Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gold Nanoparticle-Based Colorimetric Sensors: Properties and Application in Detection of Heavy Metals and Biological Molecules

During the last decade, advances have been made in nanotechnology using nanomaterials, leading to improvements in their performance. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been widely used in the field of sensor analysis and are also combined with certain materials to obtain the desired characteristics. AuNPs are commonly used as colorimetric sensors in detection methods. In developing an ideal sensor, there are certain characteristics that must be met such as selectivity, sensitivity, accuracy, precision, and linearity, among others. Various methods for the synthesis of AuNPs and conjugation with other components have been carried out in order to obtain good characteristics for their application. AuNPs can be applied in the detection of both heavy metals and biological molecules. This review aimed at observing the role of AuNPs in its application. The synthesis of AuNPs for sensors will also be revealed, along with their characteristics suitable for this role. In the application method, the size and shape of the particles must be considered. AuNPs used in heavy metal detection have a particle size of around 15–50 nm; in the detection of biological molecules, the particle size of AuNPs used is 6–35 nm whereas in pharmaceutical compounds for cancer treatment and the detection of other drugs, the particle size used is 12–30 nm. The particle sizes did not correlate with the type of molecules regardless of whether it was a heavy metal, biological molecule, or pharmaceutical compound but depended on the properties of the molecule itself. In general, the best morphology for application in the detection process is a spherical shape to obtain good sensitivity and selectivity based on previous studies. Functionalization of AuNPs with conjugates/receptors can be carried out to increase the stability, sensitivity, selectivity, solubility, and plays a role in detecting biological compounds through conjugating AuNPs with biological molecules.
Monocular vision measurement system for the position and orientation of remote object

The high-precision measurement method for the position and orientation of remote object, is one of the hot issues in vision inspection, because it is very important in the field of aviation, precision measurement and so on. The position and orientation of the object at a distance of 5 m, can be measured by near infrared monocular vision based on vision measurement principle, using image feature extraction and data optimization. With the existent monocular vision methods and their features analyzed, a new monocular vision method is presented to get the position and orientation of target. In order to reduce the environmental light interference and make greater contrast between the target and background, near infrared light is used as light source. For realizing automatic camera calibration, a new feature-circle-based calibration drone is designed. A set of algorithms for image processing, proved to be efficient, are presented as well. The experiment results show that, the repeatability precision of angles is less than 8"; the repeatability precision of displacement is less than 0.02 mm. This monocular vision measurement method has been already used in wheel alignment system. It will have broader application field.
Review of Three-Dimensional Handheld Photoacoustic and Ultrasound Imaging Systems and Their Applications

Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is a non-invasive biomedical imaging technique that combines the benefits of optics and acoustics to provide high-resolution structural and functional information. This review highlights the emergence of three-dimensional handheld PA imaging systems as a promising approach for various biomedical applications. These systems are classified into four techniques: direct imaging with 2D ultrasound (US) arrays, mechanical-scanning-based imaging with 1D US arrays, mirror-scanning-based imaging, and freehand-scanning-based imaging. A comprehensive overview of recent research in each imaging technique is provided, and potential solutions for system limitations are discussed. This review will serve as a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners interested in advancements and opportunities in three-dimensional handheld PA imaging technology.
L’imagerie satellitaire pour l’étude des bas-fonds au Sahel

La presente etude s’inscrit dans le cadre du Programme de Mise en Valeur des Bas-fonds au Sahel, au sein du Reseau de Recherche sur la Resistance a la Secheresse. La teledetection y est utilisee dans le but d’elaborer un outil facilitant la decision en matiere d’amenagement. Deux axes de recherche sont envisages. D’une part, la reconnaissance des bas-fonds et des zones humides potentielles au sein du paysage. D’autre part, la discrimination des differents etats de surface et des types d’occupation des sols humides. La methode des traitements proposes s’appuie sur l’analyse diachronique de deux images satellitaires a haute resolution : une Landsat Thematic Mapper de fin de saison des pluies et une Spot XS de fin de saison culturale. L’etude a ete menee dans la region de la Comoe, au Sud-Ouest du Burkina Faso. Les resultats des traitements permettent de montrer es possibilites offertes par la teledetection en vue de mettre en evidence les zones humides, d’evaluer leur repartition spatiale, d’etudier leurs conditions de submersion et d’etablir l’importance de l’intervention humaine sur ces zones.
Global monthly water stress: 2. Water demand and severity of water stress

