Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Super compact and ultra-wideband bandpass filter with a wide upper stopband based on a SCRLH transmission-line unit-cell and two lumped capacitors

ABSTRACT This paper presents a simplified composite right/left-handed trans-mission-line (SCRLH-TL) unit-cell, which is primarily consisted of a rectangular ring with two grounded vias. Superposing this unit-cell onto a high–low–high step-impedance resonator (SIR) leads to a novel SCRLH-TL multiple-mode resonator (SCRLH-TL MMR). By combining the SCRLH-TL MMR with a cross-shaped defected ground structure (DGS) and using a broadside coupling approach with two lumped capacitors, a highly compact and ultra-wideband bandpass filter was carefully designed and fully investigated. The filter was fabricated by using a conventional PCB process with the substrate of FR4. The measured 3-dB passband ranges from 2.55 through 11.75 GHz with the fractional bandwidth (FBW) of about 129%. The filter exhibits a high selectivity with steep skirt property, and has a wide upper stopband. Its total dimension, including the rectangular substrate with feed lines, occupies only 13.5 mm × 6.0 mm, which is found with the smallest size in comparison to those recently published in the literature.
Sustainable infrastructure for Nigeria’s sustainable economic development: whither transportation or electric power supply?

Abstract Infrastructures, publicly or privately provided, are widely believed to be the foundation for economic development. Indeed, studies have demonstrated the relationship between physical infrastructures (especially economic infrastructures) and economic growth. But not much is known in Nigeria about sustainable economic development induced by identified sustainable infrastructure. That is, economic development and infrastructure development that provokes local inclusiveness, economic progress and environmental friendliness. Modelling the effect of a range of time series data on GDP per capita, this study found electric power supply to have a strong relationship with sustainable development but not sufficient to provoke economic development in Nigeria. It concluded that electric power supply does not serve as catalyst for sustainable economic development in Nigeria, as recommended. It is argued here that there is a need to focus on critical economic infrastructure provision and investment, which will in turn have linked effects to boost other economic sectors through inclusive and environment friendly policies and programmes.
Digital transformation, operational efficiency and sustainability: innovation drivers for hospitality's rebound in the United Arab Emirates

PurposeThe paper researches the actions taken by United Arab Emirates (UAE) industry stakeholders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to mitigate impact, ensure continuity and target growth. More specifically, the focus is to investigate innovations adopted across hotel brands, both, local and international, and the UAE Government's policies that have created an enabling ecosystem for such innovations.Design/methodology/approachUsing an exploratory analysis technique, the paper provides a socio-economic, scientific and economic overview of the UAE and then proceeds to highlight the zeitgeist in the context of the hospitality and tourism industry. The impact of COVID on the industry is discussed and stakeholder feedback is solicited and analyzed to gauge the variety of innovations adopted to address the pandemic induced challenges.FindingsA key finding of this research indicates that proactive government policies have enabled the hospitality and tourism industry to stay viable and perform better than their counterparts in most destinations. The “innovate or perish” mindset spurred by the pandemic is evident in the variety of innovations adopted by hotel brands in the UAE. Another key finding is that digital transformation, operational efficiency and sustainability are the innovation drivers in hospitality.Originality/valueUsing the UAE as a case in point, the study highlights the importance of an innovation mindset which the hospitality and tourism industry needs to embrace in order to tide over the crisis triggered by the pandemic.
Estimating the Center of Mass of an Unknown Object for Nonprehensile Manipulation

With the increasing prevalence of robot-led automation in many fields such as industry, health-care, agriculture, etc., robot manipulator arms are often required to handle sophisticated manipulation tasks in which both the object and environmental physical parameters are unknown. In order to deal with these tasks, fast and accurate estimation of the inertial parameters of the object and frictional characteristics of flooring surfaces are of crucial importance toward developing intelligent and efficient object manipulation strategies. In this work, we propose an integrated framework for estimating the center of mass of an unknown planar object using a force sensor-less manipulator arm pushing the object on a horizontal plane. We evaluate two algorithmic solutions through extensive pusher-slider frictional interaction simulations. The result shows that the proposed framework can estimate the center of mass location efficiently and accurately only with a few pushing interactions.
Applying Absorption in Environmental Mechanics’ Decreasing of Aspiration Emissions of Gas Station

