Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Deep learning models for effective refractive indices in silicon nitride waveguides

This article displays the method of constructing deep learning models for optical mode solving, with a minimal number of exact numerical solutions to Maxwell’s equations. We select a silicon nitride channel waveguide and show how the patterns in the effective refractive indices of the fundamental waveguide modes for both polarizations of light, can be uncovered with only 4–16 learning points for the entire parameter space that can be conveniently accessed using existing photo-lithographical and CMOS fabrication techniques. We also illustrate the effect of various transfer functions and neural network layouts to the overall performance of the deep learning model.
Author Manuscript, Published in "ieee International Symposium on Adaptive Dynamic Programming and Reinforcement Learning, Optimistic Planning for Sparsely Stochastic Systems

—We propose an online planning algorithm for finite-action, sparsely stochastic Markov decision processes, in which the random state transitions can only end up in a small number of possible next states. The algorithm builds a planning tree by iteratively expanding states, where each expansion exploits sparsity to add all possible successor states. Each state to expand is actively chosen to improve the knowledge about action quality, and this allows the algorithm to return a good action after a strictly limited number of expansions. More specifically, the active selection method is optimistic in that it chooses the most promising states first, so the novel algorithm is called optimistic planning for sparsely stochastic systems. We note that the new algorithm can also be seen as model-predictive (receding-horizon) control. The algorithm obtains promising numerical results, including the successful online control of a simulated HIV infection with stochastic drug effectiveness.
A study coupling a large-scale hydrological model with a regional climate model.

On the basis of the improved SIMTOP runoff parameterization scheme and the three-layer soil moisture balance calculating method in the Xinanjiang model, this paper develops a simple, but highly-efficient, large-scale hydrological model (TOPX), which can provide the function for scaling transformation on the topographic index. Although the TOPX model has less data input and minimum parameters for calibrating, it can better describe two-dimensional hydrological processes. TOPX was coupled with the regional integrated environment modelling system (RIEMS) to use its ability of numerical simulation for the runoff in large-scale watersheds. The results of the off-line test performed at Youshui River catchment show that the TOPX model produced better simulations of daily runoff in small-sized catchments and it can capture the major characteristics of various hydrological processes. The RIEMS and TOPX coupled model was tested on-line in the Jinghe watershed. By means of the scale transformation scheme on topographic index and the yield and runoff routing theory, the coupling model used meteorological data simulated by a regional climate model to drive the hydrological model for predicting the daily runoff at the large-scale watershed. A further analysis revealed that the accuracy of the distributed rainfall data simulated by the regional climate model (RIEMS) is the critical factor affecting the modelled runoff in the coupled model (RIEMS+TOPX).
Performance of VoIP with DCCP for Satellite Links

We present experimental results for the performance of selected voice codecs using the Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) with TCP-Friendly Rate Contro l (TFRC) congestion control mechanism over a satellite link.We evaluate the performance of both constant and variable data rate speech codecs (G.729, G.711 and Speex) for a number of simultaneous calls, using the ITU E-model and identify problem areas and potential for improvement. Our experiments are done on a commercial satellite service using a data stream genera ted by a VoIP application, configured with selected voice codecs and using the DCCP/CCID4 Linux implementation. We analyse the sources of packet losses which are a main contributor to redu ced voice quality when using CCID4 and additionally analyse the effect of jitter which is one of the crucial parameters contributing to VoIP quality and has, to the best of our knowledge, not been considered previously in the published DCCP performan ce results. We propose modifications to the CCID4 algorithm and demonstrate how these improve the VoIP performance, withou t the need for additional link information other than what is already monitored by CCID4 (which is the case for Quick Start). We also demonstrate the fairness of the proposed modificatio ns to other flows. We identify the additional benefit of DCCP when used in VoIP admission control mechanisms and draw conclusions about the advantages and disadvantages of the propose d DCCP/ CCID4 congestion control mechanism for use with VoIP applications.
Perspectives and challenges for mother-to-child transmission of HIV, hepatitis B, and syphilis in Brazil

