Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Real-Time Surveillance of Rail Integrity by the Deployed Telecom Fiber Infrastructure

Optical fiber sensors based on an interferometric approach appear attractive for an extensive application of optical sensing in the pervasive fiber infrastructure, already deployed for telecommunications purposes. In this article, we show the performance of a sensing system based on Michelson interferometer, exploiting a 48-fiber telecom cable in a conduit under the sidewalk running alongside 4-km railroad tracks, installed by an Italian provider in the north side of Lombardia in Italy. The proposed interferometric scheme does not require an isolated reference, taking advantage of the geometrical arrangement of the sensing and reference fibers inside the same cable to cancel the strong common mode noise, accumulated in the railway hostile environment. Due to the installed sensing system, we monitor the traffic, identifying in a very simple way the passage of trains and the presence of cars at the railroad crossings along the railway. Moreover, we trigger events potentially dangerous for the railway, such as the fall of heavy rocks from the walls along the rail tracks. Due to an appropriate combination of features, we achieve an effective and robust real-time event classification by a supervised artificial neural network (NN), able to recognize the rockfall as a dangerous event for the railway integrity, and provide a prompt alarm, minimizing the nuisance false alarms due to the environment. The proposed sensing system embedded in the telecom network provides a sustainable solution, in terms of cost, energy efficiency, and reliability, without the necessity of coherent detection, high-speed sampling, and complex digital signal processing.
Editorial: Abiotic stress adaptation and tolerance mechanisms in crop plants

COPYRIGHT © 2023 Gupta and Shrestha. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. TYPE Editorial PUBLISHED 22 September 2023 DOI 10.3389/fpls.2023. 1278895
ACESSIBILIDADE POR MODO ATIVO E A INSERÇÃO URBANA DA HABITAÇÃO SOCIAL

A partir do abandono histórico das camadas populares no Brasil - materializado pela segregação socioespacial - e da grande relevância da mobilidade urbana, com vistas a viabilizar a acessibilidade por modos sustentáveis, este trabalho aborda a relação entre a estrutura espacial urbana e os deslocamentos ativos. Como metodologia, foi desenvolvido um procedimento, a partir da visão sistêmica, para investigar a inserção urbana da habitação social em relação à acessibilidade por modo ativo às centralidades urbanas. O procedimento foi validado com aplicação em Goiânia, Goiás, onde se constatou a segregação socioespacial. Este trabalho apresenta uma contribuição teórico metodológica para análise da acessibilidade por modo ativo, a partir da Teoria Geral dos Sistemas, e reforça a necessidade de integração do planejamento e gestão, entendo a cidade como um todo, com relações dinâmicas, complexas e interdependentes, para vencer o descaso e o abandono que caracterizam a inserção da habitação social.
Voice-Based Sign Language Detection using Machine Learning

: Only 2.78 percent of Americans are unable to communicate effectively in the language most often used in daily life. The fundamental tool required for interacting with another human being is language. Verbal interchange has been the primary mode of human communication from the beginning of our species. While it’s undeniable that technological progress has improved the quality of life for the vast majority of people, there will always be others with less who face greater challenges in breaking down barriers to interaction as a consequence. Sign language is based on hand movements and is used by those who have trouble speaking. Those who are deaf or visually impaired may now have meaningful conversations with their sighted peers thanks to this effort. The results of this study suggest that people with normal hearing and speech could benefit from using a customised prototype of a Feed Forward Neural Network (FFNN) that is equipped with the capability to automatically recognise sign language to improve their communication with people who have hearing or speech impairments. The hand signal was recognised by the system thanks to the feed-forward neural network feature point extraction. This method used a feed-forward neural network to analyse the feature points extracted from the hand signals and identify them. Technology that combines hand gesture recognition with speech processing and employs HMM (which stands for ”hidden Markov model”) allows the dump people and the normal people to interact with one another.
Reintroduction of white-tailed eagles to the Republic of Ireland: A case study of media coverage

