Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design and Optimization of UAV for Surveillance at Fernando de Noronha’s Risk Areas

This work presents the methodology and optimization of the project of an Aircraft whose mission is to monitor certain areas of Fernando de Noronha’s archipelago, defined as Areas of Risk. Its objective is to help ongoing initiatives to detect illegal fishing boats, since they are threatening some of the species that are used to breed in the area. The geometric optimization of this project uses a metaheuristic algorithm, known as Simulated Annealing, which provides a configuration based on the merit function, parametrization, constraints and calculation routines, which encompasses the areas of Aerodynamics, Stability, Performance and Structure. The algorithm shows that it is able to find optimal solutions even when faced with various constraints. The result of the optimization is robust and both its geometry and performance meet the established criteria.
Novel Deployable Quasi-Yagi Monopole Antenna using Origami Magic Spiral Cube

In this paper, a novel deployable quasi-Yagi monopole antenna is designed using origami magic spiral cube. The presented antenna consists of a driven monopole, a reflector and two directors, built on a low cost paper substrate. The driven element, the reflector and the directors are constructed in L-shape geometry to reduce the overall volume of the antenna. The monopole and the reflector are designed on the same magic cube, while the directors are realized on two different magic cubes. All the three magic cubes are stacked and joined with one another by using a double-sided thin adhesive film. The proposed origami antenna has the novelty in its design of easy folding and unfolding behavior. Under the unfolded state, the geometry is very compact (90% lesser in volume compared to the unfolded state), and can be easily transported and deployed in the unfolded state. The proposed antenna, operating at 1.8 GHz with peak gain of 7.3 dBi, has been numerically and experimentally analyzed in terms of its scattering parameters and radiation pattern.
Adaptation des bactéries symbiotiques de légumineuses métallicoles : effets des métaux lourds et de la plante hôte sur la composition des populations de rhizobia symbiotiques d’Anthyllis vulneraria et de Lotus corniculatus

Deux legumineuses (Anthyllis vulneraria et Lotus corniculatus) adaptees aux metaux lourds constituent un materiel d’interet pour la phytostabilisation de sites miniers. Leur fonction de fixatrices biologiques d’azote grâce a leur symbiose avec des bacteries symbiotiques permet l’etablissement efficace d’une couverture vegetale durable limitant la dispersion des metaux dans l’environnement. Nos objectifs ont ete d’etudier les effets des metaux lourds et de la plante hote sur les populations symbiotiques naturellement associees a ces legumineuses en analysant (i) les populations symbiotiques associees a A. vulneraria sur 8 sites contamines ou non (ii) les populations de rhizobia associees a L. corniculatus qui ont ete comparees a celles d’Anthyllis. La distribution des souches de Mesorhizobium isolees de nodosites d’A. vulneraria et provenant de plusieurs sites contamines ou non depend des fortes teneurs en metaux lourds des sols qui selectionnent fortement les souches symbiotiques resistantes et influencent leur composition taxonomique. Les souches appartenant a l’espece M. metallidurans ont ete retrouvees seulement dans les sites fortement contamines. Deux nouvelles especes potentielles et resistantes aux metaux semblent exister chacune sur un site minier distinct. L’une d’elle est proche de M. ciceri et de M. loti et tous ses membres presentent la particularite de ne pas posseder de gene cadA, un gene implique dans la tolerance aux metaux chez M. metallidurans. Par contre, les sites non contamines revelent une diversite taxonomique differente avec la presence de nouvelles especes de Mesorhizobium sensibles aux metaux lourds. Quatre de ces nouvelles especes ont ete definies. A. vulneraria et L. corniculatus partagent la meme diversite taxonomique dans les sites contamines testes. Par contre, les proprietes symbiotiques des souches varient selon la plante hote utilisee pour le piegeage. Les souches appartiennent soit au symbiovar (sv.) anthyllidis soit au sv. loti selon le site geographique d’origine et ceci independamment des teneurs en metaux lourds dans le sol. A. vulneraria s’associe avec les souches possedant les sv. anthyllidis ou sv. loti. En revanche, L. corniculatus ne s’associe qu’avec des souches du sv. loti. Dans tous les sols qu’ils soient contamines ou non, A. vulneraria nodule preferentiellement avec le sv. anthyllidis. En conclusion, A. vulneraria et L. corniculatus etablissent des symbioses avec les memes especes de Mesorhizobium et s’associent preferentiellement avec un sv. Les taxons retrouves dependent fortement des sites d’isolement, ce qui pourrait traduire des adaptations particulieres aux conditions environnementales. L’utilisation des ressources biologiques locales est une strategie que nous recommandons pour la vegetalisation d’anciens sites miniers.
Circularly Polarized Slotted Cavity Antenna Using TE210 Mode for Millimeter-wave Application