Background Eliminating mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV, hepatitis B, and syphilis is a challenge in Brazil. Many policies have been implemented since 1986, but important gaps remain. This study aimed to describe the trends of MTCT in Brazil and evaluate the gaps and perspectives in this scenario. Methods This is a descriptive study conducted with secondary data publicly available in the information systems of the Brazilian Ministry of Health regarding data on HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B in pregnant women and children from 2011 to 2021. Results HIV and hepatitis B have had constant rates over the years in pregnant women, with the detection rates around 2.5/1,000 live birth (LB) and 0.5/1.000LB, respectively. The same did not happen with syphilis, which has shown an increasing line in the last decade. In 2011, the detection rate of syphilis in pregnancy was 4.7/1,000LB, and in 2021 it reached 27.1/1,000LB. Regarding the trends in children, an important decrease was observed in HIV/AIDS (incidence rate from 0.18/1,000 in 2011 to 0.04/1,000 in 2021) and Hepatitis B (incidence rate from 0.9/1,000LB in 2011 to 0.5/1,000LB in 2021). For congenital syphilis, there is a continuous increase, being 3.3/1,000LB in 2011 and 9.9/1,000LB in 2021. Data from the HIV clinical monitoring showed that antiretroviral treatment coverage among pregnant women identified increased slightly between 2011 and 2021, in Brazil, from 92.3% to 94.3%. For syphilis, 82.5% of pregnant women were treated with benzathine penicillin, and 88.7% in 2011. The historical series of hepatitis B vaccination coverage in children has decreased over the years; it was 96% in 2013 and 76% in 2021. Conclusion These data show many gaps and some perspectives in the MTCT program in Brazil. The country is close to reaching MTCT HIV elimination, but there are many challenges regarding HBV and syphilis. These data can be used to organize the strategies to improve the Brazilian response to MTCT elimination of HIV, hepatitis B, and syphilis.
Mentalization and Its Use in Schools

Th is article outlines the current state of theoretical knowledge about mentalization, which appears to be essential for eff ective practice in the teaching profession. Mentalization is the capacity to understand and make sense of our own and others' actions by recognising and giving meaning to intentional mental states, including needs, thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and motivations. It is the understanding of the background of the behaviour – the understanding of the mental states that have led to a certain behaviour. Thanks to mentalization theory, we are now able to think and discuss in more detail what happens between and within people as they interact in diff erent social contexts such as schools. Th ese skills are useful for teachers as they work with children, whose metalizing skills are still developing. At the same time, in their practice, teachers often encounter children who come to school with disruptive behaviours, insecure attachment styles, and negative internal working models of relationships that make the healthy development of mentalizing skills diffi cult. Th is article highlights the importance of mentalization in educational contexts and provides a framework for interventions aimed at increasing mentalization skills among teachers, parents, and students. Empirical evidence has shown that the implementation of mentalization-based programmes in schools can lead to signifi cant improvements in teacherresilience, as well as a reduction of aggressive behaviour among students and an improvement of their academic performance.
Ultrasound-Based Image Analysis for Predicting Carotid Artery Stenosis Risk: A Comprehensive Review of the Problem, Techniques, Datasets, and Future Directions

The carotid artery is a major blood vessel that supplies blood to the brain. Plaque buildup in the arteries can lead to cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, stroke, ruptured arteries, and even death. Both invasive and non-invasive methods are used to detect plaque buildup in the arteries, with ultrasound imaging being the first line of diagnosis. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the existing literature on ultrasound image analysis methods for detecting and characterizing plaque buildup in the carotid artery. The review includes an in-depth analysis of datasets; image segmentation techniques for the carotid artery plaque area, lumen area, and intima–media thickness (IMT); and plaque measurement, characterization, classification, and stenosis grading using deep learning and machine learning. Additionally, the paper provides an overview of the performance of these methods, including challenges in analysis, and future directions for research.
A Compact Off-set Edge Fed Odd-symmetric Hybrid Fractal Slotted Antenna for UWB and Space Applications

