Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Lagrangian Climatology of Wintertime Cold Air Outbreaks in the Irminger and Nordic Seas and Their Role in Shaping Air–Sea Heat Fluxes

AbstractUnderstanding the climatological characteristics of marine cold air outbreaks (CAOs) is of critical importance to constrain the processes determining the heat flux forcing of the high-latitude oceans. In this study, a comprehensive multidecadal climatology of wintertime CAO air masses is presented for the Irminger Sea and Nordic seas. To investigate the origin, transport pathways, and thermodynamic evolution of CAO air masses, a novel methodology based on kinematic trajectories is introduced.The major conclusions are as follows: (i) The most intense CAOs occur as a result of Arctic outflows following Greenland’s eastern coast from the Fram Strait southward and west of Novaya Zemlya. Weak CAOs also originate in flow across the SST gradient associated with the Arctic Front separating the Greenland and Iceland Seas from the Norwegian Sea. A substantial fraction of Irminger CAO air masses originate in the Canadian Arctic and overflow southern Greenland. (ii) CAOs account for 60%–80% of the wintertime .
Dilepton anisotropy at low beam energies in a transport approach

We present calculations of dielectron anisotropic flow in heavy-ion collisions at HADES beam energies from a hadronic transport approach. The collectivity of the electromagnetic radiation produced during the evolution of these collisions has recently been dubbed as a barometer, serving as a probe for the flow velocity of the underlying hadronic matter. In particular, we study the elliptic flow coefficient 𝑣 2 of dileptons in different collisions systems, and its relation to the flow of hadrons.
Synchrotron Radiation Refraction-Contrast Computed Tomography Based on X-ray Dark-Field Imaging Optics of Pulmonary Malignancy: Comparison with Pathologic Examination

Simple Summary The imaging method called refraction-contrast computed tomography using synchrotron radiation can achieve detailed images almost similar to those from a microscope. This study examined its ability to recognize lung cancer. We took pictures of lung cancer samples in Japan using this imaging method. These pictures showed the insides of the samples precisely, making it easy to distinguish healthy tissue from cancerous spots. They even allowed us to tell the difference between a main lung cancer and one that started somewhere else, like the colon. Fundamentally, this method could be a way to check for lung cancer without cutting into tissue. However, before doctors can use it, the machines involved need some major changes. Abstract Refraction-contrast computed tomography based on X-ray dark-field imaging (XDFI) using synchrotron radiation (SR) has shown superior resolution compared to conventional absorption-based methods and is often comparable to pathologic examination under light microscopy. This study aimed to investigate the potential of the XDFI technique for clinical application in lung cancer diagnosis. Two types of lung specimens, primary and secondary malignancies, were investigated using an XDFI optic system at beamline BL14B of the High-Energy Accelerator Research Organization Photon Factory, Tsukuba, Japan. Three-dimensional reconstruction and segmentation were performed on each specimen. Refraction-contrast computed tomographic images were compared with those obtained from pathological examinations. Pulmonary microstructures including arterioles, venules, bronchioles, alveolar sacs, and interalveolar septa were identified in SR images. Malignant lesions could be distinguished from the borders of normal structures. The lepidic pattern was defined as the invasive component of the same primary lung adenocarcinoma. The SR images of secondary lung adenocarcinomas of colorectal origin were distinct from those of primary lung adenocarcinomas. Refraction-contrast images based on XDFI optics of lung tissues correlated well with those of pathological examinations under light microscopy. This imaging method may have the potential for use in lung cancer diagnosis without tissue damage. Considerable equipment modifications are crucial before implementing them from the lab to the hospital in the near future.
A Way to Address Inherent Weakness in Conceiving the Ground Plane Geometry for a Microstrip Antenna

This work presents an insight into the nature of ground plane (GP) current of a microstrip patch which is truly adverse in terms of generating cross-polar (XP) fields and minimally contributing to the primary radiation. This study also uses a theoretical basis in exploring a simple solution to mitigate the high XP values, specifically over the diagonal planes (D-planes). This actually turns out to be an engineered GP by clipping off its four corners. This has been thoroughly studied for a set of representative patch geometries and experimentally verified. A consistent XP reduction by 12–13 dB over D-planes has been ensured without affecting the impedance matching or antenna gains. This eventually results in cross-polar discrimination (XPD) of the order of 25–31 dB uniformly over the full range of operating bandwidth. In addition, the design is advantageous in terms of reduction in antenna size or the deployment area. Such a simple low-cost design appears as truly improved alternative to a typical standalone microstrip radiator for practical applications.
Bulbils of Aerial Yam Attenuate Ethanol-Induced Hepatotoxicity in HepG2 Cells through Inhibition of Oxidative Stress by Activation of the Nuclear Factor Erythroid-2-Related Factor 2 Signaling Pathway

