Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gain control in olfactory receptor neurons and the detection of temporal fluctuations in odor concentration

The ability of the cockroach to locate an odor source in still air suggests that the temporal dynamic of odor concentration in the slowly expanding stationary plume alone is used to infer odor source distance and location. This contradicts with the well-established view that insects use the wind direction as the principle directional cue. This contribution highlights the evidence for, and likely functional relevance of, the capacity of the cockroach’s olfactory receptor neurons to detect and process—from one moment to the next—not only a succession of odor concentrations but also the rates at which concentration changes. This presents a challenge for the olfactory system because it must detect and encode the temporal concentration dynamic in a manner that simultaneously allows invariant odor recognition. The challenge is met by a parallel representation of odor identity and concentration changes in a dual pathway that starts from olfactory receptor neurons located in two morphologically distinct types of olfactory sensilla. Parallel processing uses two types of gain control that simultaneously allocate different weight to the instantaneous odor concentration and its rate of change. Robust gain control provides a stable sensitivity for the instantaneous concentration by filtering the information on fluctuations in the rate of change. Variable gain control, in turn, enhances sensitivity for the concentration rate according to variations in the duration of the fluctuation period. This efficiently represents the fluctuation of concentration changes in the environmental context in which such changes occur.
RIS-Assisted Flexible Space Shift Keying for Wireless Communication System

In this letter, we propose a novel communication scheme that combines reconfigurable intelligent surface with transmitted flexible space shift keying (RIS-TFSSK) for future wireless communication. In RIS-TFSSK scheme, the incoming bits are divided into two parts, where the first part is used to determine the number of active antennas and the second part is used to determine the transmit antenna combinations. Besides, an antenna selection method is proposed to select the candidate antenna combinations with largest channel gains, which further improves the bit error rate (BER) performance of RIS-TFSSK scheme. By comparing with the RIS-aided transmitted space shift keying and RIS-aided transmitted generalized space shift keying, the theoretical and simulation results show that the proposed scheme has better BER performance.
Effective Governing Equations for Viscoelastic Composites

We derive the governing equations for the overall behaviour of linear viscoelastic composites comprising two families of elastic inclusions, subphases and/or fibres, and an incompressible Newtonian fluid interacting with the solid phases at the microscale. We assume that the distance between each of the subphases is very small in comparison to the length of the whole material (the macroscale). We can exploit this sharp scale separation and apply the asymptotic (periodic) homogenization method (AHM) which decouples spatial scales and leads to the derivation of the new homogenised model. It does this via upscaling the fluid–structure interaction problem that arises between the multiple elastic phases and the fluid. As we do not assume that the fluid flow is characterised by a parabolic profile, the new macroscale model, which consists of partial differential equations, is of Kelvin–Voigt viscoelastic type (rather than poroelastic). The novel model has coefficients that encode the properties of the microstructure and are to be computed by solving a single local differential fluid–structure interaction (FSI) problem where the solid and the fluid phases are all present and described by the one problem. The model reduces to the case described by Burridge and Keller (1981) when there is only one elastic phase in contact with the fluid. This model is applicable when the distance between adjacent phases is smaller than the average radius of the fluid flowing in the pores, which can be the case for various highly heterogeneous systems encountered in real-world (e.g., biological, or geological) scenarios of interest.
Integrated vehicle control through the coordination of longitudinal/lateral and vertical dynamics controllers: Flatness and LPV/ H∞ ‐based design

This paper deals with global chassis control of automotive vehicles. It focuses on the coordination of suspension and steering/braking vehicle controllers based on the interaction between the vertical and lateral behaviors of the vehicle. It is shown that the lateral acceleration and resulting roll motion of the car generate load transfers that considerably affect vehicle stability. A control law is designed in hierarchical way to improve the overall dynamics of the vehicle and cope with coupled driving maneuvers like obstacle avoidance using steering control and stop‐and‐go control using braking or driving wheel torque. This global control strategy includes two types of controllers. The first one is the longitudinal/lateral nonlinear flatness controller. Based on an appropriate choice of flat outputs, the flatness proof of a 3 DOF two‐wheel nonlinear vehicle model is established. Then, the combined longitudinal and lateral vehicle control is designed using algebraic estimation techniques to provide an accurate estimation of the derivatives and filtering of the reference flat outputs. The second part of the proposed strategy consists of a linear parameter‐varying/ H∞ suspension controller. This controller uses lateral acceleration as a varying parameter to account for load transfers that directly affect the suspension system. The coordination between the vehicle vertical and lateral dynamics is highlighted in this study, and the linear parameter‐varying/ H∞ framework ensures a specific collaborative coordination between the suspension and the steering/braking controllers, to achieve the desired performance. Simulations on a complex full vehicle model have been validated using experimental data obtained on‐board a real Renault Mégane Coupé. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Thermal Stress Analysis of {Ge}_{1}{Sb}_{4} {Te}_{7}-Based Phase-Change Memory Devices