The article presents the results of applying environmental mechanics in research of absorber for capturing emissions’ hydrocarbons vapors exhausting from the gas station into the atmosphere air. Often residential human habitants are located within the boundary of the sanitary protection zone (SPZ) of these gas filling stations. The analysis measurement’s and stratification’ modeling results these gas emissions’ in the atmosphere showed that benzene and xylene vapor’s concentration in the atmosphere exceeds the existing sanitary-hygienic norms for these ingredients often. There presented the research results of the proposed aspiration schemes was equipped absorbing device for the capture of gas vapor’ emissions at the gas station in this article. It was obtained the regressions of capture effectiveness for the proposed device by mathematical processing. The research results were implemented for design of pilot industrial set up that was installed and successful tested in one of the gas filling station in Russia. It was showed the reliability of the proposed device for practical commercial use.
Use of pulsars for ship navigation: an alternative to the sextant

Abstract A new method is proposed for determining a ship's position at sea using naturally occurring pulsar signals to provide an alternative to the sextant. Use is made of four distinct pulsar radio signals whose timing stabilities are comparable to atomic clocks and whose characteristic signatures can be used as natural radio navigation beacons. Pulse peak time difference measurements, accurate to within 10−5 and 10−6 s, were generated for a key reference observatory which provides long-term pulsar timing observations and for the unknown ship location. These time differences when multiplied by the velocity of light provide a distance value that is fundamental in calculating the ship's position. Resultant simulations provided a position accuracy to ≈1⋅1 km (≈0⋅6 nm) for the higher timing difference measurement. A single-pulsar-based approach, which gave a position accuracy to ≈2⋅8 km (≈1⋅5 nm), was also investigated for affordable equipment solutions and comparison with NASA space-based navigation experiments.
Observer based control scheme for DC-DC boost converter using sigma–delta modulator

Purpose In actual application of a DC-DC boost converter, the input voltage and resistive load may be changed frequently, and these variations deteriorate the conventional controller performance. The purpose of this paper is to present an observer-based control scheme for a DC-DC boost converter with an unknown resistive load and input voltage. Design/methodology/approach To estimate the unknown input voltage and resistive load, a nonlinear observer is designed by using the Lyapunov stability theorem. In addition, the closed-loop stability of the proposed control scheme for the DC-DC boost converter is proven. To convert the continuous control input to discrete mode, a sigma–delta modulator is used. Findings The proposed control scheme is validated in different situations. The adaptive structure of the proposed control scheme is tested by the input voltage, load and reference signal variation, and the simulation results confirm the capability of the proposed observer-based control strategy. Originality/value The contribution of this paper is twofold: according to nonlinear controller design, the feedforward term of the nonlinear controller is obtained via the observer, and unlike the proportional–integral controller, performance deterioration in the input voltage and load variations are unraveled. The effectiveness of this method is validated by experimental implementation in the presence of load and input voltage variations, and the experimental results confirm the efficacy of the proposed strategy.
The Function of BDNF and Treatment in Neurological Disorder

: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is one of the most well-researched factors that thas been shown to regulate mood and stress-coping. There is growing evidence suggesting the dysfunction of the BDNF pathway is likely to cause several types of mental disorders such as Major Depressive Disorders, Stroke, and Parkinson's Disease. This review article provides a detailed examination of the function of BDNF and how it relates to neurological diseases, particularly depression, as well as different studies and theories explaining the mechanism behind how dysfunction of the BDNF relates to depression. The article also discussed different types of treatments, including drug treatment and CRISPR, that target these neurological disorders caused by BDNF dysfunction. Despite the uncertainty in this field, there is still enough evidence suggesting that dysregulation of BDNF can be a risk factor for many neurological disorders. Studies on this topic will likely evoke new perspectives on modern treatments.
A Scoping Literature Review of Rural Institutional Elder Care

Under circumstances of pervasive global aging combined with weakened traditional family elder care, an incremental demand for institutional elder care is generated. This has led to a surge in research regarding institutional elder care. Rural residents’ institutional elder care is receiving more attention as a major theme in social sciences and humanities research. Based on 94 articles related to rural institutional elder care, this study identified the most influential articles, journals and countries in rural institutional elder care research since 1995. This was done using science mapping methods through a three-step workflow consisting of bibliometric retrieval, scoping analysis and qualitative discussion. Keywords revealed five research mainstreams in this field: (1) the cognition and mental state of aged populations, (2) the nursing quality and service supply of aged care institutions, (3) the aged care management systems’ establishment and improvements, (4) the risk factors of admission and discharge of aged care institutions, and (5) deathbed matters regarding the aged population. A qualitative discussion is also provided for 39 urban and rural comparative research papers and 55 pure rural research papers, summarizing the current research progress status regarding institutional elder care systems in rural areas. Gaps within existing research are also identified to indicate future research trends (such as the multi-dimensional and in-depth comparative research on institutional elder care, new rural institutional elder care model and technology, and correlative policy planning and development), which provides a multi-disciplinary guide for future research.
What Do We Mean When We Say “Presence”?

