Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Multifunctional Online Estimation Method for Synchronous Inertia of Power Systems Using Short-Time Phasor Transient Measurement Data With Linear Least Square Method After Disturbance

This paper proposes a novel method for estimating the inertia, damping, and mechanical power variation of power systems using short-term phasor measurement data during transient events. The method applies a linear least square optimization technique to the generator swing equation and utilizes a pair of sliding windows to capture the dynamic changes of the system. The method can estimate the inertia under different types of disturbances in real-time and track the inertia changes caused by secondary disturbances. The method is validated using simulations in the IEEE New England 10-machine system and compared with existing methods.
Acoustic Actuators for the Manipulation of Micro/Nanorobots: State-of-the-Art and Future Outlooks

Compared to other actuating methods, acoustic actuators offer the distinctive capability of the contactless manipulation of small objects, such as microscale and nanoscale robots. Furthermore, they have the ability to penetrate the skin, allowing for the trapping and manipulation of micro/nanorobots that carry therapeutic agents in diverse media. In this review, we summarize the current progress in using acoustic actuators for the manipulation of micro/nanorobots used in various biomedical applications. First, we introduce the actuating method of using acoustic waves to manipulate objects, including the principle of operation and different types of acoustic actuators that are usually employed. Then, applications involving manipulating different types of devices are reviewed, including bubble-based microrobots, bubble-free robots, biohybrid microrobots, and nanorobots. Finally, we discuss the challenges and future perspectives for the development of the field.
Impact-based flood forecasting in the Greater Horn of Africa

Abstract. Every year Africa is hit by extreme floods which, combined with high levels of vulnerability and increasing population exposure, often result in humanitarian crises and population displacement. Impact-based forecasting and early warning for natural hazards is recognized as a step forward in disaster risk reduction, thanks to its focus on people, livelihoods, and assets at risk. Yet, the majority of the African population is not covered by any sort of early warning system. This article describes the setup and the methodological approach of Flood-PROOFS East Africa, an impact-based riverine flood forecasting and early warning system for the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA), with a forecast range of 5 d. The system is based on a modeling cascade relying on distributed hydrological simulations forced by ensemble weather forecasts, link to inundation maps for specific return period, and application of a risk assessment framework to estimate population and assets exposed to upcoming floods. The system is operational and supports the African Union Commission and the Disaster Operation Center of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in the daily monitoring and early warning from hydro-meteorological disasters in eastern Africa. Results show a first evaluation of the hydrological reanalysis at 78 river gauging stations and a semi-quantitative assessment of the impact forecasts for the catastrophic floods in Sudan and in the Nile River basin in summer 2020. More extensive quantitative evaluation of the system performance is envisaged to provide its users with information on the model reliability in forecasting extreme events and their impacts.
Brian Electrical Activity Acquisition and Decoding Algorithms For Using BMIs

Physical disabilities in limbs often lead to severe impacts on personal life and work. However, BMI technology offers hope for amputees or paralyzed individuals to regain control and motor abilities. By reading signals from the brain's motor cortex, BMI technology enables the control of robotic arms, cursors, and more, facilitating functional recovery. The key lies in identifying and extracting information related to specific tasks or intentions from brain signals, where the decoder determines the accuracy, reliability, and sensitivity of the final movements. This paper aims to provide a brief overview of the decoding steps in BMIs. The paper will discuss how the raw signals are acquired from the brain, including invasive BMI and noninvasive BMI, along with the respective advantages and disadvantages of these two approaches. Then, it will explore how these signals are processed into specific commands through both linear and nonlinear algorithms. Additionally, the paper will discuss the strengths, limitations, and feasibility of different decoding methods in human-computer interaction applications. This review offers researchers a preliminary understanding of the acquisition and decoding algorithms for brain electrical activity in BMIs. By evaluating the strengths and limitations of different algorithms, we can provide guidance for designing and improving BMI systems, thereby supporting the achievement of more accurate and efficient human-computer interaction.
The Lectin Pathway of the Complement System—Activation, Regulation, Disease Connections and Interplay with Other (Proteolytic) Systems