This paper assesses global water stress at a finer temporal scale compared to conventional assessments. To calculate time series of global water stress at a monthly time scale, global water availability, as obtained from simulations of monthly river discharge from the companion paper, is confronted with global monthly water demand. Water demand is defined here as the volume of water required by users to satisfy their needs. Water demand is calculated for the benchmark year of 2000 and contrasted against blue water availability, reflecting climatic variability over the period 1958–2001. Despite the use of the single benchmark year with monthly variations in water demand, simulated water stress agrees well with long‐term records of observed water shortage in temperate, (sub)tropical, and (semi)arid countries, indicating that on shorter (i.e., decadal) time scales, climatic variability is often the main determinant of water stress. With the monthly resolution the number of people experiencing water scarcity increases by more than 40% compared to conventional annual assessments that do not account for seasonality and interannual variability. The results show that blue water stress is often intense and frequent in densely populated regions (e.g., India, United States, Spain, and northeastern China). By this method, regions vulnerable to infrequent but detrimental water stress could be equally identified (e.g., southeastern United Kingdom and northwestern Russia).
Genetic studies of quantitative and quality traits in rice under low and high soil nitrogen and phosphorous conditions, and a survey of farmer preferences for varieties.

Farmers’ participation in variety selection promotes adoption of the released cultivars. An Open Semi Structured Household Level Questionnaires (OSSHLQ) was administered in randomly to selected sixty seven households in the major rice production areas in Kenya, to obtain information on varietal preferences and production constraints. To supplement on this survey information, focus group discussions and key informants were incorporated. To ensure farmers desired traits were firmly anchored in the breeding programme, an on station research managed parent selection trial was established where farmers were involved in assisting the selection of varieties to be used as parents based on their own selection criteria. The farmers preferences were high yielding and good grain quality, hybrid rice and high nutrient use efficient varieties. These accounted for about 54% of their wishes. Rice was the most important crop among the selected farmers followed by maize, but the hectarage of maize was the highest followed by rice; probably this is due to the different spacing of these crops. Labour cost was identified as a factor limiting production, especially for irrigated rice and thus they preferred upland rice which is easy to produce. They identified land preparation, inputs, planting, weeding and harvesting as the most expensive activities. The majority of the respondents (66%) grew irrigated rice, while 25% grew upland rice. This disparity was attributed to the fact that upland rice was new, the varieties having been officially released in March 2009. This is in contrast to the irrigated varieties that they have been growing since 1951 when the irrigation scheme was established as a pilot scheme. However, the majority of the farmers expressed their desire to grow upland rice but lack of seeds, appropriate varieties and production knowledge was a major setback. The existing varieties were viewed as high input based and farmers could not afford the inputs. The main fertilizers used were Diammonium Phosphate (DAP), Sulphate of Ammonia (SA), Calcium Ammonium Nitrate (CAN) and NPK (23:23:0), though the amounts used were very low and contributed little to any consequential yields. This was the case even though the farmers were aware and indicated that soil fertility was poor due to continuous cropping under irrigation. Fourteen varieties were selected by farmers including Nerica1, Duorado, IR79913-B-176-B-4, CT16333(1)-CA-20-M, CT16333(1)-CA-22-M, CT16333(2)-CA-18-M, CT16313-CA-19-M, WAB964-B-3A 1.2, CT16317-CA-4-M, CT16307-CA-14-M, CT16337-CA-12-M, CT16345-CA-3M, WAB 905-B-4A 1.1 and WAB 450-B-136-HB NERICA9; but only nine of them were successfully used due to hybridization incompatibility.
Fuzzy TOPSIS for Post-Harvest Losses Drivers Evaluation in Fish Supply Chain: A Case Study

Being highly susceptible to damage, fish result in significant post-harvest fish losses (PHFL) due to quality deterioration from inefficient harvesting and market dynamics. This study aims to identify the leading factors driving PHFL and construct a practical decision-making framework for the fisheries industry's development. Employing the fuzzy TOPSIS method, we scrutinized the critical causes of PHFL. Our literature review revealed four aspects and 13 operational processes contributing to PHFL across the supply chain. Among these processes, four drivers were the primary culprits: excessive fish capacity in shipping baskets, inadequate ice cooling during transportation to suppliers, insufficient ice cooling during supplier sorting, and the absence of appropriate tools for small retailers. To alleviate PHFL and enhance the fishery industry, priority should be given to addressing excessive fish capacity in shipping baskets, which poses a risk of physical damage during transit. Moreover, inadequate ice-cooling techniques, particularly in transportation and supplier sorting stages, raise public health and food safety concerns. Stakeholders must prioritize these critical factors for PHFL reduction.
Modeling 3D Ex-Filtration Process of a Soak-Away Rain Garden