Bulbil of yam (BY) extract contains various active compounds possessing many pharmacological properties. However, little is known about the effect and underlying mechanism of BY extract on ethanol-induced liver damage. The present study explored the beneficial potential of BY extract on ethanol-induced hepatotoxicity. To evaluate its effectiveness, ethanol-induced HepG2 liver cells were pretreated with BY extract. BY extract effectively rescued cells from ethanol treatment through inhibition of apoptotic cell death as well as inhibiting expression of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) proteins as stress inducers. BY extract increased the expression of typical antioxidants. Furthermore, BY extract significantly inhibited mitochondrial dysfunction and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, which are major ROS-inducing factors. Finally, as an underlying mechanism of the protective effects of BY extract on ethanol-induced liver damage, it activated Nrf2 protein through translocation from the cytosol to the nucleus, which in turn activated its target oxidative stress suppressor genes. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that BY extract has potential antioxidative effects in ethanol-induced liver cells and contributes to the establishment of a treatment strategy for alcohol-derived liver injuries.
OIF-CBDN: Orientation Information Fusion CBD Network for UWB-IR Vehicle Classification

To address the problem of low SNR in ultra-wideband impulse radar (UWB-IR)-based vehicle target classification, this letter proposes an Orientation Information Fusion CNN-BiLSTM-DNN (OIF-CBDN) model. The OIF-CBDN model comprises a primary channel and an orientation-assisted auxiliary channel. In the primary channel, target echo information undergoes processing using CNN, BiLSTM, and deep neural network (DNN). The auxiliary channel focuses on encoding target orientation information, which is then integrated with the feature extraction and classification modules of the primary channel. Specifically, in the feature fusion part, orientation features are incorporated into CNN convolutional features using a residual fusion technique. Additionally, the classification module incorporates orientation data into the DNN classification layer via fully connected layers. Experimental results on a UWB ground vehicle target dataset demonstrate that OIF-CBDN significantly enhances recognition performance. Notably, in low SNR conditions (SNR = −10 dB), OIF-CBDN outperforms the existing state-of-the-art methods by 7.16%.
Preoperative Evaluation for Carotid Endarterectomy Using CT and MRI Fusion Images Without Contrast Media

The usefulness of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) for carotid artery stenosis has been established even in the era of endovascular treatment. Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and three-dimensional computed tomography angiography (3D-CTA) are used for preoperative evaluation of CEA; however, contrast agents cannot be used in patients with renal dysfunction or contrast agent allergy. Since the introduction of a three-dimensional image analysis software, SYNAPSE VINCENT (Fujifilm, Tokyo, Japan) in February 2016, we initially fused cervical CT, carotid three-dimensional time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography, and carotid plaque imaging using 1.5 T magnetic resonance imaging to evaluate carotid artery stenosis in patients with renal dysfunction. Since then, we have gradually accumulated several cases, and at present, this fusion imaging is our first choice for preoperative evaluation of CEA instead of DSA or 3D-CTA. This evaluation method has many advantages over DSA and 3D-CTA, including the fact that it does not require contrast media. We report its usefulness, limitations, and cautions.
Asymmetric Fixed-effects Models for Panel Data

Standard fixed-effects methods presume that effects of variables are symmetric: The effect of increasing a variable is the same as the effect of decreasing that variable but in the opposite direction. This is implausible for many social phenomena. York and Light showed how to estimate asymmetric models by estimating first-difference regressions in which the difference scores for the predictors are decomposed into positive and negative changes. In this article, I show that there are several aspects of their method that need improvement. I also develop a data-generating model that justifies the first-difference method but can be applied in more general settings. In particular, it can be used to construct asymmetric logistic regression models.
Fabrication of Bamboo-Based Activated Carbon for Low-Level CO2 Adsorption toward Sustainable Indoor Air

This study fabricated a low-cost activated carbon (AC) adsorbent from readily available bamboo trees to control indoor CO2 levels and reduce energy costs associated with sustaining clean indoor air. Bamboo is naturally high in potassium content and has narrow fibrous channels that could enhance selective CO2 adsorption. The prepared bamboo-based activated carbon (BAC) exhibits predominantly micropores with an average pore size of 0.17 nm and a specific surface area of 984 m2/g. Upon amination, amine functionalities, such as pyridine, pyrrole, and quaternary N, were formed on its surface, enhancing its CO2 adsorption capacity of 0.98 and 1.80 mmol/g for low-level (3000 ppm) and pure CO2 flows at the ambient condition, respectively. In addition, the 0.3% CO2/N2 selectivity (αs,g) of the prepared sorbents revealed a superior affinity of CO2 by BAC (8.60) over coconut shell-based adsorbents (1.16–1.38). Furthermore, amination enhanced BAC’s CO2αs,g to 13.4. These results exhibit this sustainable approach's potential capabilities to ensure the control of indoor CO2 levels, thereby reducing the cost associated with mechanical ventilation systems. Further research should test the new sorbent’s adsorption properties (isotherm, kinetics, and thermodynamics) for real-life applicability.
Material-Guided Multiview Fusion Network for Hyperspectral Object Tracking