This article demonstrates the design development, fabrication, and testing of an offset edge-fed monopole hybrid fractal antenna for ultra-wideband (UWB) applications at a design frequency of 3.2GHz. The proposed monopole antenna is compact 38.12mm× 38.42mm, slotted, and uses a combination of two numbers of Koch plus Minkowski hybrid fractal technology. Antenna resonates at four frequencies, i.e., quad tuned (3.2GHz, 4.94GHz, 7.21GHz, and 10.10GHz). The reflection coefficient, S11 < −10 dB obtained for the excellent UWB fractional bandwidth 119.55% (2.85GHz to 11.32GHz) is more than the standard FCC bandwidth (3.1GHz–10.6GHz). The antenna has gain 6.73 dBi at 3.49GHz, 5.91 dBi at 5.52GHz, 8.26 dBi at 6.81GHz, and 8.02 dBi at 10GHz with a maximum radiation efficiency of 89.81%. The main feature of the proposed work is that the antenna is circularly polarized in frequency bands 3.14GHz–3.30GHz (Axial ratio: 1.61 dB) and 9.07GHz–9.45GHz (Axial ratio: 2 dB) and elsewhere linearly polarized. A total of 16.37% antenna size miniaturization has been achieved with excellent UWB and S11 performance. The measured and simulated reflection coefficients are found in good agreement. Therefore, the fabricated and tested antenna is well suitable for Wi-Max (3.3/3.5/5.5GHz), ISM (5.725–5.875GHz), WLAN (3.6/4.9/5.0/5.9GHz), military band applications (radio location, fixed-satellite and mobile-satellite, S-band, C-band, and X-band satellite communications, etc.), aeronautical radio navigation, radio astronomy, ITU-8, Sub-6GHz band, and Radar applications.
Unscented Kalman Filter-based Beam Tracking in NR MIMO System using Hybrid Beamforming

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and millimeterwave frequencies play key roles in supporting 5G wireless communication systems. They expand the field of wireless communication by increasing the data capacities of communication systems and supporting high data rates. However, short wavelengths, owing to the high millimeter-wave frequencies can cause problems, such as signal attenuation and path loss. To address these limitations, research on high directional beamforming technologies continue to garner interest. Furthermore, owing to the mobility of the UAVs, it is essential to track the beam angle accurately to obtain full beamforming gain. This study presents a beam tracking method based on the unscented Kalman filter using hybrid beamforming. The simulation results reveal that the proposed beam tracking scheme improves the overall performance in terms of the mean-squared error and spectral efficiency. In addition, by expanding analog beamforming to hybrid beamforming, the proposed algorithm can be used even in multi-user and multi-stream environments to increase data capacity, thereby increasing utilization in new-radio multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing systems.
Robust monocular visual inertial odometry in γ radioactive environments using edge-based point features

In the γ radioactive environment, high-energy photons induce degradation of the image sensor, which effects feature detection and tracking in the Visual Inertial Odometry (VIO) algorithm and deteriorates its localization performance. To address this issue, in this work, we propose a monocular VIO method using edge-based point features. To mitigate the effects of radiation noise, firstly, in the image preprocessing module, the median filter is used for real-time image denoising. Secondly, in the data association module, both Shi-Tomasi and edge-based point features are detected. The edge-based point feature is the endpoint or corner point in the salient edge map, which is more robust to radiation noise. Then, the bi-directional motion parallaxes and the RANdom SAmple Consensus (RANSAC) method are exploited to reject outliers. Finally, the point features measurements and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) pre-integration measurements are added into a tightly-coupled sliding window optimization VIO framework for localization estimation. The proposed method is verified by synthetic and real γ radioactive environment datasets. The experimental results show that the proposed method achieves more accurate and robust localization than the state-of-the-art VIO approaches in the γ radioactive environments.
Semantic Analysis of Online Initial and Additional Textual Reviews of Pharmaceutical Products