This paper presents a three-dimensional (3D) model developed using COMSOL Multiphysics to understand the 3D ex-filtration process of a soak-away rain garden. With a design hyetograph of 3-month average rainfall intensities of Singapore, it is found that the average vertical ex-filtration rate that is obtained by dividing the average vertical ex-filtration (drained through bottom of the soak-away rain garden, averaged over the simulation period = 720 min, and expressed in m3) by the surface area of the soak-away rain garden and the simulation time step is almost constant regardless of increase in saturated hydraulic conductivity (K) of the in-situ soil and the surface area of the soak-away rain garden as a percentage of catchment area. However, as depth to groundwater table which is measured from bottom of the filter media increases, in between 0.5 m and 1 m of depth to groundwater table, the average vertical ex-filtration rate decreases significantly (by around 15 - 20 mm/hr) and the decrease is almost twice, compared with that between 1 m and 1.5 m of depth to groundwater table. Furthermore, this study shows that for a given K of in-situ, K of filter media, and depth to groundwater table, as the surface area of the soak-away rain garden increases, the horizontal flow coefficient which is defined as the ratio between total horizontal ex-filtration (drained through sides of the soak-away rain garden, summed over the simulation period, and expressed in m3) and total vertical ex-filtration (drained through bottom of the soak-away rain garden, summed over the simulation period, and expressed in m3) decreases. Moreover, for a given surface area of the soak-away rain garden, K of in-situ, and depth to groundwater table, the horizontal flow coefficient decreases as K of the filter media increases. However, it is found that for a given surface area of the soak-away rain garden, K of in-situ, and K of filter media, the horizontal flow coefficient increases as depth to groundwater table increases.
Threshold behavior in a fissured granitic catchment in southern China: 1. Analysis of field monitoring results

An experimental granitic catchment in southern China was instrumented to continuously monitor the hydrologic processes, within which two plots (5 m × 10 m) were equipped. Observed rainfall and corresponding responses of surface water, soil water, and groundwater were used to examine the hydrological threshold behaviors. New hydrological thresholds were determined on the spatial scales of plot and catchment and on the temporal scales of storm event and month, namely, those between (1) the sum of total event precipitation (P) and the antecedent soil moisture index (ASI) (hereafter P + ASI) and the total event interflow at plots A (soil depth: 200–250 cm) and B (soil depth: 50–90 cm), and between P + ASI and deep interflow at plot A, within which an aquitard exists, (2) P + ASI and event peak flow, (3) the normalized maximum well water level (NMWWL) and event peak flow at the catchment scale, and (4) P + ASI and monthly streamflow depth. In addition, thresholds between P + ASI/NMWWL and event quick flow depth were identified, in accordance with findings of previous studies. Based on the hydrometric observations, we believed that the soil moisture deficit and bedrock depression storage were the main reasons for the threshold behavior in the study catchment. Below a specific threshold of P + ASI, none or little interflow was generated on hillslopes and contributed to streamflow, while interflow generated at the soil‐bedrock interface on hillslopes started to contribute to streamflow when it was above the threshold, and the runoff contributing areas expanded from the near‐stream zone to hillslopes.
Late Quaternary sediment pathways through the deep ocean, east of New Zealand

Late Quaternary sediment pathways through the deep ocean, east of New Zealand, were determined using sand-sized mica tracers in conjunction with physical oceanographic, seismic, and stratigraphic data. Results indicate that in glacial times, micaceous sediment, derived mainly from low-grade metamorphic rocks of the eastern South Island, was delivered by rivers directly to Bounty Trough. Here turbidity currents transferred the sediment 1000 km eastward to the Bounty Fan on the 4500 m deep Southwest Pacific Basin. A western boundary current (WBC), flowing over the fan, redirected the sediment 1000 km to the north and northwest where it eventually accumulated as a drift deposit near Hikurangi Trough. The drift also received mica that had been transported 700 km along Hikurangi Trough from mainly plutonic sources on the northwestern South Island. Interglacial episodes witnessed a major change in transport paths. River-borne sediment was diverted away from Bounty Trough which became a site of predominantly calcareous pelagic sedimentation. Denied the lateral injection of terrigenous sediment, the WBC nevertheless continued to supply small quantities of mica to the drift through erosion of existing glacial deposits on the Bounty Fan. The paucity of interglacial mica on the drift indicates it is also receiving little terrigenous sediment by way of Hikurangi Trough.
Evaluation of Cross-Immunity to the Mpox Virus Due to Historic Smallpox Vaccination

When the Mpox virus (MPXV) began spreading globally in 2022, it became critical to evaluate whether residual immunity from smallpox vaccination provided cross-protection. To assess the cross-immune response to MPXV, we collected serum samples (n = 97) and PBMCs (n = 30) from healthy-donors, either born before 1974 and reporting smallpox vaccination during childhood or born after 1975 and not vaccinated with Vaccinia virus (VACV)-based vaccines. We evaluated the levels of anti-MPXV IgG and neutralizing antibodies (Nabs) and the presence of a T cell response against MPXV. We found anti-MPXV IgG and Nabs in 60 (89.6%) and 40 (70.1%) vaccinated individuals, respectively. We observed a T cell response to Orthopoxviruses and MPXV peptide pools in 30% of vaccinated individuals. We thus show that a high proportion of subjects who received the smallpox vaccine 40 to 60 years ago have humoral cross-immunity, while the T-cell-specific response against MPXV was observed in a smaller group (30%) of vaccinated individuals. This study, combined with information on immunity developed during natural infection or the administration of current vaccines, will contribute to a better understanding of humoral and cellular responses against MPXV.
Fabrication, Structural Characteristics, and Properties of Sericin-Coated Wool Nonwoven Fabrics