Abstract Characterizations of presence are many and various. The first part of this article applies philosophical and psychological lenses to three common descriptions: Presence as (or as following from) “the suspension of disbelief,” presence as the “illusion of nonmediation,” and presence as “(the feeling of) being there. ” These construals of presence—the assumptions and commitments they make—are compared with one another, their plausibility and utility appraised. The second, shorter part of the article is not so much interested in definitions as distinctions that may help us ask better questions moving forward. We briefly consider the role of attention in presence, whether, when, or how presence is “binary,” and whether it is helpful to speak of presence in unmediated physical reality. A recurring theme throughout the article is whether a given understanding of presence (mis)construes the mind as monolithic: That is, as uniformly rational and consciously accessible. In closing, we suggest that researchers specify precisely what type of presence they're referring to whenever the concept is evoked; and that states such as involvement, absorption, and engagement be kept conceptually separate from presence, since they speak to “higher” cognitive functioning than simply feeling self-located in virtual environments, and indeed need not presuppose placeness or spatiality at all.
Linear Peptide Epitopes Derived from ErpP, p35, and FlaB in the Serodiagnosis of Lyme Disease

Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the northern hemisphere. Current serodiagnostics are insensitive in early infection. Sensitivity in these seroassays is compromised by the necessity to preserve specificity in the presence of cross-reactive epitopes in Borrelia burgdorferi target antigens. We evaluated the efficacy of using synthetic peptides containing epitopes unique to B. burgdorferi as antigen targets in a Lyme disease seroassay. We performed linear B cell epitope mapping of the proteins p35 (BBH32) and ErpP to identify unique epitopes. We generated peptides containing these newly identified linear epitope sequences along with previously identified epitopes from the antigens FlaB and VlsE and evaluated their diagnostic capabilities via ELISA using large serum sets. Single-epitope peptides, while specific, demonstrated insufficient sensitivity. However, when epitopes from FlaB, ErpP, or p35 were combined in tandem with an epitope from VlsE, the sensitivity of the assay was significantly increased without compromising specificity. The identification of additional unique epitopes from other B. burgdorferi antigens and the further development of a combined multi-peptide-based assay for the laboratory diagnosis of Lyme disease offers a way to address the poor specificity associated with the use of whole protein antigen targets and thus significantly improve the laboratory diagnosis of Lyme disease.
Visual Localization Strategy for Indoor Mobile Robots in the Complex Environment

Vision-based mobile positioning technology has a broad application prospect. Still, it is easy to be disturbed by external environmental factors, and the positioning accuracy and robustness in a complex environment are poor. Therefore, this paper designs a high-precision visual positioning strategy for a complex environment via fusing stereo visual odometry and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) data. A multi-sensor calibration method is utilized to compensate for the measurement error of IMU and the parameter error of the stereo camera. A multi-sensor data synchronization alignment method based on timestamp is also designed to realize the synchronous acquisition and processing of multi-sensor data. Based on the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) algorithm, we implement a nonlinear data coupling method to fuse the stereo visual odometry and IMU information to obtain high-precision positioning. In the complex and open laboratory environment, the experimental results of fused localization show that the accuracy and robustness of the mobile robot localization are significantly improved. The global maximum error is reduced by 15%, and the variance is reduced by 5%.
Estimador competitivo de bajo coste computacional para deconvolución dispersa

This paper presents an efficient algorithm for computing the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimate of a BernouilliGaussian sequence distorted by a linear filter and corrupted by noise. The computational effort for the MAP estimator increases exponentially with the number of samples and is generally unfeasible. The approach used by Kormylo and Mendel in their pioneering work on the Single Most-Likely Replacement algorithm (SMLR) has been the sub-optimal reference to evaluate the efficiency of this new estimation method in computational effort and detection probability. This algorithm reduces drastically the SMLR computational load and allows real-time processing, because only few samples of the observation data are required by employing a windowing strategy. An extensive Monte Carlo analysis, using synthetic data, has been performed to compare the behaviour of the proposed estimators.
Spectral Reflectance Recovery from the Quadcolor Camera Signals Using the Interpolation and Weighted Principal Component Analysis Methods

