Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spatio-Temporal Network for Sea Fog Forecasting

Sea fog can seriously affect schedules and safety by reducing visibility during marine transportation. Therefore, the forecasting of sea fog is an important issue in preventing accidents. Recently, in order to forecast sea fog, several deep learning methods have been applied to time series data consisting of meteorological and oceanographic observations or image data to predict fog. However, these methods only use a single image without considering meteorological and temporal characteristics. In this study, we propose a multi-modal learning method to improve the forecasting accuracy of sea fog using convolutional neural network (CNN) and gated recurrent unit (GRU) models. CNN and GRU extract useful features from closed-circuit television (CCTV) images and multivariate time series data, respectively. CCTV images and time series data collected at Daesan Port in South Korea from 1 March 2018 to 14 February 2021 by Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Agency (KHOA) were used to evaluate the proposed method. We compare the proposed method with deep learning methods that only consider temporal information or spatial information. The results indicate that the proposed method using both temporal and spatial information at the same time shows superior accuracy.
Analysis of Teacher Roles and Student Problem Solving Skills in Learning Physics Online Collaborative Problem Solving

The development of education needs to adapt to the needs of 21st century skills, including collaboration and problem solving. This study aims to analyze and describe the profile of Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) online learning, as well as to describe the problem solving skills after learning. This research was conducted at SMA N 1 Gubug in class XI MIPA 1 for the academic year 2021/2022 with a qualitative descriptive method. CPS online learning is divided into virtual meetings using Microsoft Teams and discussions via text messages in WhatsApp. The research data was obtained through data observation’s, interviews, and written posttests. Data processing using a fixed comparison method with three stages, namely; data reduction, categorization, synthesis, and determination of hypotheses. The results showed that the role of the teacher appeared with almost the same frequency, namely as a motivator (37%), communicator (32%) and facilitator (31%). Students' problem-solving skills are dominated by the ability to plan and identify problems with the frequency of occurrence of 35% and 31%, respectively. The next two stages of problem solving, namely implementing the plan and checking back only appeared with a percentage of 19% and 15%.
Phase separation in InGaN thick films and formation of InGaN/GaN double heterostructures in the entire alloy composition

We report the growth of InGaN thick films and InGaN/GaN double heterostructures by molecular beam epitaxy at the substrate temperatures 700–800 °C, which is optimal for the growth of GaN. X-ray diffraction and optical absorption studies show phase separation of InN for InxGal−xN thick films with x>0.3. On the other hand, InxGal−xN/GaN double heterostructures show no evidence of phase separation within the detection capabilities of our methods. These observations were accounted for using Stringfellow’s model on phase separation, which gives a critical temperature for miscibility of the GaN–InN system equal to 2457 K.
Impact of dairy trainings on productivity of herd, generation of income and employment

The current study was conducted in Maharashtra to ascertain the impact of dairy farming trainings organized by selected three Krishi Vigyan Kendras on selected economically important parameters. Propensity score matching method was used to avoid selection bias and build a statistical comparison group of non-trainees comparable to trainees. The study revealed that there was no significant difference among trainees and non-trainees related to possession of dairy herd. However, study has shown that milk productivity, annual net income and annual employment generation among trainee and non-trainee dairy farmers were significantly different and comparatively higher among trainees than non-trainees, which indicates positive impact of training imparted by selected Krishi Vigyan Kendras in Maharashtra. Study further revealed that proportion of trainees who were deriving higher economic benefits from dairy farming in terms of productivity and income was quiet less. Hence, it is suggested that training organizing institutes should intensively plan more trainings of long duration ensuring larger and wider participation of population with follow up and post-training information support.
Bending Analysis of Thin Skew Plates Using Extended Kantorovich Method