Media can be important in the success or failure of conservation projects. This study examined newspaper coverage of the white-tailed eagle reintroduction to the Republic of Ireland to examine public awareness and attitudes towards the project, and the resultant influence on changes to national legislation and the likely success of the project in the future. National, local newspaper and a special-interest farming newspaper articles, from 2007-2011, were categorised as ‘positive’, ‘negative’ or ‘ambiguous’ according to their portrayal of eagles. Media coverage in terms of the number and valence of articles published is discussed in the context of key events during the study period, namely poisoning incidents, increased stakeholder engagement and changes to national legislation. The eagles received considerable newspaper coverage: most articles were in 2007, the first year of white-tailed eagle reintroduction, and 2010, when the issue of poisoning was finally addressed in Irish legislation. Articles were mostly positive while project staff engaged with media throughout the study period providing updates, condemning poisonings and responding to misinformation published. The future prospects for the project seemed positive, with appropriate newspaper coverage and information relating to legislative changes to benefit white-tailed eagles and several other species.
Absorptive Filtering Packaging Antenna Design Based on Through-Glass Vias

This article presents a design of Ka -band absorptive filtering packaging antenna (AFPA) based on through-glass vias (TGVs). Compared to other reflective filtering antennas (RFAs), the AFPA showcases a distinct design featuring dual absorptive band-edge radiation nulls and four reflective stopband radiation nulls. Additionally, the AFPA used a glass multilayer stacked 3-D package scheme that enables good microwave characteristics and high-density interconnects. The radiating patch was composed of an RFA and band-stop filter (BSF) whose reflection coefficients were almost complimentary. The RFA radiating patch and BSF unit were comprised of defect microstrip structure (DMS) and defect ground structure (DGS), corresponding dimensions were $\lambda _{g}$ /4 and $\lambda _{g}$ /2, respectively. The radiating patch layer was connected to the substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) feeding structure layer through a glass transition layer with TGVs and pads, and the packaging process was accomplished using laser bonding. Then we used SIW operating in Ka -band to feed the AFPA. To validate this design, a prototype of the AFPA was fabricated and measured. The results indicate −10 dB impedance bandwidth ranging from 30 to 35 GHz, with a peak gain of 6.06 dBi and a maximum radiation efficiency of approximately 85%. The measurements reveal that the AFPA has dual absorptive band-edge radiation nulls at 30.9 and 33.5 GHz, and four reflective stopband radiation nulls at 25.9, 27.3, 35.1, and 38.4 GHz, with a suppression level exceeding 15.5 dB.
Process Optimization for Aqueous Ethanosolv Pretreatment of Coffee Husk Biomass Using Response Surface Methodology

ABSTRACT This study targeted to optimize process factors using response surface methodology and determining their effect on delignification and cellulose recovery. Optimization of pretreatment conditions with desirability value of 0.828 was done at temperature (A) 150°C, contact time (B) 2 h, and liquid-to-solid ratio (LSR) (C) 15 ml/g. The sample was soaked in an aqueous ethanol solution (48% ethanol). Chemical composition was determined to be 1.87 ± 0.20, 7.03 ± 0.99, 28.05 ± 0.27, 39.29 ± 3.39, and 23.77 ± 3.91 wt% for ash, extractives, lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose, respectively. Experimental results were validated by comparing actual value with predicted value. The model was verified as the best for improving delignification and cellulose yield. Coefficient of determination (R2), analysis of variance (ANOVA), response plots, and optimization nodes were used to examine the experimental results. The quadratic equation was used to test the model, and ANOVA was used to evaluate the model’s statistical performance and correctness. Temperature, interaction term (BC), and quadratic terms (A2, B2, and C2) showed significance, while contact time, LSR, and interaction terms (AC and AB) indicated insignificance for cellulose recovery. Temperature, contact time, interaction term (AB), and quadratic terms (B2 and C2) showed significance, but LSR, interaction terms (AC and BC), and quadratic term (A2) showed insignificance for delignification. Pretreatment efficacy for delignification (6.0%) and cellulose recovery (151.80%) were achieved at optimal conditions. The pretreatment method is able to produce cellulose-rich coffee husk residues.
People, plants, and justice : the politics of nature conservation