The recovery of surface spectral reflectance using the quadcolor camera was numerically studied. Assume that the RGB channels of the quadcolor camera are the same as the Nikon D5100 tricolor camera. The spectral sensitivity of the fourth signal channel was tailored using a color filter. Munsell color chips were used as reflective surfaces. When the interpolation method or the weighted principal component analysis (wPCA) method is used to reconstruct spectra, using the quadcolor camera can effectively reduce the mean spectral error of the test samples compared to using the tricolor camera. Except for computation time, the interpolation method outperforms the wPCA method in spectrum reconstruction. A long-pass optical filter can be applied to the fourth channel for reducing the mean spectral error. A short-pass optical filter can be applied to the fourth channel for reducing the mean color difference, but the mean spectral error will be larger. Due to the small color difference, the quadcolor camera using an optimized short-pass filter may be suitable as an imaging colorimeter. It was found that an empirical design rule to keep the color difference small is to reduce the error in fitting the color-matching functions using the camera spectral sensitivity functions.
LSW-Net: A Learning Scattering Wavelet Network for Brain Tumor and Retinal Image Segmentation

Convolutional network models have been widely used in image segmentation. However, there are many types of boundary contour features in medical images which seriously affect the stability and accuracy of image segmentation models, such as the ambiguity of tumors, the variability of lesions, and the weak boundaries of fine blood vessels. In this paper, in order to solve these problems we first introduce the dual-tree complex wavelet scattering transform module, and then innovatively propose a learning scattering wavelet network model. In addition, a new improved active contour loss function is further constructed to deal with complex segmentation. Finally, the equilibrium coefficient of our model is discussed. Experiments on the BraTS2020 dataset show that the LSW-Net model has improved the Dice coefficient, accuracy, and sensitivity of the classic FCN, SegNet, and At-Unet models by at least 3.51%, 2.11%, and 0.46%, respectively. In addition, the LSW-Net model still has an advantage in the average measure of Dice coefficients compared with some advanced segmentation models. Experiments on the DRIVE dataset prove that our model outperforms the other 14 algorithms in both Dice coefficient and specificity measures. In particular, the sensitivity of our model provides a 3.39% improvement when compared with the Unet model, and the model’s effect is obvious.
Southern hemisphere tectonics in the Cenozoic shaped the pantropical distribution of parrots and passerines

Explanations of pantropical distributions are challenging for taxa that diverged during the Cenozoic, after Gondwana broke apart. The ‘boreotropics hypothesis’ suggests that pantropical birds originated in the Laurasian forests. Extant parrots (Psittaciformes) are one the most species‐rich pantropical avian clades, but their known evolutionary history does not fit a boreotropical origin. Most living parrots and the earliest diverging lineages of the Psittaciformes inhabit the remnants of Gondwana, whereas the oldest stem and crown fossils are from the remnants of Laurasia. Our study proposes a biogeographic hypothesis that focuses on the Cenozoic connections between Laurasia and Gondwana to explain extant and fossil geographical distributions.
Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike Antibody Titers and Neutralizing Antibodies in Vaccinated Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). A serological test is used to assess the efficacy of vaccination. It has been reported that anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) and neutralizing antibody (Ab) levels are lower following vaccination in patients with rheumatic disease. Here, we investigated anti-SARS-CoV-2 S and neutralizing Abs in vaccinated rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in Japan. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S and neutralizing Abs were quantified in 101 RA patients and 117 controls. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S Ab levels were lower in RA patients than both earlier after vaccination in controls (mean RA 324.1 ± 591.8 SDM vs. control 1216.6 ± 854.4 [U/mL], p < 0.0001) and later after vaccination (324.1 ± 591.8 vs. 582.0 ± 415.6 [U/mL], p = 0.0002). The interval between vaccination of the RA patients and serum collection was longer than for controls early after vaccination (142.1 ± 31.6 vs. 98.3 ± 11.2 [days], p < 0.0001), but shorter than the later sample from the controls (142.1 ± 31.6 vs. 257.3 ± 11.2 [days], p < 0.0001). Importantly, anti-SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing Ab titers in RA patients were higher than in either early or later control samples (10.7 ± 4.9 vs. 8.6 ± 6.6 [%], p = 0.0072, and 10.7 ± 4.9 vs. 3.1 ± 3.7 [%], p < 0.0001, respectively). Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S Ab titers in vaccinated RA patients were lower than in controls, but they were influenced by other clinical manifestations. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing Ab levels were independently increased in RA.
Voltage Response of a Pyroelectric Detector to a Single Rectangular Optical Radiation Pulse

In this paper, a mathematical description of the voltage response of a pyroelectric detector to a single rectangular pulse of optical radiation is presented. Mathematical procedures leading to the derivation of the dependencies describing the detector response for the cases, taking into account the duration of the radiation pulse absorbed by the detector and the relations between values of the electrical and thermal time constants of the detector, are shown in detail. The analytical results are compared and verified by experimental studies carried out using a commercially available pyroelectric detector (model PE10-S-Q) manufactured by the company Ophir. Comparison of the experimentally obtained data with analytical calculations showed good agreement.