The complement system is the other major proteolytic cascade in the blood of vertebrates besides the coagulation–fibrinolytic system. Among the three main activation routes of complement, the lectin pathway (LP) has been discovered the latest, and it is still the subject of intense research. Mannose-binding lectin (MBL), other collectins, and ficolins are collectively termed as the pattern recognition molecules (PRMs) of the LP, and they are responsible for targeting LP activation to molecular patterns, e.g., on bacteria. MBL-associated serine proteases (MASPs) are the effectors, while MBL-associated proteins (MAps) have regulatory functions. Two serine protease components, MASP-1 and MASP-2, trigger the LP activation, while the third component, MASP-3, is involved in the function of the alternative pathway (AP) of complement. Besides their functions within the complement system, certain LP components have secondary (“moonlighting”) functions, e.g., in embryonic development. They also contribute to blood coagulation, and some might have tumor suppressing roles. Uncontrolled complement activation can contribute to the progression of many diseases (e.g., stroke, kidney diseases, thrombotic complications, and COVID-19). In most cases, the lectin pathway has also been implicated. In this review, we summarize the history of the lectin pathway, introduce their components, describe its activation and regulation, its roles within the complement cascade, its connections to blood coagulation, and its direct cellular effects. Special emphasis is placed on disease connections and the non-canonical functions of LP components.
In vitro bone sialoprotein-I expression in combined gingival stromal cells and platelet rich fibrin during osteogenic differentiation

Purpose: To analyze the expression of bone sialoprotein - I (BSP - I) after the addition of platelet rich fibrin (PRF) in gingival somatic cell (GSC) culture medium during osteogenic differentiation in vitro. Methods: GSCs were extracted from healthy, 1-month-old, male Wistar rats (Rattus Novergicus), weighing 250 - 300 g, and which had been randomly selected (n=4). These cells were cultured for 14 days and passaged every 4 days. Five subcultures of GSCs were cultured in three plates (M24) (N = 54; n = 6) for 7, 14 and 21 days in three preconditioned culture media (group I: plain culture media; group II: preconditioned osteogenic culture media, and group III: preconditioned osteogenic culture media with platelet rich fibrin). The expression of BSP-I was immunocytochemically (ICC) examined with monoclonal antibodies. Homogeneity and normality tests (p > 0.05) were then performed followed by an analysis of variance (ANOVA, p < 0.05). Results: The highest expression of BSP-I was found in group III (Day 21, 13.00 ± 2.000), while the lowest expression of BSP-I was found in group I (Day 7, 7.33 ± 1.155). There were significant differences between the groups (p = 0.000, p < 0.05). Conclusion: PRF stimulates and significantly enhances the expression of BSP-I in GSC culture during osteogenic differentiation. Thus, PRF can be used to accelerate regeneration of alveolar bone defects.
A Collision Reconciling-Based B-Ary Tree-Splitting Missing Tag Identification Protocol

Radio frequency identification technology has been widely used in various fields, including manufacturing, retail, and smart cities. This letter proposes an innovative protocol called collision reconciling-based <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$B$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-ary tree splitting missing tag identification (CTMTI) protocol for large-scale RFID systems. The proposed CTMTI protocol uses an optimal <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$B$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-ary tree splitting assignment, leveraging information from collisions. In addition, a three-bit collision reconciling strategy is developed to resolve collision elements. Further, a bit-tracking response strategy that allows multiple tags to respond with different binary strings within one slot is introduced. Both theoretical analysis and simulations unequivocally confirm that the proposed CTMTI protocol can enhance time efficiency, outperforming the state-of-the-art protocols by at least 200.7%.
SAFETY ASSESSMENT OF UNDERGROUND TANK AGAINST LONG-PERIOD STRONG GROUND MOTION - ESTIMATION OF DEEP SUBSURFACE STRUCTURE BY OBSERVING MICROTREMOR AND STRONG-MOTION IN AKITA DISTRICT -

In considering the safety of oil storage, it is important to grasp the characteristics of long-period ground motion causing sloshing, and it is also useful to investigate deep subsurface structures at the site, as well as to analyze the characteristics of long-period ground motion by the observed earthquake waves. In this study, we conducted the above investigation and analysis in Oga area where Akita National Petroleum Stockpiling Base is located and Akita City/Sanno area around Oga area. As s result, we obtained the following results: 1) In both areas, we estimated deep subsurface structures to reproduce both phase velocity and H/V ratio of microtremor observation records. 2) We confirmed that the group velocity of the strong-motion observation records approximately corresponded to the theoretical dispersion curve of the estimated deep subsurface structures in both areas. 3) According to the estimated deep subsurface structures, the depth of Vs=3km/s to be the seismic bedrock was 0.8km in the Oga area and 1.8km in the Sanno area, revealing that the structure in the Sanno area tends to amplify the long-period ground motion more than that in the Oga area.
Polarization-Driven Solution for Mitigating Scattering and Uneven Illumination in Underwater Imagery