An accurate approximate closed-form solution is presented for bending of thin skew plates with clamped edges subjected to uniform loading using the extended Kantorovich method (EKM). Successive application of EKM together with the idea of weighted residual technique (Galerkin method) converts the governing forth-order partial differential equation (PDE) to two separate ordinary differential equations (ODE) in terms of oblique coordinates system. The obtained ODE systems are then solved iteratively with very fast convergence. In every iteration step, exact closed-form solutions are obtained for two ODE systems. It is shown that some parameters such as angle of skew plate have an important effect on results. It is shown that the method provides sufficiently accurate results not only for deflections but also for stress components. Comparison of the deflection and stresses at various points of the plates show very good agreement with results of other analytical and numerical analyses. Also, it has been shown that for skew angle less than 30° this method provides more accurate results and when the skew angle becomes greater than 30°, results gradually begin to deviate from those reported using other methods or by finite element softwares.
Estimation of time series parameters in the presence of outliers

Outliers in time series can be regarded as being generated by dynamic intervention models at unknown time points. Two special cases, innovational outlier (IO) and additive outlier (AO), are studied in this article. The likelihood ratio criteria for testing the existence of outliers of both types, and the criteria for distinguishing between them are derived. An iterative procedure is proposed for detecting IO and AO in practice and for estimating the time series parameters in autoregressive-integrated-moving-average models in the presence of outliers. The powers of the procedure in detecting outliers are investigated by simulation experiments. The performance of the proposed procedure for estimating the autoregressive coefficient of a simple AR(l) model compares favorably with robust estimation procedures proposed in the literature. Two real examples are presented.
A High Percentage of CD16+ Monocytes Correlates with the Extent of Bone Erosion in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Patients: The Impact of Leukemic B Cells in Monocyte Differentiation and Osteoclast Maturation

Simple Summary Bone is a dynamic tissue undergoing resorption and formation. We previously described bone derangement in CLL patients in the advanced stages of the disease and demonstrated the pivotal role of cytokines, released by CLL cells, in stimulating osteoclast differentiation in vitro. Aiming to clarify mechanisms favoring osteoclasto-genesis, we, here, first characterized circulating CLL monocytes and then addressed whether healthy monocytes, under the influence of leukemic cells, acquire phenotypic and functional features distinctive of osteoclast precursors, such as the previously proposed CD16 marker. We determined: (i) a direct correlation between circulating CLL monocytes expressing CD16 and the levels of bone erosion; (ii) that the treatment of healthy monocytes with CLL-conditioned medium up-regulated the expression of CD16, RANK and RANKL and increased the rate of osteoclast formation; (iii) that monocytes polarized toward the M2 phenotype showed higher CD16 expression than M1 and were more prone to differentiate into osteoclasts. Abstract Significant skeletal alterations are present in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) patients; bone erosion, particularly evident in the long bone shaft, appeared increased in the progressive disease stage. Moreover, the partial colonization of the bone with reactive bone marrow we documented via PET-FDG imaging suggests that neoplastic cell overgrowth contributes to bone derangement. Indeed, cytokines released by leukemic B cells impair osteoblast differentiation and enhance osteoclast formation in vitro. CD16, Fcγ-RIIIa, has been previously indicated as a marker of osteoclast precursors. We demonstrate, here, that the percentage of circulating monocytes, CD16+, is significantly higher in CLL patients than in normal controls and directly correlated with the extent of bone erosion. When we assessed if healthy monocytes, treated with a CLL-conditioned medium, modulated RANK, RANKL and CD16, we observed that all these molecules were up-regulated and CD16 to a greater extent. Altogether, these findings suggest that leukemic cells facilitate osteoclast differentiation. Interestingly, the evidence that monocytes, polarized toward the M2 phenotype, were characterized by high CD16 expression and showed a striking propensity to differentiate toward osteoclasts may provide further explanations for the enhanced levels of bone erosion detected, in agreement with the high number of immunosuppressive-M2 cells present in these patients.
Clinical Determinants of Childhood Onset Systemic Lupus Erythematosus among Early and Peri-Adolescent Age Groups