In this paper, the authors proposes a circularly polarized slotted cavity antenna using TE210 mode. The proposed antenna consists of two open ring slots. These slots radiate right-hand circular polarization (RHCP) in the broadside direction. The axial ratio (AR) of the proposed antenna is 0.99 dB at 28 GHz.
Machine agency in socio-technical systems: A typology of autonomous artificial agents

Robots are expected to become a significant part of our lives in the future. In this conceptual paper, we discuss how (social) agency is ascribed to robots and how this form of machine agency can be conceptualized for an analysis of socio-technical systems. Further, we develop a typology of autonomous artificial agents which can be used to address their social impacts within a socio-technical system. We conclude by outlining implications for designers and advancing an agenda for future research.
Gain Enhancement of Asymmetric Horn for Secondary Radar Antenna System using Hybrid Metamaterials

This paper presents the combination technique of two different structures of metamaterials (hybrid) in order to enhance the gain of an asymmetric horn for the secondary radar system. The hybrid metamaterials consist of a structure of woodpile Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG) for gaining the radar main beam at 0 of direction and wire medium structure for gaining the IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) main beam at 6 shifted left from main direction. While the EBG and wire medium structures are designed at 1,300 MHz and 1,060 MHz of the center frequencies, respectively. Furthermore, the EBG structure must also response to the horizontal polarization of the radar main beam, whereas the wire medium structure must response to the vertical polarization of the IFF main beam. These are necessary to use the hybrid metamaterials to overcome such conditions. The hybrid metamaterial that is placed at the front of the aperture of asymmetric horn with the proper spacing is calculated by using CST software to consider its performance. We found that this proposed metamaterial could maintain the different directions of both main beams. While the gain of both frequencies, which have different polarization, are enhanced more than the single asymmetric horn around 2 dB.
Development of Link Context-Aware MillimeterWave Beam Switching System using Depth-Sensor

In millimeter wave transmission systems, line-ofsight communication offers a multi-gigabit data transmission with beamforming toward the user direction to compensate for the large propagation loss. However, the abrupt performance degradation due to human blockage is still a critical problem, and thus utilizing the possible reflected paths when blockage occurs should be considered. In this paper, a link contextaware millimeter-wave beam switching system for the base station was developed, where using the point cloud data of the environment captured by a depth-sensor, the human shadowing is detected and beamforming is adapted toward the best reflected path based on ray-tracing.
Primed to Sleep: The Dynamics of Synaptic Plasticity Across Brain States

It is commonly accepted that brain plasticity occurs in wakefulness and sleep. However, how these different brain states work in concert to create long-lasting changes in brain circuitry is unclear. Considering that wakefulness and sleep are profoundly different brain states on multiple levels (e.g., cellular, molecular and network activation), it is unlikely that they operate exactly the same way. Rather it is probable that they engage different, but coordinated, mechanisms. In this article we discuss how plasticity may be divided across the sleep–wake cycle, and how synaptic changes in each brain state are linked. Our working model proposes that waking experience triggers short-lived synaptic events that are necessary for transient plastic changes and mark (i.e., ‘prime’) circuits and synapses for further processing in sleep. During sleep, synaptic protein synthesis at primed synapses leads to structural changes necessary for long-term information storage.
Electroconvulsive Therapy Modulates Resting-State EEG Oscillatory Pattern and Phase Synchronization in Nodes of the Default Mode Network in Patients With Depressive Disorder