This article introduces a polarization-driven solution (PDS) to enhance the contrast of underwater imagery degraded by light scattering and uneven illumination. Images taken in underwater environments suffer from reduced contrast due to the combined effects of light scattering and nonuniform illumination. We present an underwater joint degradation model (UJDM) that effectively describes the compounded impacts of scattering and uneven illumination. By exploiting the polarization distinctions between objects and scattered light, we mitigate the deleterious effects of light scattering. Additionally, we leverage the polarization information to persist across changes in illumination, enhancing contrast and detail, especially in darker image regions. By building upon this foundation, our proposed underwater image restoration technique synergistically combines descattering with low-light image enhancement. We establish a benchmark database comprising both simulated and authentic underwater polarization images. Experiment results demonstrate that our proposed technique outperforms state-of-the-art underwater image contrast enhancement algorithms, validated through both subjective assessments and objective evaluation metrics. The source code and the datasets are available at https://github.com/polwork/PDS.
Clinical, tomographic and functional comparison of sporadic and tuberous sclerosis complex-associated forms of lymphangioleiomyomatosis: a retrospective cohort study

Background Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is a rare disease that can occur sporadically (S-LAM) or associated with the tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC-LAM). The natural history of LAM is not completely understood, including whether there is a difference between the clinical courses of the two forms. This study aimed to compare the clinical, functional and tomographic features between S-LAM and TSC-LAM, and evaluate the annual rates of change in lung function. Methods This retrospective cohort study included patients with LAM followed up between 1994 and 2019. Clinical, functional and imaging variables were evaluated, and the lung cysts were automatically quantified. Quality of life and predictors of lung function impairment were accessed, and the annual rate of lung function decline was compared between S-LAM and TSC-LAM. Results Of the 107 patients included, 77 had S-LAM and 30 had TSC-LAM. Although patients with TSC-LAM had a higher prevalence of renal angiomyolipomas and neurological and dermatological manifestations, pulmonary function tests were similar. Patients with S-LAM had a greater rate of forced expiratory volume in 1 s decline and a higher extent of cysts. Pneumothorax, desaturation in the 6-minute walking test and a higher extent of lung cysts were predictors of functional impairment. A greater impact on vitality and emotional health was observed in the TSC-LAM. Conclusion Greater functional decline and a higher cystic extension were found in patients with S-LAM. Our study provides a broad clinical, functional and tomographic characterisation of patients with LAM, adding valuable information to the existing evidence to better understand the two forms of the disease.
Hazard Relative Navigation : Towards safe autonomous planetary landings in unknown hazardous terrain

Many successful landings have been performed on celestial bodies such as Mars, the Moon, Venus and others. All of these had in common that they were designed such that they had to land in regions, which were supposedly free of any hazards or that a certain level of risk was accepted. However, while rocks and other geological features are nightmares of any landing engineer they are the dream targets of scientists. Therefore, currently landing-site selection is a trade-off between the scientists’ wishes and the engineers’ fears. To bring the engineering capabilities closer to what the scientists desire, landing capabilities need to be advanced. Therefore, this work tries to answer the research question: Are autonomous safe landings in hazardous and potentially unknown environments possible? which lead to the following two sub-questions: 1. How can a landing vehicle autonomously assess the safety of a potentially unknown and unmapped landing site? 2. Howcan a landing vehicle ensure a safe touch downavoiding autonomously detected hazards?
Mössbauer Effect Data Index 1958–1965 North American Aviation Science Center, Thousand Oaks, California

A. H. Muir, Jr., J. Ando and H. M. Coogan London: John Wiley. 1967. Pp. xviii + 351. £3 12s. The main section of this book consists of an energy-level diagram for each Mossbauer isotope (44 in all), together with a short list of its relevant properties, followed by a list of literature references classified by source and absorber, with a one-line summary of each. More general papers (reviews, theoretical papers etc.) are listed separately, and finally there is a complete alphabetical author index (with nearly 3000 entries).
Commissioning simulations tools based on python Accelerator Toolbox

Storage ring commissioning-like simulations are necessary to assess the feasibility of proposed future lattice designs. This paper proposes a python package for commissioning-like simulations based on python accelerator toolbox (pyAT). The software includes: 1) errors definition, 2) correction routines from open trajectory to optics and coupling correction and 3) the evaluation of the relevant parameters, such as dynamic aperture (DA), injection efficiency (IE) and Touschek lifetime (TL). The software is fully exploiting parallel resources (local or on a computing cluster) and is thought to be easily configured for any machine (examples are given for EBS DBA and HMBA, for PETRA IV and for FCC-ee). Whenever possible analytic formulas are made available to the user. Several examples are detailed in this paper and included in the code as demonstrations of use.
Prospective associations of multidimensional well-being with work distraction and job satisfaction: a two-wave study of US employees