I: Across the TerrainIntroduction: Toward a Broader Vision of Justice and Nature Conservation, by Charles Zerner1. Contested Communities, Malignant Markets, and Gilded Governance: Justice, Resource Extraction, and Conservation in the, by Michael J. Watts2. Beyond Distributive Justice: Resource Extraction and Environmental Justice in the Tropics, by Richard A. SchroederII: On Location: Case Studies3. Justice for Whom? Contemporary Images of Amazonia, by Candace Slater4. Outrage in Rubber and Oil: Extractivism, Indigenous Peoples, and Justice in the Upper Amazon, by Soren Hvalkof5. Land, Justice, and the Politics of Conservation in Tanzania, by Roderick P. Neumann6. Rebellion, Representation, and Enfranchisement in the Forest Villages of Makacoulibantang, Eastern Senegal, by Jesse C. Ribot7. The Damar Agroforests of Krui, Indonesia: Justice for Forest Farmers, by Genevi ve Michon, Hubert de Foresta, Kusworo, and Patrice Levang8. Tropical Forests Forever? A Contextual Ecology of Bentian Rattan Agroforestry Systems, by Stephanie Gorson Fried9. Global Markets, Local Injustice in Southeast Asian Seas: The Live Fish Trade and Local Fishers in the Togean Islands of Sulawesi, by Celia Lowe10. Exploitation of Gaharu, and Forest Conservation Efforts in the Kayan Mentarang National Park, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, by Frank Momberg, Rajindra Puri, and Timothy Jessup11. The Meaning of the Manatee: An Examination of Community-Based Ecotourism Discourse and Practice in Gales Point, Belize, by Jill M. Belsky12. Profits, Prunus, and the Prostate: International Trade in Tropical Bark, by Anthony Balfour Cunningham and Michelle Cuninngham13. A Tale of Two Villages: Culture, Conservation, and Ecocolonialism in Samoa, by Paul Alan Cox14. One in Ten Thousand? The Cameroon Case of Ancistrocladus korupensis, by Sarah A. Laird, A. B. Cunningham, and Estherine Lisinge15. The Fate of the Collections: Social Justice and the Annexation of Plant Genetic Resources, by Bronwyn Parry
To determine the effects of various concentrations of nano zirconia particles on the tensile strength of poly metyl methacrylate material

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the tensile strength of Poly methyl methacrylate denture base material before and after addition of various concentrations of Nano- Zirconia. Study design: Experimental study, Laboratory based. Materials and Methods: 60 Dumb bell shaped specimens were prepared from heat polymerized acrylic resins and were divided into six groups. (n=10). Zirconia nanoparticles size and shape was observed under TEM. Zirconia nanoparticles surfaces were treated with silane coupling agent and was observed under Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy FTIR. Nano Zirconia particles were not added in the control group while test groups were reinforced with 1%,3%,7%,10%,12% Nano Zirconia. Tensile strength test was applied with the help of Tensile testing machine. With the help of Scanning electron microscopy fractured specimens were observed. 1-way ANOVA was used for statistical analysis and paired sample t-test for multiple comparison was applied using IBM-SPSS 20 (p<--0.05). Results: Groups in which zirconium oxide nanoparticles are added exhibited an increase in tensile strength i.e 1%NZ, 3%NZ, 7%NZ, 10%NZ and 12%NZ by 45.67MPa, 51.59MPa, 55.77MPa, 59.69MPa and 67.70MPa compared with that of control group 49,67MPa respectively. Conclusion: Zirconium oxide nanoparticles that are added to PMMA denture base material increases its tensile forte.
Supervised Contrastive Learning-Based Unsupervised Domain Adaptation for Hyperspectral Image Classification