Introduction: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystem autoimmune disease that is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. SLE disproportionately affects women and minorities. Childhood-onset SLE (cSLE) in particular tends to be more aggressive than adult-onset SLE. Despite substantial improvements in the treatment of cSLE, there is significant variability in treatment responses and long-term outcomes. Furthermore, there is a paucity of studies involving cSLE, and in particular, cSLE among different age groups. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that an early-onset cSLE cohort would demonstrate unique characteristics with distinctive clinical and laboratory features at disease onset. We specifically investigated whether clinical, epidemiological, or serological factors are differentially associated with early- and late-onset cSLE. This could have direct impact on clinical management with the goal of improving outcomes and quality of life for children with SLE. Methods: Our study was conducted at a large tertiary center. We included 213 subjects seen at our pediatric rheumatology clinic aged 4–17 years. Epidemiologic, clinical phenotype, disease severity, serology, treatment, and outcome data were compared between subjects with cSLE onset prior to 10 years of age (early-onset disease, n = 43) and those with cSLE onset greater than 10 years of age (peri-adolescent disease, n = 170). We compared clinical features between early- and peri-adolescent onset cSLE in order to investigate the association between age at disease onset of cSLE and clinical disease expression and outcomes. Results: Of the 213 subjects with cSLE in our study, 43 subjects had early-onset disease (age 2 to ≤9 years) and 170 patients had peri-adolescent onset disease. We found that early-onset cSLE was associated with a higher prevalence of positive anti-dsDNA antibody at cSLE diagnosis, higher anti-dsDNA antibody titer at cSLE diagnosis, rash, and azathioprine use (p < 0.001, p = 0.004, p = 0.011, and p = 0.008, respectively). In contrast, we found that peri-adolescent onset cSLE (≥10 years of age) was associated with worse disease activity (SLEDAI range 0–24) (p < 0.001), higher SLICC at diagnosis (p < 0.001), as well as a higher rate of mycophenolate mofetil and hydroxychloroquine use (p = 0.003 and p < 0.001, respectively). There were no significant differences in the prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms or the development of Class IV/Class V lupus nephritis between the early-onset and peri-adolescent groups.
Correlation-stability elastography in OCT: algorithm and in vivo demonstrations

We discuss an elastography method based on comparison of correlation stability for different parts of sequentially obtained OCT images of the studied strained tissue. The basic idea is that in stiffer regions of a deformed tissue the OCT image is distorted to a smaller degree. Thus, cross-correlation maps obtained using a sliding correlation window for compensation of trivial translational motion of the image parts can reflect the spatial inhomogeneity of the tissue stiffness distribution. An important advantage of the proposed approach is that it allows one to avoid the stage of local strain reconstruction via error-sensitive procedures of numerical differentiation of experimentally determined displacements. Another advantage is that the correlation-stability approach requires that for deformed softer tissue regions, cross-correlation should already be strongly decreased, which intrinsically implies much wider strain range of the method operability compared to other approaches and is favorable for its free-hand implementation. Generally speaking, the approach can be implemented using the cross-correlation both image features reflecting morphological structure of the tissue and speckle-level cross-correlation. Examples of numerical simulations and experimental demonstrations using both phantom samples and in vivo obtained OCT images are presented.
Tomographic control for wide field AO systems on extremely large telescopes

We investigate in this article tomographic control using both Laser and Natural Guide Stars (LGS and NGS) in the particular framework of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) Wide Field Adaptive Optics (WFAO) modules design. A similar global control strategy has been indeed derived for both the Laser Tomographic Adaptive Optics (LTAO) and Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) modules of the E-ELT, due to similar constraints. This control strategy leads in both cases to a split control of low order modes measured thanks to NGS and high order modes measured thanks to LGS. We investigate here this split tomographic control, compared to an optimal coupled solution. To support our analysis, a dedicated simulation code has been developed. Indeed, due to the huge complexity of the EELT, fast simulation tools must be considered to explore quickly the tomographic issues. We describe our control strategy which has lead to considering split tomographic control. First results on Tomography for E-ELT WFAO systems are then presented and discussed.
Bubble Cloud Characteristics and Ablation Efficiency in Dual-Frequency Intrinsic Threshold Histotripsy