Hyperspectral videos (HSVs) have more potential in object tracking than color videos, thanks to their material identification ability. Nevertheless, previous works have not fully explored the benefits of the material information, resulting in limited representation ability and tracking accuracy. To address this issue, this article introduces a material-guided multiview fusion network (MMF-Net) for improved tracking. Specifically, we combine false-color information, hyperspectral information, and material information obtained by hyperspectral unmixing to provide a rich multiview representation of the object. Cross-material attention (CMA) is employed to capture the interaction among materials, enabling the network to focus on the most relevant materials for the target. Furthermore, leveraging the discriminative ability of material view, a novel material-guided multiview fusion module is proposed to capture both intraview and cross-view long-range spatial dependencies for effective feature aggregation. Thanks to the enhanced representation ability of each view and the integration of the complementary advantages of all views, our network is more capable of suppressing the tracking drift in various challenging scenes and achieving accurate object localization. Extensive experiments show that our tracker achieves state-of-the-art tracking performance. The source code will be available at https://github.com/hscv/MMF-Net.
Measurement and modeling of oil slick transport

Transport characteristics of oil slicks are reported from a controlled release experiment conducted in the North Sea in June 2015, during which mineral oil emulsions of different volumetric oil fractions and a look-alike biogenic oil were released and allowed to develop naturally. The experiment used the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) to track slick location, size, and shape for ∼8 hours following release. Wind conditions during the exercise were at the high end of the range considered suitable for radar-based slick detection, but the slicks were easily detectable in all images acquired by the low noise, L-band imaging radar. The measurements are used to constrain the entrainment length and representative droplet radii for oil elements in simulations generated using the OpenOil advanced oil drift model. Simultaneously released drifters provide near-surface current estimates for the single biogenic release and one emulsion release, and are used to test model sensitivity to upper ocean currents and mixing. Results of the modeling reveal a distinct difference between the transport of the biogenic oil and the mineral oil emulsion, in particular in the vertical direction, with faster and deeper entrainment of significantly smaller droplets of the biogenic oil. The difference in depth profiles for the two types of oils is substantial, with most of the biogenic oil residing below depths of 10 m, compared to the majority of the emulsion remaining above 10 m depth. This difference was key to fitting the observed evolution of the two different types of slicks. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Terraced landscapes as protected cultural heritage sites

This article presents the current state of protection of terraced landscapes as an important type of cultural landscape, both globally and in Slovenia. The UNESCO World Heritage List, the Satoyama Initiative list, and the Slovenian Register of Immovable Cultural Heritage are analyzed. The findings show that terraces rarely appear as a factor justifying protection, even though certain progress has been made in recent years. At least globally, this has clearly been contributed to by the 2010 adoption of the Honghe Declaration. Slovenia shows both a lack of appropriate criteria for identifying terraced landscapes worth protecting and an insufficiently systematic treatment of heritage sites that are already being protected.
Gradient analysis of relationships among fire, environment, and vegetation in a southwestern USA mountain range'

BARTON, A. M. (Department of Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109). Gradient analysis of relationships among fire, environment, and vegetation in a southwestern USA mountain range. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 121: 251-265. 1994. -I investigated interrelationships among topography, resources/conditions, fire, and woody vegetation over the lower half of an elevational gradient, from arid lowlands to productive intermediate elevations, in the Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona. With increasing elevation, soil water potential, litter depth, organic carbon, canopy cover, and fire probability increased, whereas forest-floor light levels, soil temperature, pH, and percentage bare soil decreased. With increasing soil moisture levels, plant cover increased and forest-floor light levels decreased. Fire frequency and soil moisture availability were positively correlated. Comparison of the fire data with published studies suggests that relationships between elevational gradients and fire may change in predictable ways from southern to northern latitudes in western North America. First axes of direct (DCCA) and indirect gradient analysis (DCA) showed a strong relationship between vegetation and variables correlated with elevation, including fire and resource variables such as light and soil moisture. Further variation in plant community composition was explained by a second axis that appeared to relate to variation in soil pH and soil texture, probably resulting from differences in parent material. The major environmental variables explaining axis 1 of the DCCA were the same as those found controlling the elevational distributions of tree species in separate single species studies.
Fractional-order PID controller tuned by particle swarm optimization algorithm for a planar CDPR control