: In this paper, we selected the textual reviews of drugs on Ali Health Pharmacy as sample data. Firstly, the text was pre-processed, including data cleaning, word separation, lexical annotation and removal of deactivated words, in order to lay the data foundation for the subsequent analysis process. Secondly, we conducted semantic analysis on the processed review texts, including word frequency analysis, LDA topic clustering analysis and word frequency co-occurrence analysis. The results showed that the overall distribution of semantic features in the text content of initial and additional comments was similar, but there were differences in the attention of consumers to different topics in initial and additional comments .
Neurosociology: Intrerdisciplinary field of science

Neurosociology is a relatively new interdisciplinary field of science. It is a discipline that lies on the borders between sociology, social psychology, biology and neurosciences. This scientific field offers an opportunity for better understanding interactions between brain and interpersonal functioning by analyzing the influence of social factors on creating brain organization and its functions.
Etude de l'écoulement induit par une décharge à barrière diélectrique surfacique - Contribution au contrôle des écoulements subsoniques par actionneurs plasmas

La reduction de la resistance a l’avancement par des techniques de controle active sera une necessite d’importance croissante dans les annees a venir pour le secteur des transports. Cette these fait partie d’une nouvelle voie de recherche consistant a utiliser des decharges plasmas a pression atmospherique pour modifier les ecoulements en vue d’ameliorer les performances aerodynamiques (diminution de la trainee et augmentation de la portance). L’actionneur retenu est une decharge a barriere dielectrique surfacique avec un dielectrique compose d’une combinaison de deux materiaux polymeres souples. L’ecoulement induit par l’actionneur plasma, appele vent ionique, est d’abord etudie experimentalement dans l’air au repos en fonction du regime de la decharge. Une loi empirique liant la vitesse du vent ionique a la tension et a la frequence de l’alimentation est proposee. De cette loi se degagent une vitesse et une longueur caracteristiques utilisees pour predire les principales proprietes du jet de paroi induit en aval de la decharge (lois d’echelle). L’efficacite de l’actionneur est ensuite testee en soufflerie subsonique pour trois configurations aerodynamiques de complexite croissante : couche limite laminaire non decollee (plaque plane), couche limite turbulente decollee (profil epais) et couche limite decollee 3D (corps de Ahmed, lunette inclinee a 25°). Des resultats significatifs tant sur le plan de la modification de la topologie de l’ecoulement que de l’amelioration des efforts aerodynamiques sont obtenus pour des nombres de Reynolds jusqu’a 1,7.106 (35 m/s).
A robust human-eye tracking method in video sequences

An accurate tracking method of the human eyes in video sequence is proposed. The method consists of the following two systems. (1) The first system extracts a region including the both eyes by using a statistical processing. By the processing, the extracted region does not include the other features, especially such as the hair. (2) The second system, which is realized with the circle-frequency filter (CFF), locates each eye position from the region extracted by the first system. Since the output of the CFF is robust to luminescent noise near the eyes, it can successfully obtain the exact eye-location inside of the above region without any noise effect. Consequently, the combination of these two systems makes the proposed method correctly track the eyes without any learning schemes, templates, and geometric relations of the other facial features. Experimental results verify that the proposed method achieves accurate eye-tracking.
Environmental Conservation Cost and the Financial Stability of Business Organizations in a Competitive Market