Histotripsy is a non-thermal focused ultrasound ablation method that destroys tissue through the generation and activity of acoustic cavitation bubble clouds. Intrinsic threshold histotripsy uses single-cycle pulses to generate bubble clouds when the dominant negative pressure phase exceeds an intrinsic threshold of ~25–30 MPa. The ablation efficiency is dependent upon the size and density of bubbles within the bubble cloud. This work investigates the effects of dual-frequency pulsing schemes on the bubble cloud behavior and ablation efficiency in intrinsic threshold histotripsy. A modular 500 kHz:3 MHz histotripsy transducer treated agarose phantoms using dual-frequency histotripsy pulses with a 1:1 pressure ratio from 500 kHz and 3 MHz frequency elements and varying arrival times for the 3 MHz pulse relative to the arrival of the 500 kHz pulse (−100 ns, 0 ns, and +100 ns). High-speed optical imaging captured cavitation effects to characterize bubble cloud and individual bubble dynamics. The effects of dual-frequency pulsing on lesion formation and ablation efficiency were also investigated in red blood cell (RBC) phantoms. Results showed that the single bubble and bubble cloud size for dual-frequency cases were intermediate to published results for the component single frequencies of 500 kHz and 3 MHz. Additionally, bubble cloud size and dynamics were shown to be altered by the arrival time of the 3 MHz pulse with respect to the 500 kHz pulse, with more uniform cloud expansion and collapse observed for early (−100 ns) arrival. Finally, RBC phantom experiments showed that dual-frequency exposures were capable of generating precise lesions with smaller areas and higher ablation efficiencies than previously published results for 500 kHz or 3 MHz. Overall, results demonstrate dual-frequency histotripsy’s ability to modulate bubble cloud size and dynamics can be leveraged to produce precise lesions at higher ablation efficiencies than previously observed for single-frequency pulsing.
On the clouds of bubbles formed by breaking wind-waves in deep water, and their role in air-sea gas transfer

Clouds of small bubbles generated by wind waves breaking and producing whitecaps in deep water have been observed below the surface by using an inverted echo sounder. The bubbles are diffused down to several metres below the surface by turbulence against their natural tendency to rise. Measurements have been made at two sites, one in fresh water at Loch Ness and the other in the sea near O ban, northwest Scotland. Sonagraph records show bubble clouds of two distinct types, ‘ columnar clouds’ which appear in unstable or convective conditions w hen the air temperature is less than the surface water temperature, and ‘ billow clouds ’ which appear in stable conditions w hen the air temperature exceeds that of the water. Clouds penetrate deeper as the wind speed increases, and deeper in convective conditions than in stable conditions at the same wind speed. The response to a change in w ind speed occurs in a period of only a few minutes.
A New Genus and Species of Gall-Forming Fordini (Hemiptera: Aphididae) on Rhus wilsonii Hemsl. from Yunnan, China

Simple Summary A new species of aphid, causing the formation of large galls on a sumac species endemic to Yunnan, China, is named and described. Molecular and morphological diagnostic criteria are provided, and digital specimen data made available. Abstract A new species of gall-forming aphid from China, Qiao jinshaensis gen. et sp. nov., is described from Rhus wilsonii Hemsl. Morphological identification and molecular analyses both support the establishment of a new genus. A diagnosis combining morphological and molecular characters from alate viviparae is provided and specimen metadata are published in an open-access and machine-readable format.
Turbulent structure in the edge plasma of the TEXT tokamak

A reversal has been observed in the mean phase velocity of the turbulent fluctuations in the edge plasma of the TEXT tokamak. The observations can be described by a model in which the wave velocity in the lab frame is dominated by a nonuniform Er×B velocity and a gradient driven drift. The measurements also exhibit a localized instability which occurs in the region of maximum velocity shear.
In Vitro Setup for Determination of Nanoparticle-Mediated Magnetic Cell and Drug Accumulation in Tumor Spheroids under Flow Conditions