Introduction: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has antidepressant effects, but it also has possible cognitive side effects. The effects of ECT on neuronal oscillatory pattern and phase synchronization, and the relationship between clinical response or cognitive change and electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements remain elusive. Methods: Individuals with unipolar depressive disorder receiving bilateral ECT were recruited. Five minutes of resting, eyes-closed, 19-lead EEG recordings were obtained before and after a course of ECT. Non-overlapping 60 artifact-free epocs of 2-s duration were used for the analyses. We used exact low resolution electromagnetic tomography (eLORETA) to compute the whole-brain three-dimensional intracortical distribution of current source density (CSD) and phase synchronization among 28 regions-of-interest (ROIs). Paired t-tests were used to identify cortical voxels and connectivities showing changes after ECT. Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were used to evaluate the severity of depression and the global cognitive function. Correlation analyses were conducted to identify the relationship between changes in the EEG measurements and changes in MADRS or MMSE. Results: Thirteen depressed patients (five females, mean age: 58.4 years old) were included. ECT increased theta CSD in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and decreased beta CSD in the frontal pole (FP), and gamma CSD in the inferior parietal lobule (IPL). ECT increased theta phase synchronization between the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and the anterior frontal cortex, and decreased beta phase synchronization between the PCC and temporal regions. A decline in beta synchronization in the left hemisphere was associated with cognitive changes after ECT. Conclusion: ECT modulated resting-state EEG oscillatory patterns and phase synchronization in central nodes of the default mode network (DMN). Changes in beta synchronization in the left hemisphere might explain the ECT-related cognitive side effects.
A Broadband High-Gain Printed Parabolic Reflector Antenna with A Spatial Wedge-shaped Feeding Structure

In this paper, a printed parabolic reflector antenna based on substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology is proposed. A H-plane horn antenna with a spatial wedge-shaped feeding structure is utilized as the feed. The relatively thin feeding microstrip is capable to reduce radiation loss and, at the same time, the aperture of the horn is four times thicker than the feed line for radiating. The parabolic reflector is obtained by employing metal-vias. This antenna realizes the reflector’s integration easily, improves the gains effectively and achieves a broad bandwidth. The simulated results from CST Microwave Studio software show that the bandwidth for VSWR $ \lt 2$ is 24.65–38 GHz (42.6 %) and the gains is higher than 12.3 dBi.
Exposure in vitro to an Environmentally Isolated Strain TC09 of Cladosporium sphaerospermum Triggers Plant Growth Promotion, Early Flowering, and Fruit Yield Increase

A growing number of bacteria and fungi have been found to promote plant growth through mutualistic interactions involving elements such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Here, we report the identification of an environmentally isolated strain of Cladosporium sphaerospermum (herein named TC09), that substantially enhances plant growth after exposure in vitro beyond what has previously been reported. When cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium under in vitro conditions, tobacco seedlings (Nicotiana tabacum) exposed to TC09 cultures for 20 days increased stem height and whole plant biomass up to 25- and 15-fold, respectively, over controls without exposure. TC09-mediated growth promotion required >5 g/L sucrose in the plant culture medium and was influenced by the duration of exposure ranging from one to 10 days, beyond which no differences were detected. When transplanted to soil under greenhouse conditions, TC09-exposed tobacco plants retained higher rates of growth. Comparative transcriptome analyses using tobacco seedlings exposed to TC09 for 10 days uncovered differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with diverse biological processes including cell expansion and cell cycle, photosynthesis, phytohormone homeostasis and defense responses. To test the potential efficacy of TC09-mediated growth promotion on agricultural productivity, pepper plants (Capsicum annuum L.) of two different varieties, Cayenne and Minisweet, were pre-exposed to TC09 and planted in the greenhouse to monitor growth, flowering, and fruit production. Results showed that treated pepper plants flowered 20 days earlier and yielded up to 213% more fruit than untreated controls. Altogether the data suggest that exposure of young plants to C. sphaerospermum produced VOCs may provide a useful tool to improve crop productivity.
Construction of Complex Features for Computational Predicting ncRNA-Protein Interaction