Recently, nonwoven fabrics from natural silk have attracted considerable attention for biomedical and cosmetic applications because of their good mechanical properties and cytocompatibility. Although these fabrics can be easily fabricated using the binding character of sericin, the high cost of silk material may restrict its industrial use in certain areas. In this study, sericin was added as a binder to a cheaper material (wool) to prepare wool-based nonwoven fabrics and investigate the effect of the amount of sericin added on the structural characteristics and properties of the wool nonwoven fabric. It was found using SEM that sericin coated the surface of wool fibers and filled the space between them. With an increase in sericin addition, the porosity, moisture regain, and the contact angle of the sericin-coated wool nonwoven fabric decreased. The maximum stress and initial Young’s modulus of the nonwoven fabric increased with the increase in sericin amount up to 32.5%, and decreased with a further increase in the amount of sericin. Elongation at the end steadily decreased with the increase in sericin addition. All of the nonwoven fabrics showed good cytocompatibility, which increased with the amount of sericin added. These results indicate that sericin-coated wool-based nonwoven fabrics may be successfully prepared by adding sericin to wool fibers, and that the properties of these fabrics may be diversely controlled by altering the amount of sericin added, making them promising candidates for biomedical and cosmetic applications.
Unsupervised Cluster Analysis of Walking Activity Data for Healthy Individuals and Individuals with Lower Limb Amputation

This is the first investigation to perform an unsupervised cluster analysis of activities performed by individuals with lower limb amputation (ILLAs) and individuals without gait impairment, in free-living conditions. Eight individuals with no gait impairments and four ILLAs wore a thigh-based accelerometer and walked on an improvised route across a variety of terrains in the vicinity of their homes. Their physical activity data were clustered to extract ‘unique’ groupings in a low-dimension feature space in an unsupervised learning approach, and an algorithm was created to automatically distinguish such activities. After testing three dimensionality reduction methods—namely, principal component analysis (PCA), t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (tSNE), and uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP)—we selected tSNE due to its performance and stable outputs. Cluster formation of activities via DBSCAN only occurred after the data were reduced to two dimensions via tSNE and contained only samples for a single individual. Additionally, through analysis of the t-SNE plots, appreciable clusters in walking-based activities were only apparent with ground walking and stair ambulation. Through a combination of density-based clustering and analysis of cluster distance and density, a novel algorithm inspired by the t-SNE plots, resulting in three proposed and validated hypotheses, was able to identify cluster formations that arose from ground walking and stair ambulation. Low dimensional clustering of activities has thus been found feasible when analyzing individual sets of data and can currently recognize stair and ground walking ambulation.
Do media coverage of suicides and search frequency on suicides predict the number of tweets seeking others for a suicide pact?

We examined whether media coverage of suicides and frequencies of searching for suicide methods or suicide pacts predicted the number of users posting tweets seeking others for a suicide pact. Analyses of 6,119 tweets containing “suicide pact” posted on Twitter during a 6-month period revealed that the number of users posting tweets seeking others for a suicide pact had a positive association with media coverage of celebrity suicides, but not with that of suicide pact victims, and a greater positive association with the search frequency for suicide methods than for suicide pacts. We found that the search frequency on suicide methods was positively associated with media coverage of celebrity suicides, while that on suicide pacts was more strongly related to media coverage of suicide pacts.
Physically-Interpretable Data Augmentation for Multi-Range Hand Gesture Recognition Using FMCW Radar Time Series

In this paper, a robust ac hgr system using a ac fmcw radar and InceptionTime networks on data augmented time series is implemented. The paper proposes multiple data augmentation techniques for radar-based ac hgr. Since a realistic manipulation of raw radar data frames or even range-Doppler maps is a very complex challenge, we instead propose data manipulation on physically interpretable time series of range, azimuth and elevation angles extracted from the data. Due to working on physically interpretable time series data, we can on the one hand make use of well explored existing augmentation techniques for time series and on the other hand do use-case specific interpretable augmentations, such as simulating a different aspect angle or range. To investigate the system, a data recording process covering multiple ranges, angles and types of gestures is carried out. The gain in accuracy from the proposed data augmentation scheme amounts to more than 4 percentage points to reach a global prediction accuracy higher than 95% for a very diverse dataset.