Deep domain adaptation has achieved promising results in cross-domain hyperspectral image (HSI) classification. However, existing methods often focus on aligning data distributions without sufficient consideration of separability of source and target domain data themselves. In addition, current adversarial domain adaptation methods aim to achieve similar distributions between domains by confusing the discriminator, rather than obtaining a more compact distribution. In particular, existing methods are not discriminative enough for the target domain due to the difficulty of obtaining high-confidence labeled samples of the target domain. To address the above challenges, we propose a supervised contrastive learning (SCL)-based unsupervised domain adaptation for HSI classification. An SCL strategy is then performed in both the source and target domains, which allows samples from the same category to be pulled closer together and samples from different categories to be pushed further apart, thus enhancing the separability of the data within the domain. The domain adaptation task is treated as a one-class classification (OCC) task, and a novel domain similarity loss based on OCC is introduced to reduce the discrepancy between domains. Finally, a confidence learning-based sample selection strategy is designed to select high-confidence labeled samples from the target domain to fine-tune the domain adaptation model, which can enhance the discrimination of the model to the target domain. Experimental results on three cross-domain datasets demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms existing domain adaptation methods. Our source code is available at https://github.com/Li-ZK/SCLUDA-2023.
Crop-livestock interactions and livelihoods in the Gangetic Plains of West Bengal, India

The re,earch and development (R & D) community faces the challenge of ,ustaining crop productivity gains, improving ",rallivelihoods and se{uring environmental ,u,tainability in the Indo·Gangetic Plains (lGP). This calls for a better understanding of farming systems and of rural livelihoods, particularly with the advent of, and strong advocacy for, conservation agriculture ~nd resource-conserving te{hnoJogies,The paper summarizes the finding< from a scoping <tudy to a"e,s crop·live,tock interactions and rural livelihoods in the Gangetic Plains of West Bengal, drawing from a village survey in three d,Wicts (Maida, Nadia and Paschim Medinipur) and <ewndary data_ The rice-cattle based rural livelihoods are in stark contrast with those in the western IGf'; whereas the state's high human and livestock pressure and high poverty pme p~rtl(ular challengel to ~Ultain.ble intensification and poverty reducing agricultural growth; particularly in the more remote di,trict •. Strengthening the client orientation and productivity of the agricultural R&D community will be central to improving livelihoods and mOre sustainably using natural resources; and r1! l1! arch on cTop-liveltock inter~ction serves as a good entry point
Design and Implementation of 85dB CMRR, 4.2 MHz CMOS Instrumentation Amplifier for Bio-Electric Signals

- This paper presents the design and Implementation of a novel CMOS Instrumentation Amplifier using capacitive neutralization and feedback transconductance techniques for bioelectric signal enhancement. The proposed amplifier also implements indirect current feedback, operating at a 3-volt supply. With a compact footprint of 0. 062mm² on the chip, the amplifier achieves an impressive bandwidth of 4.2MHz and 85 dB CMRR. Implemented using 0. 25μm CMOS technology, the proposed Instrumentation Amplifier showcases notable characteristics.
Reconceptualization of the Erlangen Score for the Assessment of Dementia Risk: The ERlangen Score

Background: The established Erlangen Score (ES) for the interpretation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers in the diagnostics of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) uses markers of amyloidopathy and tauopathy, equally weighted to form an easy-interpretable ordinal scale. However, these biomarkers are not equally predictive for AD. Objective: The higher weighting of the Aβ42/Aβ40 ratio, as a reconceptualized ERlangen Score (ERS), was tested for advantages in diagnostic performance. Methods: Non-demented subjects (N = 154) with a mean follow up of 5 years were assigned to a group ranging from 0 to 4 in ES or ERS. Psychometric trajectories and dementia risk were assessed. Results: The distribution of subjects between ES and ERS among the groups differed considerably, as grouping allocated 32 subjects to ES group 2, but only 2 to ERS group 2. The discriminative accuracy between the ES (AUC 73.2%, 95% CI [64.2, 82.2]) and ERS (AUC 72.0%, 95% CI [63.1, 81.0]) for dementia risk showed no significant difference. Without consideration of the Aβ42/Aβ40 ratio in ES grouping, the optimal cut-off of the ES shifted to ≥2. Conclusions: The ERS showed advantages over the ES in test interpretation with comparable overall test performance, as fewer cases were allocated to the intermediate risk group. The established cut-off of ≥2 can be maintained for the ERS, whereas it must be adjusted for the ES when determining the Aβ42/Aβ40 ratio.
Distributed Predefined-Time Optimization Control for Networked Marine Surface Vehicles Subject to Set Constraints