Non-coding RNA (ncRNA) plays important roles in many critical regulation processes. Many ncRNAs perform their regulatory functions by the form of RNA-protein complexes. Therefore, identifying the interaction between ncRNA and protein is fundamental to understand functions of ncRNA. Under pressures from expensive cost of experimental techniques, developing an accuracy computational predictive model has become an indispensable way to identify ncRNA-protein interaction. A powerful predicting model of ncRNA-protein interaction needs a good feature set of characterizing the interaction. In this paper, a novel method is put forward to generate complex features for characterizing ncRNA-protein interaction (named CFRP). To obtain a comprehensive description of ncRNA-protein interaction, complex features are generated by non-linear transformations from the traditional k-mer features of ncRNA and protein sequences. To further reduce the dimensions of complex features, a group of discriminative features are selected by random forest. To validate the performances of the proposed method, a series of experiments are carried on several widely-used public datasets. Compared with the traditional k-mer features, the CFRP complex features can boost the performances of ncRNA-protein interaction prediction model. Meanwhile, the CFRP-based prediction model is compared with several state-of-the-art methods, and the results show that the proposed method achieves better performances than the others in term of the evaluation metrics. In conclusion, the complex features generated by CFRP are beneficial for building a powerful predicting model of ncRNA-protein interaction.
An Optical Leaky Wave Antenna Excited by Parabolic Reflector

This paper presents optical leaky wave antenna excited by parabolic reflector using photonic bandgap (PBG). A grating waveguide (GWG) is a type of optical leaky wave antennas and produces optical dual sharp beam. The problem is that an adiabatic taper waveguide for the excitation of GWG becomes large size. Our proposed parabolic reflector using PBG is small size as compared to conventional adiabatic waveguide and it is possible to excite the GWG with good efficiency. We demonstrate the excitation of the GWG in the measurement and the comparison to the simulation result shows good agreement.
Wideband 39 GHz Vertically-Polarized Endfire Antenna-in-Package (AiP) Array featuring Near-Planar Profile

This paper describes an extremely thin antenna-in-package (AiP) with integrated 5G vertically-polarized endfire antenna array for millimeter-wave applications. The proposed AiP features a height profile <0.1$\lambda \_{\mathbf{0}}$, is therefore compatible for integration within compact devices. To verify the proposed AiP, the optimized design was fabricated using multi-layer LTCC technology. The proposed antenna achieved the measured impedance bandwidth (2:1 VSWR) of approximately 4 GHz with a center frequency of 39 GHz. The measured radiation pattern confirmed array gain of 8.09 dBi and the difference between the co- and cross-polarized radiation intensity was>20 dB in all directions of interest.
Linguistic Focus Promotes the Ease of Discourse Integration Processes in Reading Comprehension: Evidence From Event-Related Potentials

Psycholinguistic studies of focus processing have yielded varying results regarding how focus affects language processing. We report the results of an event-related potential (ERP) experiment that used question-answer pairs in a discourse to manipulate whether a target word was contextually focused, contrastively focused, contextually defocused, or contextually neutral. We found a negative-going waveform that was sustained in the time-course (250–800 ms after the target word onset) with a maximum over frontal-central scalp sites. As the structure of the discourse made the target word more focused, the negative-going deflection was systematically reduced. We also observed a frontal positive-going waveform that was larger for the focus-marked words relative to the neutral target word in an earlier time window (150–250 ms, P200), which may reflect increased attention allocated to the focused items. We propose that the reduced negative ERPs for the focused words reflects facilitation of meaning integration when focus functions to establish reference in the discourse representation. This can be attributed to extra attention paid to the focus-marked items that in turn promotes the prominence of focus-marked referent and prompts the contextual priming mechanism that facilitates the access of propositionally relevant items in text memory during reading.
Transcriptome and Proteome Alternation With Resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1Ah Toxin in Ostrinia furnacalis