Simple Summary Magnetic nanoparticles can render therapeutics or drugs magnetically guidable, which enables their targeted transport to the diseased tissue in the patient`s body. Before its translation into patients, the efficacy of magnetic accumulation must be tested in cell culture systems. To analyze magnetic enrichment under conditions similar to blood flow, we established an experimental in vitro setup with a tumor spheroid placed in a perfused chamber: with this, we showed that it is possible to accumulate cells or chemotherapeutics at the tumor, increasing their therapeutic efficacy. Abstract Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) are used in nanomedicine as transporter systems for therapeutic cargos, or to magnetize cells to make them magnetically guidable. In cancer treatment, the site-directed delivery of chemotherapeutics or immune effector cells to the tumor can increase the therapeutic efficacy in the target region, and simultaneously reduce toxic side-effects in the rest of the body. To enable the transfer of new methods, such as the nanoparticle-mediated transport from bench to bedside, suitable experimental setups must be developed. In vivo, the SPIONs or SPION-loaded cells must be applied into the blood stream, to finally reach the tumor: consequently, targeting and treatment efficacy should be analyzed under conditions which are as close to in vivo as possible. Here, we established an in vitro method, including tumor spheroids placed in a chamber system under the influence of a magnetic field, and adapted to a peristaltic pump, to mimic the blood flow. This enabled us to analyze the magnetic capture and antitumor effects of magnetically targeted mitoxantrone and immune cells under dynamic conditions. We showed that the magnetic nanoparticle-mediated accumulation increased the anti-tumor effects, and reduced the unspecific distribution of both mitoxantrone and cells. Especially for nanomedical research, investigation of the site-specific targeting of particles, cells or drugs under circulation is important. We conclude that our in vitro setup improves the screening process of nanomedical candidates for cancer treatment.
Teacher and Student Perceptions of CALL Feedback: Synchronous and Asynchronous Teacher Electronic Feedback in EFL-Writing at King Saud University

In the realm of education, feedback from peers and teachers is of critical importance. The rapid growth of electronic feedback (EF) has led to various innovations in feedback, particularly for teachers’ EF (TEF) in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL). This study contributes to the literature on feedback by examining how teachers and students in EFL writing classes were influenced by TEF offered synchronously via online class discussion, and TEF offered asynchronously via Blackboard. This study focuses on both teachers’ perceptions (elicited from interviews) and students’ perceptions (elicited from surveys) regarding their respective experiences of TEF. The study uncovered three main findings; most of the TEF addressed the content, organization, and language structure of the students’ EFL writing, and the teachers adjusted their TEF according to students’ needs and course objectives; teachers and students considered TEF to be effective and accessible.
Detailed directional and temporal properties of solar energetic particles associated with propagating interplanetary shock waves

In the period May 1967 to May 1968, detailed Vela 4 observations of the properties of protons in the enhancements (‘spikes’) associated with propagating interplanetary shocks show that the proton energy spectrum does not extend beyond ∼5 Mev; the protons often possess unusually large streaming anisotropies (e.g., a pitch-angle anisotropy of >1000∶1 for the February 20, 1968, event), and the peak of the spike can occur as much as 3×105 km (∼10 min) on the sunward side of the shock front. Neither the Axford-Reid nor the Fisk model satisfactorily explains the observations: shock spikes were observed to occur when the interplanetary-field line connecting the interplanetary shock and the observer probably did not intersect the bow shock, contrary to the prediction of the Axford-Reid model; and the prediction of Fisk concerning the shape of the proton energy spectrum at the shock front was not observed at energies above 0.5 Mev. In their published form, neither model can predict an extremely large streaming anisotropy, although a recent extension of Fisk's model may be able to explain anisotropy ratios as large as 10. A single-encounter model, where particles are accelerated in a single elastic collision with the interplanetary shock, is qualitatively examined and can explain large enhancements and anisotropies only if the magnetic field and the shock normal are inclined at an angle of ≳85° to each other.