Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Realization of Quantum Secure Direct Communication with Continuous Variable

With the progress of theoretical and applied technologies, the communication system based on the classical encryption is seriously threatened by quantum computing and distributed computing. A communication method that directly loads confidential information on the quantum state, quantum secure direct communication (QSDC), came into being for resisting security threats. Here, we report the first continuous-variable QSDC (CV-QSDC) experimental demonstration for verifying the feasibility and effectiveness of the CV-QSDC protocol based on Gaussian mapping and propose a parameter estimation for signal classification under the actual channels. In our experiment, we provided 4 × 102 blocks, where each block contains 105 data for direct information transmission. For the transmission distance of 5 km in our experiment, the excess noise is 0.0035 SNU, where SNU represents the unit of shot-noise units. The 4.08 × 105 bit per second experimental results firmly demonstrated the feasibility of CV-QSDC under the fiber channel. The proposed grading judgment method based on parameter estimation provides a practical and available message processing scheme for CV-QSDC in a practical fiber channel and lays the groundwork for the grading reconciliation.
Weather based crop yield prediction using artificial neural networks: A comparative study with other approaches

This paper attempts to compare the weather indices based regression approach and Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approach for rice yield prediction at district level of West Bengal. The weather indices for weather variables, viz., minimum temperature, maximum temperature, rainfall, and relative humidity are used as input variables along with time variable t and yield of rice as output variable. The study reveals that the ANN approach works better than the standard regression approach in crop yield prediction. The prediction error percentages are found to be consistently less than 5% in MLP ANN approach except for one district.
Generating and Analyzing Mobility Traces for Bus-Based Vehicular Networks

One of the main issues in the design of vehicular networks is understanding vehicles' mobility, which is determined by their type. In this work, we investigate how the mobility of buses influences the structure of a bus-based vehicular network. In this direction, we present a comprehensive analysis of bus mobility in vehicular networks. We generate bus mobility traces using official data from public transport agencies of four different cities. Our generated traces reveal crucial characteristics of bus-based vehicular networks obtained from them. In particular, we uncover details about the network topology and how spatiotemporal aspects impact it by analyzing four factors: network, component, node, and contact. In addition, with the information gained from our analysis, we perform experiments to assess practical aspects of the design of routing protocols in bus-based vehicular networks. Finally, we make the code and datasets publicly available to the research community as standard benchmark data for validating solutions.
Ultrafast Processes in Graphene: From Fundamental Manybody Interactions to Device Applications

A joint experiment‐theory investigation of the carrier dynamics in graphene, in particular in the energetic vicinity of the Dirac point, is reviewed. Radiation of low photon energy is employed in order to match the intrinsic energy scales of the material, i.e. the optical phonon energy (∼200 meV) and the Fermi energy (10‐20 meV), respectively. Significant slower carrier cooling is predicted and observed for photon energies below the optical phonon energy. Furthermore, a strongly anisotropic distribution of electrons in k‐space upon excitation with linearly polarized radiation is discussed. Depending on photon energy, the anisotropic distribution decays either rapidly via optical phonon emission, or slowly via non‐collinear Coulomb scattering. Finally, a room temperature operated ultra‐broadband hot‐electron bolometer is demonstrated. It covers the spectral range from the THz to visible region with a single detector element featuring a response time of 40 ps.
The Ocean Version of the Lagrangian Analysis Tool LAGRANTO

AbstractThe Lagrangian Analysis Tool (LAGRANTO) is adopted and applied to ECMWF’s latest ocean reanalysis. The primary motivation behind this study is to introduce and document LAGRANTO Ocean (LAGRANTO.ocean) and explore its capabilities in combination with an eddy-permitting ocean reanalysis. The tool allows for flexibly defining starting points, within circles, cylinders, or any user-defined region or volume. LAGRANTO.ocean also offers a sophisticated way to refine a set of computed trajectories according to a wide range of mathematical operations that can be combined into a single refinement criterion. Tools for calculating—for example, along-trajectory cross sections or trajectory densities—are further provided. After introducing the tool, three case studies are presented, which were chosen to reflect a selection of phenomena on different spatial and temporal scales. The case studies also serve as hands-on examples. For the first case study, at the mesoscale, ocean trajectories are computed during the.
Indice d'évaluation sans référence de la qualité des maillages 3D

– Apres le son, les images et les videos, les modeles 3D representes par des maillages polygonaux constituent le contenu emergent actuel de part les avancees technologiques recentes dans le domaine de l'acquisition 3D. Les maillages 3D sont souvent amenes a subir plusieurs distorsions dans diverses etapes (de pre-traitement ou post-traitement) telles que l'acquisition, la compression, ou la transmission. Ces traitements peuvent degrader la geometrie des maillages et ainsi affecter leur rendu visuel necessaire pour l'observateur humain se situant generalement en fin de chaine de traitement. Nous proposons dans ce papier une approche d'evaluation sans reference de la qualite des maillages 3D basee sur la saillance visuelle et la rugosite, nommee BMQI. Disposant d'un maillage 3D non colore, cette metrique (independante de la vue) est a apte a evaluer la qualite percue d'un maillage 3D sans acceder a sa version de reference similairement a un observateur humain. Les resultats obtenus en terme de correlation avec les scores de qualite fournis par les observateurs humains sont importants et competitifs avec les metriques d'evaluation avec reference de la qualite de l'etat de l'art. Abstract – After sounds, images, and videos, 3D models represented by polygonal meshes constitute the actual emergent content due to the recent technological advance in terms of 3D acquisition. 3D meshes can be subject to several degradations due to acquisition, compression, pre-treatment or transmission that distort the 3D mesh and therefore affect its visual rendering. Because the human observer is generally located at the end of this line, quality assessment of the content is required. We propose in this paper a view-independent 3D Blind Mesh Quality Assessment Index (BMQI) based on the estimation of visual saliency and roughness. Given a 3D distorted mesh, this index can assess the percieved visual quality without any access to the reference content as a human being does. Obtained results in terms of correlation with subjective human scores of quality are important and highly competitive with existing full-reference quality assessment metrics.
Simulation and measurement of the suppression of radon induced background in the KATRIN experiment