Background: Asian corn borer (ACB), Ostrinia furnacalis can develop resistance to transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) maize expressing Cry1Ah-toxin. However, the mechanisms that regulate the resistance of ACB to Cry1Ah-toxin are unknown. Objective: In order to understand the molecular basis of the Cry1Ah-toxin resistance in ACB, “omics” analyses were performed to examine the difference between Cry1Ah-resistant (ACB-AhR) and susceptible (ACB-BtS) strains of ACB at both transcriptional and translational levels. Results: A total of 7,007 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 182 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were identified between ACB-AhR and ACB-BtS and 90 genes had simultaneous transcription and translation profiles. Down-regulated genes associated with Cry1Ah resistance included aminopeptidase N, ABCC3, DIMBOA-induced cytochrome P450, alkaline phosphatase, glutathione S-transferase, cadherin-like protein, and V-ATPase. Whereas, anti-stress genes, such as heat shock protein 70 and carboxylesterase were up-regulated in ACB-AhR, displaying that a higher proportion of genes/proteins related to resistance was down-regulated compared to up-regulated. The Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) analysis mapped 578 and 29 DEGs and DEPs, to 27 and 10 pathways, respectively (P < 0.05). Furthermore, real-time quantitative (qRT-PCR) results based on relative expression levels of randomly selected genes confirmed the “omics” response. Conclusion: Despite the previous studies, this is the first combination of a study using RNA-Seq and iTRAQ approaches on Cry1Ah-toxin binding, which led to the identification of longer length of unigenes in ACB. The DEGs and DEPs results are valuable for further clarifying Cry1Ah-mediated resistance.
Strength Training Improves Metabolic Health Markers in Older Individual Regardless of Training Frequency

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of frequency, thereby increasing training volume, of resistance training on body composition, inflammation markers, lipid and glycemic profile in healthy older individuals (age range 65–75 year). Ninety-two healthy participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups; performing strength training one- (EX1), two- (EX2), or three- (EX3) times-per-week and a non-training control (CON) group. Whole-body strength training was performed using 2–5 sets and 4–12 repetitions per exercise and 7–9 exercises per session. All training groups attended supervised resistance training for 6 months. Body composition was measured by dual X-ray absorptiometry and fasting blood samples were taken pre- and post-training. There were significant main effects of time for total fat mass (F = 28.12, P < 0.001) and abdominal fat mass (F = 20.72, P < 0.001). Pre- to post-study, statistically significant reductions in fat mass (Δ = -1.3 ± 1.4 kg, P < 0.001, n = 26) were observed in EX3. Pre- to post-study reductions in low density lipoprotein (LDL) concentration (Δ = -0.38 ± 0.44 mmol⋅L-1, P = 0.003, n = 19) were observed only in EX3, whereas a significant pre- to post-study increases in high density lipoprotein (HDL) concentration (0.14–0.19 mmol⋅L-1) were observed in all training groups. Most variables at baseline demonstrated a significant (negative) relationship when correlating baseline values with their change during the study including: Interleukin-6 (IL-6) (r = -0.583, P < 0.001), high-sensitivity c-reactive protein (hs-CRP) (r = -0.471, P < 0.001, and systolic blood pressure (r = -0.402, P = 0.003). The present study suggests that having more than two resistance training sessions in a week could be of benefit in the management of body composition and lipid profile. Nevertheless, interestingly, and importantly, those individuals with a higher baseline in systolic blood pressure, IL-6 and hs-CRP derived greatest benefit from the resistance training intervention, regardless of how many times-a-week they trained. Finally, the present study found no evidence that higher training frequency would induce greater benefit regarding inflammation markers or glycemic profile in healthy older adults.