This paper presents a novel distributed predefined-time optimization scheme consisting of the distributed optimization estimator and the local controller for the networked marine surface vehicles. Concretely, the distributed optimization estimator is developed to estimate the optimal solution on to the set constraints. In the local control layer, a sliding mode scheme is built to guarantee that the sailing states of networked marine surface vehicles can track the optimal signals obtained by the distributed optimization estimator. Besides, the regulating time of both the estimation and the local tracking process is independent of the initial system states and can be artificially determined by directly adjusting the sum of serval control parameters. Later, a singularity avoidance scheme is further designed to avoid the possible singularity problems of the local control layer. Finally, a simulation example is given to show the efficacy of the proposed distributed predefined-time optimization algorithm.
Modeling Wear and Friction Regimes on Ceramic Materials with Positive and Negative Thermal Expansion

Computer modeling of rubbing between two surfaces with microasperities capable of expanding or contracting under conditions of frictional heating (i.e., possessing either positive and negative coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE)) allowed for the identification of wear-and-friction regimes on model ceramic materials. Assuming that no adhesion was involved in the interaction between asperities, two wear regimes—i.e., wear-free and continuous wear—have been revealed in both materials as dependent on the applied normal stress level and sliding velocity. The effect of the normal load on wear rate was similar for both positive and negative thermal expansion ceramics. Sliding velocity has a qualitatively different effect on the wear of materials with either positive or negative thermal expansion. The results indicated that the feasibility of reconstructing wear maps was common for both positive and negative CTE ceramics in terms of dimensionless mechanical and thermophysical characteristics.
Synthesis of magnesium oxide from waste magnesium-rich Cucurbita pepo (pumpkin) seeds

ABSTRACT Recent studies have focused on the processing of biowaste to obtain added value and to reduce organic waste in the general stream. This study investigated the synthesis of magnesium oxide (MgO) from magnesium-rich Cucurbita pepo (pumpkin) seeds for a precursor solution as a reducing agent via an eco-friendly method for the first time. The pumpkin seeds were ashed at 550°C for 6 h and subjected to acid-leaching. Mg(OH)2 was then precipitated using an aqueous solution of 2.0 M NaOH. The Mg(OH)2 was then calcined at 550°C for 4 h to obtain MgO. Physicochemical properties (i.e. proximate analysis, elemental composition, electrical conductivity (EC), pH) and selected heavy metals (i.e. Pb, Fe, As, Cd, Cr, Hg, Cu, and Ni) analyses were conducted on the seed samples and as-synthesized MgO. X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), citric acid test (CAT), and acid neutralization capacity (ANC) tests were techniques used to characterize the synthesized MgO. The results revealed the percentage yield of the MgO to be 23%. The pH of the as-synthesized MgO was recorded as 10.63. XRF studies showed that MgO made up 75.1% of the total weight synthesized. XRD results showed the presence of crystalline cubic structures of MgO. FTIR results showed a peak at 584 cm−1 which confirmed the formation of MgO. The produced MgO was highly reactive, with a CAT time of 2 s. The ANC of the MgO was high at 22.77 mol+/kg. Also, metal concentrations such as Fe, Cu, Cd, Ni, Pb, Hg, As, and Cr in MgO were below the WHO stipulated limits of 350, 36, 0.8, 35, 85, 0.03, 40, and 100, respectively. This implies its suitability for soil remediation purposes. Results indicate that the as-synthesized MgO from Cucurbita pepo (C. pepo) seeds could be used for several applications due to its high alkalinity, reactivity, and fast CAT time.