship related to the contribution of helical plates to the uplift capacity was verified by centrifuge modelling in the Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussees (Nantes). Twelve model piles with different number of helices and diameters were tested in reconstituted sand samples with different relative densities. The pile installation and pull-out tests were carried-out in flight. Direct shear interface tests were conducted to characterize the interface between soil and pile. The experimental results were compared with the values predicted by the suggested theoretical approach. This comparison showed good agreement between the measured and calculated uplift capacity.
Board 255: Development and Application of Assessment Tools for a Research Experience for Teachers Site

In 2019, University of Houston (UH) at Houston, Texas was awarded an NSF Research Experience for Teachers (RET) site grant titled “RET Site: High School Teacher Experience in Engineering Design and Manufacturing. ” The goal of the project is to host 12 high school teachers each summer to participate in engineering design and manufacturing research and then convert their experience into high school curriculum. Given the experience from the first year’s operation and assessment, it was noted that the extant teacher self-efficacy surveys need to be further improved according to the specific needs of RET site. As such, an updated set of assessment tools was developed to evaluate the impact of RET site on high school teacher participants. In particular, a new teacher self-efficacy survey was created from synthesizing multiple sources including Bandura’s Instrument Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale, Collective Teacher Beliefs, and Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale). Besides the new self-efficacy survey, more specific questions were added to pre-and post-summer self-reported questionnaires to better understand the teachers’ perception and receptance of the summer experience. Interviews were conducted individually instead of using a focus group. This allows the interviewee to be more vocal during the interview, allowing more in-depth understanding of their perception for future improvement. The new assessment tools were applied to the second cohort of 12 teachers in summer 2022. The assessment results show that the assessment tools were able to effectively capture teachers’ change in perception and evaluate the affective impact of the RET site. In the future, the tools may be improved and used in similar teacher professional development activities.
Comanches In The New West 1895 1908 Historic Photographs

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Reengineering ethics education for deeper student engagement through the creation of roleplaying and decision-making games [WIP Paper, Student Experiences]

Engineering ethics is an area of increasing importance today, and this sentiment is shared by educators and budding engineers alike. However, engineering curricula do not often integrate ethics related to engineering specific topics. And even when these topics are incorporated, students are often left wanting to know how they would apply historical or philosophical knowledge of ethics in their future engineering industry lives that they are preparing for. We share our multi-year, multidisciplinary endeavours in understanding the problem area through qualitative interviews and surveys. We also describe our attempts to integrate engineering ethics in different courses for different audiences, in different capacities. Our goal of this work is to help students better engage with engineering ethics and feel a better sense of ownership and a clearer understanding of their future responsibilities towards ethics in daily decision making. We leverage discussion, teamwork, guided questions, role playing and decision making games to help students engage with seemingly esoteric topics. We help students build and employ their own frameworks, vocabulary and sense of rubric for tackling simple decisions, while also considering their potential ethical connotations and implications. Throughout this entire process, we were careful to employ student participation and feedback at all stages, allowing for a strongly student-driven approach. Students explored ethical education of engineers and developed digital learning tools, as those served as excellent opportunities for students to engage with this subject matter in with depth. We share our lessons and challenges in attempting to find adequate means to assess this work in meeting long-term and far-reaching educational goals.
Cell-derived nanomaterials for biomedical applications

ABSTRACT The ever-growing use of nature-derived materials creates exciting opportunities for novel development in various therapeutic biomedical applications. Living cells, serving as the foundation of nanoarchitectonics, exhibit remarkable capabilities that enable the development of bioinspired and biomimetic systems, which will be explored in this review. To understand the foundation of this development, we first revisited the anatomy of cells to explore the characteristics of the building blocks of life that is relevant. Interestingly, animal cells have amazing capabilities due to the inherent functionalities in each specialized cell type. Notably, the versatility of cell membranes allows red blood cells and neutrophils’ membranes to cloak inorganic nanoparticles that would naturally be eliminated by the immune system. This underscores how cell membranes facilitate interactions with the surroundings through recognition, targeting, signalling, exchange, and cargo attachment. The functionality of cell membrane-coated nanoparticles can be tailored and improved by strategically engineering the membrane, selecting from a variety of cell membranes with known distinct inherent properties. On the other hand, plant cells exhibit remarkable capabilities for synthesizing various nanoparticles. They play a role in the synthesis of metal, carbon-based, and polymer nanoparticles, used for applications such as antimicrobials or antioxidants. One of the versatile components in plant cells is found in the photosynthetic system, particularly the thylakoid, and the pigment chlorophyll. While there are challenges in consistently synthesizing these remarkable nanoparticles derived from nature, this exploration begins to unveil the endless possibilities in nanoarchitectonics research.