The use of cable-driven parallel robots (CDPRs) has been steadily increasing across various sectors due to their expansive workspaces, impressive payload-to-mass ratios, and cost-effective designs. Controlling these robots, particularly those with substantial actuation redundancy, can present challenges. This research paper proposes the implementation of a fractionalorder proportional-integral-derivative (FOPID) controller to effectively regulate the end-effector of a planar CDPR with four actuation cables. The parameters of the controller are fine-tuned using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to ensure optimal performance. The proposed controller's performance is evaluated through two numerical experiments: target tracking and trajectory tracking using a point-to-point approach. Furthermore, a comparative study is conducted to highlight the controller's performance, comparing the proposed FOPID controller with both the classical PID controller and an optimized PID controller. The achieved results demonstrate that the proposed controller exhibits superior performance in terms of tracking accuracy and smoothness of control signals when compared to the other controllers under investigation. As a result, the proposed controller design represents a substantial advancement in control performance and can be regarded as a promising control strategy for CDPRs.
Long-Term Nitrogen Addition Accelerates Litter Decomposition in a Larix gmelinii Forest

Elevated atmospheric N deposition has the potential to alter litter decomposition patterns, influencing nutrient cycling and soil fertility in boreal forest ecosystems. In order to study the response mechanism of litter decomposition in Larix gmelinii forest to N deposition, we established four N addition treatments (0, 25, 50, 75 kg N ha−1 yr−1) in the Greater Khingan Mountains region. The results showed that (1) both needle and mixed leaf litter (Betula platyphylla and Larix gmelinii) exhibited distinct decomposition stages, with N addition accelerating decomposition for both litter types. The decomposition of high-quality (low C/N ratio) mixed leaf litter was faster than that of low-quality needle litter. (2) Mixed leaf litter increased the decomposition coefficients of litter with lower nutrients. (3) All N addition treatments promoted the decomposition of needle litter, while the decomposition rate of mixed leaf litter decreased under high-N treatment. (4) N addition inhibited the release of N and P in needle litter and promoted the release of N in mixed leaf litter, while high-N treatment had no positive effect on the release of C and P in mixed leaf litter. Our research findings suggest that limited nutrients in litter may be a key driving factor in regulating litter decomposition and emphasize the promoting effect of litter mixing and nitrogen addition on litter decomposition.
Comparing the impact of the Sport Education model on student motivation in Kuwaiti and American students

Background Sport Education (SE) stands as the most researched pedagogical model in physical education. While researchers have consistently underscored its capacity to improve student motivation in physical education, a gap remains concerning its implications in Arab nations. Moreover, no studies have been identified comparing the outcomes of SE between the U.S., where the model originated, and other countries. Purpose This study was conducted to (1) determine the impact of SE on Kuwaiti students' motivation, (2) determine any differential effects of SE on Kuwaiti and American students' motivation, and (3) explore students' perceptions of SE in both countries. Methods A replicated mixed methods quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test design was used. Participants were 33 secondary school students (nine girls and 24 boys; ages 11–12) from two classes in southwestern US, and 37 secondary school students (12 girls and 25 boys; ages 10–11) from two classes in Kuwait. Both sets of classes across the two countries were instructed by the same teacher who was trained in teaching SE. Student interest/enjoyment, perceived competence, effort/importance, and pressure/tension were measured using the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory instrument (IMI). Student perceptions of SE were assessed using a group Semi-structured interview. Quantitative data were analyzed using repeated measures and mixed ANOVAs followed by t-tests. Qualitative data were analyzed using a thematic analysis technique. Results Kuwaiti students' perceived interest/enjoyment, perceived competence, effort/importance, and pressure/tension scores significantly improved in the group that taught using SE only. Comparing the impact of the SE on students' motivation between the two countries showed no significant differences. The interview data reflected further support for the IMI results. Conclusion SE can be effective in increasing Kuwaiti students' motivation in physical education. This motivating effect of SE was observed consistently across both Kuwaiti and American students.
Market sentiment in emerging economies: evidence from the South African property market

Purpose Market sentiment has shown to influence housing prices in the global north, but in emerging economies, the nexus is rare to chance on in the current state of science for policy direction. More importantly in the recent decade where policymakers are yet to conclude on the myriad of factors confronting the housing market in sub-Saharan Africa inhibiting affordability. This paper therefore examines the impact of market sentiment on house prices in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach The study used the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach with quarterly data spanning from 2005Q1 to 2020Q4. Findings In all, it was established that market sentiment plays a minimal role in the property market in South Africa. But there was enough evidence of cointegration from the bound test between sentiment and house prices. Nevertheless, the lag values of sentiment pointed to a rise in house prices. Exchange rate volatilities and inflation had a statistically significant effect on prices in both the long and short term, respectively. Research limitations/implications Policymakers could still monitor market sentiment in the housing market due to the strong chemistry between house prices and sentiment, as evidenced from the bound test, but focus on economic fundamentals as the main policy tool for house price reduction. Originality/value The findings and the creation of the sentiment index make an invaluable contribution to the paper and add to the paucity of literature on the study of market sentiment in the housing market.