Due to the extreme operating conditions in phase-change memory (PCM) cells in terms of temperature and heating/cooling rate, thermal stress is regarded as one of the most critical problems in PCM devices. Here, we report on the thermal stress analysis of Ge1Sb4Te7-based PCM cells using numerical simulations. Thermomechanical properties are measured prior to the thermal stress analysis, where the Young's modulus, thermal expansion coefficient, and density of (poly)crystalline Ge1Sb4Te7 are measured to be 37.8 GPa, 17.913 × 10 �6 K �1 , and 5685 kg · m �3 , respectively. Transient thermal stress evolution in conventional T-structured and trench depth-varying PCM cells is simulated during the reset process. For the T-structured PCM cell, thermal stress is developed largely in the interface of the phase-change and bottom contact layers (PCL and BCL respectively), which may lead to the delamination of the PCL from the metal electrode. However, we observe that, as the trench depth is increased, the thermal stress along the interface of the PCL and the interlayer dielectric (ILD) also increases. Therefore, in a deep-trenched PCM cell, a possible thermal failure is likely to occur not only at the interface of the PCL and the BCL but also at the interface of the PCL and the ILD.
Biodegradation of Phenol Tainted Industrial Effluent by Exogenous Bacterial Isolates Bio-Mined from Crude Oil Polluted Soil

Phenol in industrial effluent is a major under-reported pollutant of concern to the aquatic ecosystem. In the current study, the effluent was obtained from Eleme Petrochemical Limited, Rivers State Nigeria. Baseline analyses were conducted to ascertain physico-chemical and microbiological parameters. Exogenous bacterial species were isolated from crude oil polluted in Ogoniland. The inoculum was standardized using the MacFarland approach. About 1% inoculum was seeded into the 100 mL effluent for the Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Micrococcus sp, Bacillus tequilensis and consortia. The setup was monitored using Gas Chromatography-Mass spectrophotometry while the acute toxicity was calculated using the Probit method. The acute toxicity of the set-up seeded with Pseudomonas aeruginosa was 718.8 mg/L while the consortia had 941.2 mg/L. The phenol residues were reduced by 100% while the 2-nitrophenol was reduced from 5.13 µg/L to 0.82 µg/L on the 10th day of the study. The remarkable reduction of the phenol residues with the use of microbial cultures goes to show the efficiency of locally sourced feedstock as tools for the degradation of pollutants. There is an urgent need for academia to develop robust microbial bio-mining and culture collection centers for futuristic and commercial use.
QFII Holding Shares, Equity Concentration and Positive Real Earnings Management

In this paper, samples of 1,910 listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock markets from 2014 to 2017 are used as research objects to conduct multiple regression. The research results show that the increase of QFII shareholding ratio can inhibit the positive real earnings management. And the increase in equity concentration will promote the improvement of earnings management. Further analysis shows that QFII holdings can indirectly affect positive earnings management through equity concentration.
"Microtubule-Associated Protein MAP1S Prevents Metastasis and Enhances Survivals of Patients with Hepatoblastoma by Suppressing Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition"

Background: Hepatoblastoma (HB) is an embryonic tumor and the most common malignant tumor in the liver of children. Currently, tumor recurrence and metastasis are still the primary causes of death and the key deterrents for the long-term survival of HB patients. Microtubule-associated protein MAP1S supports intracellular trafficking along microtubules and suppresses hepatocellular carcinoma by promoting autophagy. Methods: In order to explore roles of MAP1S in the development of HB, we measured the levels of MAP1S protein in liver tissues collected from HB patients and analyzed the impact of MAP1S in cultured cancer cells. Results: We found that the levels of MAP1S protein in HB tissues were significantly lower than those in their adjacent non-tumor tissues, and survival rates of patients with high levels of MAP1S were significantly higher than those with low levels of MAP1S. When levels of MAP1S were suppressed, levels of β-catenin, mesenchymal markers Vimentin and N-cadherin were increased but the levels of epithelial marker E-cadherin were decreased at both mRNA and protein levels, suggesting the processes of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and rates of proliferation and invasion of HB cells were significantly enhanced. Especially, MAP1S regulated levels of mesenchymal markers through autophagy.
The impact of the mean moisture bias on the key physics of MJO propagation in the ECMWF reforecast