Previous studies on the associations between well-being and work outcomes, such as work distraction and job satisfaction, have largely been cross-sectional and typically focused on only one or two aspects of well-being. Using two waves of data from a sample of employees at a United States health insurance company (n = 1,234), the present brief research report examines prospective associations between six domains of well-being (emotional health, physical health, meaning & purpose, character strengths, social connectedness, and financial security) and two work outcomes (work distraction and job satisfaction). Lagged regression analyses provided some evidence indicating that higher-level well-being in several domains was associated with subsequent reduced work distraction and increased job satisfaction assessed approximately 1 year later, but the magnitude of associations with each outcome did vary by specific domain. Emotional health and social connectedness were most strongly associated with work distraction and job satisfaction. We discuss some implications of the findings, including the importance of applying a multidimensional approach to studying employee well-being and potential opportunities for organizations to support the well-being of their employees.
Scanning the Horizon for Environmental Applications of Genetically Modified Viruses Reveals Challenges for Their Environmental Risk Assessment

The release of novel genetically modified (GM) virus applications into the environment for agricultural, veterinary, and nature-conservation purposes poses a number of significant challenges for risk assessors and regulatory authorities. Continuous efforts to scan the horizon for emerging applications are needed to gain an overview of new GM virus applications. In addition, appropriate approaches for risk assessment and management have to be developed. These approaches need to address pertinent challenges, in particular with regard to the environmental release of GM virus applications with a high probability for transmission and spreading, including transboundary movements and a high potential to result in adverse environmental effects. However, the current preparedness at the EU and international level to assess such GM virus application is limited. This study addresses some of the challenges associated with the current situation, firstly, by conducting a horizon scan to identify emerging GM virus applications with relevance for the environment. Secondly, outstanding issues regarding the environmental risk assessment (ERA) of GM virus applications are identified based on an evaluation of case study examples. Specifically, the limited scientific information available for the ERA of some applications and the lack of detailed and appropriate guidance for ERA are discussed. Furthermore, considerations are provided for future work that is needed to establish adequate risk assessment and management approaches.
An Impedance-Loaded Surface Acoustic Wave Corrosion Sensor for Infrastructure Monitoring

Passive surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are attractive candidates for continuous wireless monitoring of corrosion in large infrastructures. However, acoustic loss in the aqueous medium and limited read range usually create challenges in their widespread use for monitoring large systems such as oil and gas (O&G) pipelines, aircraft, and processing plants. This paper presents the investigation of impedance-loaded reflective delay line (IL-RDL) SAW devices for monitoring metal corrosion under O&G pipeline-relevant conditions. Specifically, we studied the effect of change in resistivity of a reflector on the backscattered signal of an RDL and investigated an optimal range through simulation. This was followed by the experimental demonstrations of real-time monitoring of Fe film corrosion in pressurized (550 psi) humid CO2 conditions. Additionally, remote monitoring of Fe film corrosion in an acidic solution inside a 70 m carbon steel pipe was demonstrated using guided waves. This paper also suggests potential ways to improve the sensing response of IL-RDLs.
Increased Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) Toxicity and Accumulation Is Associated with Perturbed Prostaglandin Metabolism and Increased Organic Anion Transport Protein (OATP) Expression

Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) is a widespread environmental pollutant with a long half-life and clearly negative outcomes on metabolic diseases such as fatty liver disease and diabetes. Male and female Cyp2b-null and humanized CYP2B6-transgenic (hCYP2B6-Tg) mice were treated with 0, 1, or 10 mg/kg/day PFOS for 21 days, and surprisingly it was found that PFOS was retained at greater concentrations in the serum and liver of hCYP2B6-Tg mice than those of Cyp2b-null mice, with greater differences in the females. Thus, Cyp2b-null and hCYP2B6-Tg mice provide new models for investigating individual mechanisms for PFOS bioaccumulation and toxicity. Overt toxicity was greater in hCYP2B6-Tg mice (especially females) as measured by mortality; however, steatosis occurred more readily in Cyp2b-null mice despite the lower PFOS liver concentrations. Targeted lipidomics and transcriptomics from PFOS-treated Cyp2b-null and hCYP2B6-Tg mouse livers were performed and compared to PFOS retention and serum markers of toxicity using PCA. Several oxylipins, including prostaglandins, thromboxanes, and docosahexaenoic acid metabolites, are associated or inversely associated with PFOS toxicity. Both lipidomics and transcriptomics indicate PFOS toxicity is associated with PPAR activity in all models. GO terms associated with reduced steatosis were sexually dimorphic with lipid metabolism and transport increased in females and circadian rhythm associated genes increased in males. However, we cannot rule out that steatosis was initially protective from PFOS toxicity. Moreover, several transporters are associated with increased retention, probably due to increased uptake. The strongest associations are the organic anion transport proteins (Oatp1a4-6) genes and a long-chain fatty acid transport protein (fatp1), enriched in female hCYP2B6-Tg mice. PFOS uptake was also reduced in cultured murine hepatocytes by OATP inhibitors. The role of OATP1A6 and FATP1 in PFOS transport has not been tested. In summary, Cyp2b-null and hCYP2B6-Tg mice provided unique models for estimating the importance of novel mechanisms in PFOS retention and toxicity.