Many manufacturing companies operating in Nigeria have struggled to achieve financial stability but this has become a difficult task due to complex circumstances including low capacity production, undercapitalization, lack of stakeholder legitimacy, and a complacent attitude towards the importance of environmental conservation costs. A debate in the literature has argued that adequate corporate investment towards environmental conservation and protection has been found to influence a significant level of financial stability in Nigeria. In contributing to this debate and contributing knowledge, we examined how the expenditures associated with environmental protection affected the financial stability of industrial businesses listed in Nigeria. Since secondary data for the study were taken from the yearly financial statements of the firms that were specifically chosen, it used an ex-post facto design. A total of 14 businesses were chosen from the 66 manufacturing enterprises in the population for a 16-year period beginning in 2007 and ending in 2022. For the data analysis, inferential statistics were utilised, and the external auditors' certification of the data's validity and reliability served as the basis. The study discovered that the expense of environmental protection had a considerably favourable impact on the financial stability of commercial organisations in a market that was competitive. (Adj R2=0.05,W(4,219)=23.32,p < 0.05). The study concluded that environmental conservation cost affects financial stability of business organization in a competitive market. The study recommended that Managers of manufacturing companies should prioritize investment in environmental conservation costs to enhance the financial stability of stakeholders’ value.
Effects of Temporary PAR reduction on the seagrass Amphibolis griffithii (Black) den Hartog

Declines in seagrass health and distribution are commonly caused through humaninduced reductions in the availability of photosynthetically active radiation (F•AR). These reductions can result from a variety of human-induced perturbations, including channel dredging. The impetus for the research was driven by the broad-scale degradation of the ecologically important southern-Australian endemic seagrass Amphibolis griffithii (Black) den Hartog in Champion Bay, Geraldton, Western Australia. The study investigated the affects of reduced PAR on A. grifflthii and identified responses that may be useful in developing management triggers to minimise the impact of PAR limitation events. The study was canied out during late sununer and winter at Juri en Bay on the midwest coast of Western Australia. Replicate plots of Amphibolis griffithii meadow were subjected to 90% reduction in PAR availability for 106 days using shade screens suspended over the meadow. A variety of morphological and physiological variables were monitored in control and treatment plots at approximately monthly intervals during this time and after 42 days of recovery. There was a noticeable meadow~scale response in A. griffithii with significant reductions in leaf biomass measurements, such that the 11umber of leaves per stem (-12 leaves per stem) and total leaf biomass (<200g DWm.) were approximately half that of ambient levels after 106 days of shading. This resulted in a dramatic change in the light attenuation coefficients between shaded (0.59 m') and contr<'l plots (2.38 m') allowing greater penetration of PAR through the canopy, effectively reducing self~shading in the lower canopy. These changes were paralleled by marked physiological responses with increases in chlorophyll and decreases in rhizome sugar concentrations in the shaded plants. Chlorophyll levels responded consistently in the upper canopy with highly significant increases after 106 days of treatment and a return to ambient levels after 42 days of recovery. Rhizome sugars depleted quickly and consistently with treatment, culminating in highly significant differences after 106 days of shading with concentrations at less than one third (<50.0 mg.gDW) when compared with ambient levels. The apparent reduction in
Astaxanthin: A Potential Mitochondrial-Targeted Antioxidant Treatment in Diseases and with Aging

Oxidative stress is characterized by an imbalance between prooxidant and antioxidant species, leading to macromolecular damage and disruption of redox signaling and cellular control. It is a hallmark of various diseases including metabolic syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, neurodegenerative, cardiovascular, inflammatory, and age-related diseases. Several mitochondrial defects have been considered to contribute to the development of oxidative stress and known as the major mediators of the aging process and subsequent age-associated diseases. Thus, mitochondrial-targeted antioxidants should prevent or slow down these processes and prolong longevity. This is the reason why antioxidant treatments are extensively studied and newer and newer compounds with such an effect appear. Astaxanthin, a xanthophyll carotenoid, is the most abundant carotenoid in marine organisms and is one of the most powerful natural compounds with remarkable antioxidant activity. Here, we summarize its antioxidant targets, effects, and benefits in diseases and with aging.