The impact of the seasonal mean background state on the physical processes responsible for better Madden‐Julian Oscillation (MJO) propagation and prediction was investigated using 20 year European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reforecast data sets. While the reforecast captures the MJO propagating signal in the circulation field, the outgoing longwave radiation and column‐integrated moist static energy (MSE) anomalies show a weaker signal than the reanalysis when the MJO detours and propagates in the southern Maritime Continent. By comparing individual MSE budget terms, it is found that the predicted positive MSE tendency to the east of the MJO convection center is weaker than the reanalysis due to the weaker horizontal MSE advection. The dry bias in the seasonal mean lower tropospheric moisture is a key factor that weakens the horizontal MSE advection, and thus deteriorates the MJO propagation in the reforecasts. Therefore, improvements in the mean state could further extend the MJO prediction and associated subseasonal weather phenomena over the globe.
A Design of New Air Ground Cooperative Unmanned Transportation System

With the development of science and technology, the shortage of human resources in the labor market and the increase of human costs, intelligence, intelligence and unmanned logistics have become the mainstream development trend. This paper introduces a new type of space ground coordinated unmanned transportation system, which aims to solve the problems of liberating labor, reducing the operating costs of logistics enterprises, reducing the contact between people, and impeding the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic. This paper introduces the research background and advantages of the system, and describes the selection and working principle of the system in detail
A novel robot hand-eye calibration method to enhance calibration accuracy based on the POE model

Hand-eye calibration is crucial for vision-based robots using open-loop visual control. Based on the product of exponentials model, this study introduces a novel hand-eye calibration algorithm to improve calibration accuracy. As opposed to the traditional method of solving the AX = XB type in the hand-eye calibration using the marker, we transform the solution into an AX = B type without requiring accurate camera parameters. Firstly, the nominal marker pose in the robot base is described by the nominal kinematic parameters of the robot, camera, and end-effector-to-camera. The actual marker pose is obtained by physically contacting the marker with the probe. Subsequently, the error parameter of the hand-eye pose is defined as linear to the error between the nominal and actual marker poses and can be solved by an iterative least-squares algorithm. Finally, the calibrated hand-eye pose is acquired by multiplying its nominal pose and the exponential mapping of the error parameter. The simulations and real experiments illustrate the effectiveness and stability of the proposed algorithm. Noteworthy, the mean position accuracy of the vision-based robot is improved nearly 20 times after calibration. Furthermore, the comparison experiment demonstrates that the proposed algorithm is preferable for improving hand-eye calibration accuracy. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Early Impacts of Indonesia’s Investment Reforms: A Preliminary Analysis

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
Transform coefficients distribution of the future versatile video coding (VVC) standard

The future video coding standard Versatile Video Coding (VVC) presents better encoding performance than the predecessor standards by employing a set of tools, including a multi-type tree block partition structure, more intra prediction directions, multiple transform functions, larger transform with high-frequency zeroing. Therefore, VVC could be more effective to remove the redundancy. Based on our experiments, the transform coefficients distribution (TCD) produced by the encoder of VVC would have a sharper peak. Particularly, the previously widely used Laplacian distribution and Cauchy distribution cannot fit the sharper TCD well. Note that the Laplacian distribution is included in the generalized Gaussian distribution (GGD) with the shape parameter equals one. Moreover, the smaller shape parameter will lead to a sharper peak. With this motivation, we propose to use the GGD with shape parameter equals 1/2, denoted as S/2 distribution, to model the sharper TCD of VVC. The experimental results show that the proposed S/2 distribution outperforms the widely used Laplacian and Cauchy distributions in terms of TCD fitting both in the main body and the tail parts. It also presents competitive performance with GGD, though there is only one parameter in S/2 distribution. We further propose a rate estimation model based on the S/2 distribution. The results show that the model based on the S/2 distribution is more accurate than one based on the Laplacian or Cauchy distribution in rate estimation.
Alcoholism in Proverbs 23:19–21, 29–32 and the Tiv and Idoma people of Benue State

overwhelmed with this challenge. Most families are unstable and children become delinquent because the father has no time to stay at home or uses money for family feeding and school fees to pay for his alcohol and those of his friends in bars and drinking joints. Unfortunately, literature on the alcoholism among the Tiv and Idoma people are scanty. Findings revealed that most Tiv and Idoma people who engage in alcoholism do so on the basis of peer pressure, depression, and the feeling that their life lacks meaning. However, Proverbs 23:19–21, 29–32 admonish men to avoid alcoholism because the dangers of alcoholism outweigh any life challenges one is going through. This is a qualitative study with data gathered from relevant academic literature. Data analysis was performed using literary analysis method and recommendations were discussed. Contribution: The study used Proverbs 23:19–21 to analyse the situation of alcoholism in Benue State. It envisaged that alcohol addicts usually end up with more financial, health, marital, and mental challenges.
A Learning Method based on DBN for Establishing the Correspondence between Abnormal Point Sets

The establishment of the right correspondence is one of the most basic and the most critical technology in point set registration. For the damaged data of point set in the existence of outliers, noise or missing points, it is difficult to distinguish the abnormal points from the normal and the correspondence between the point sets are affected by these abnormal points. Based on the prior that there is some relation or distinction between the normal points and the abnormal points, we formulate the estimation of correspondence problem by the machine learning procedure. In this paper, considering the feature of error between two point sets, a Deep Belief Networks (DBN) based learning method is proposed to train the networks with the normal point sets. Using the trained DBN, the outlier and unmatched points can be identified. Experiments confirm that our method can well detect noise in the point sets. Even in the case of missing data, our method can identify almost all matched points.
Is transport of microplastics different from that of mineral dust? Results from idealized wind tunnel studies

Atmospheric transport disperses microplastic particulate matter to virtually every environment on the planet. Despite the well-known long-range transport, only few studies have examined the fundamental transport mechanisms for microplastics and contrasted it with the existing body of knowledge accumulated for mineral dust over the past decades. Our study addresses this research gap and presents results from wind tunnel experiments, which examine the detachment behavior of microplastics ranging from 38 to 125 µ m in diameter from idealized substrates. We here define ’detachment’ as microspheres detaching 5 from a substrate and leaving the field of observation, which includes several transport modes including creeping, rolling, directly lifting off. The detachment behavior of polyethylene microspheres (PE69) and borosilicate microspheres (GL69) of nominally the same physical diameter (63-75 µ m) are contrasted across hydrophilic to hydrophobic substrates. We further examine the effect of microsphere-microsphere collisions on the detachment behavior of both polyethylene and borosilicate microspheres. Differentiating between collision independent microspheres and collisions dependent microspheres revealed that 10 collisions impact detachment from enhancing to mitigating. Further, results indicate that GL69, as a hydrophilic particle, is highly dependent on substrate hydrophobicity and PE69 is less affected by it. A more detailed comparison between GL69 and PE69 regarding surface and substrate hydrophobicity is masked by the influence of capillary forces. Moreover, the smallest polyethylene microspheres behave similar to mineral microspheres. Results demonstrate that PE69 and GL69 as proxy for plastic and mineral dust, respectively, detach at u ∗ between 0.1 to 0.3 ms − 1 fitting to the prediction of the simple wind erosion 15 model by Shao and Lu (2000). In the observed range of rH, capillary forces can increase the median detachment by about 0.2 ms − 1 for PE69 and GL69. Polyethylene microspheres, smaller than 70 µ m in diameter, behave like borosilicate microspheres of the same size. For bigger microspheres, the lesser density of polyethylene drives their higher erodibility. We conclude that it is no surprise, that like mineral dust, plastic dust is found all around the globe, transported via the atmosphere.
Estimating Solar Irradiance Since 850 CE

Solar total and spectral irradiance are estimated from 850 to 1610 by regressing cosmogenic irradiance indices against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Solar Irradiance Climate Data Record after 1610. The new estimates differ from those recommended for use in the Paleoclimate Model Intercomparison Project (PMIP4) in the magnitude of multidecadal irradiance changes, spectral distribution of the changes, and amplitude and phasing of the 11‐year activity cycle. The new estimates suggest that total solar irradiance increased 0.036 ± 0.009% from the Maunder Minimum (1645–1715) to the Medieval Maximum (1100 to 1250), compared with 0.068% from the Maunder Minimum to the Modern Maximum (1950–2009). PMIP4's corresponding increases are 0.026% and 0.055%, respectively. Multidecadal irradiance changes in the new estimates are comparable in magnitude to the PMIP4 recommendations in the ultraviolet spectrum (100–400 nm) but somewhat larger at visible (400–700 nm) and near‐infrared (700–1,000 nm) wavelengths; the new estimates suggest increases from the Maunder Minimum to the Medieval Maximum of 0.17 ± 0.04%, 0.030 ± 0.008%, and 0.036 ± 0.009% in the ultraviolet, visible, and near‐infrared spectral regions, respectively, compared with PMIP4 increases of 0.17%, 0.021%, and 0.016%. The uncertainties are 1σ estimates accruing from the statistical procedures that reconstruct irradiance in the Medieval Maximum relative to the Modern Maximum, not from the specification of Modern Maximum irradiances per se. In the new estimates, solar irradiance cycle amplitudes in the Medieval Maximum are comparable to those in the Modern Maximum, whereas in the PMIP4 reconstruction they are at times almost a factor of 2 larger at some wavelengths and differ also in phase.
Quantum correlation control for two semiconductor microcavities connected by an optical fiber

We explore the quantum correlations for two coupled quantum wells. Each quantum well is inside a semiconductor microcavity. The two cavities are connected by an optical fiber. The study of quantum correlations, namely the geometric quantum discord, measurement-induced non-locality and negativity, reveals sudden death and sudden birth phenomena. These effects depend not only on the initial states, coupling strengths of the cavity–fiber and cavity–exciton constants, but also on the dissipation rates of the semiconductor microcavities. We show that the coupling constants control the quantum correlations.