Short-lived radon isotopes, such as 219Rn or 220Rn, are a serious source of background for the measurement of the neu-trino mass with the KATRIN experiment. Most of the radon emanates from the main vacuum pumps of the KATRIN Main Spec-trometer, which consist of 2000 m of Non-Evaporable Getter (NEG) strips. This paper describes a method to suppress the radon rate with liquid-nitrogen-cooled baffles in front of the NEG-pumps in the ultra-high vacuum chamber and compares simulations with measured data. The effectiveness of the method depends both on the half-life of the radon isotopes, and on the temperature of the cryogenic baffles, which affects their sojourn time on the cold surface. The measurements with the Main Spectrometer showed that the radon suppression with cold baffles works sufficiently well, so that the remaining background is no longer dominated by radon decays.Short-lived radon isotopes, such as 219Rn or 220Rn, are a serious source of background for the measurement of the neu-trino mass with the KATRIN experiment. Most of the radon emanates from the main vacuum pumps of the KATRIN Main Spec-trometer, which consist of 2000 m of Non-Evaporable Getter (NEG) strips. This paper describes a method to suppress the radon rate with liquid-nitrogen-cooled baffles in front of the NEG-pumps in the ultra-high vacuum chamber and compares simulations with measured data. The effectiveness of the method depends both on the half-life of the radon isotopes, and on the temperature of the cryogenic baffles, which affects their sojourn time on the cold surface. The measurements with the Main Spectrometer showed that the radon suppression with cold baffles works sufficiently well, so that the remaining background is no longer dominated by radon decays.
Impacts of El Niño–Southern Oscillation on heat waves in the Indochina peninsula

This study examines the impacts of El Niño–Southern Oscillation on the frequency, duration, magnitude, and timing of heat waves (HWs) in the Indochina Peninsula during 1979–2017. It is found that preceding winter El Niño (La Niña) events prominently amplify (weaken) the HWs in most areas of Indochina by increasing (decreasing) the occurrence of HW events and the number of participating HW days, prolonging (shortening) the duration, and elevating (reducing) the amplitude of such events. These influences are even stronger for severe HWs (i.e., longest and hottest events) than for regular ones with average duration and intensity. Further examinations show that the atmospheric circulation during El Niño events is featured by a weakened Walker circulation that is characterized by an anomalously sinking motion over the western North Pacific (WNP) and Asia and a rising motion over the eastern tropical Pacific. The anomalous subsidence over WNP/Asia is accompanied by suppressed precipitation, and the WNP anticyclone is also enhanced and moves more westward. These patterns are in accordance with the atmospheric controls of HWs in Indochina, thereby favoring the occurrence and sustenance of HW events in the peninsula. La Niña event causes the mostly opposite changes of El Niño, thus inhibiting the HW activities in Indochina.
Expanding the Horizons of Pre-Transplant Renal Vascular Assessment Using Ex Vivo Perfusion

Recently, immense efforts have focused on improving the preservation of (sub)optimal donor organs by means of ex vivo perfusion, which enables the opportunity for organ reconditioning and viability assessment. However, there is still no biomarker that correlates with renal viability. Therefore, it is essential to explore new techniques for pre-transplant assessment of organ quality to guarantee successful long-term transplantation outcomes. The renal vascular compartment has received little attention in machine perfusion studies. In vivo, proper renal vascular and endothelial function is essential for maintaining homeostasis and long-term graft survival. In an ex vivo setting, little is known about vascular viability and its implications for an organ’s suitability for transplant. Seeing that endothelial damage is the first step in a cascade of disruptions and maintaining homeostasis is crucial for positive post-transplant outcomes, further research is key to clarifying the (patho)physiology of the renal vasculature during machine perfusion. In this review, we aim to summarize key aspects of renal vascular physiology, describe the role of the renal vasculature in pathophysiological settings, and explain how ex vivo perfusion plays a role in either unveiling or targeting such processes. Additionally, we discuss potentially new vascular assessment tools during ex vivo renal perfusion.
Evaluating the efficacy of chatGPT in near-peer simulation for resident doctors in the emergency department

Introduction: Near-peer teaching is gaining popularity as a newer teaching tool, as it improves the learner’s comprehension, targets the right audience and promotes familiarity with the clinical situation and enhances critical thinking. (1) This study was initiated to evaluate the efficacy of chatGPT in near-peer simulation using AI-enabled scenarios in the residency training programme of an emergency department. (2) Methods: ChatGPT an LLM was asked to generate clinical scenarios as per prompts given to evaluate its efficacy in generating real-time and realistic scenarios with information on stepwise approach and critical treatment decisions for the patient. Results: In our study, ChatGPT was able to successfully generate real-time and realistic scenarios based on the prompts given with detailed treatment approaches and critical decisions for all patients/scenarios given, serving as a successful tool to consider in near-peer education using simulation enabled by AI. CONCLUSION: Near-peer simulation training was found to be a valuable method of teaching residents for increasing hands-on experience, skill assessment, confidence in diagnosis and practical thinking. Integration of AI into near-peer simulations aids in creating a wider range of scenarios with prompt treatment decisions.
Laboratory Automation in Microbiology: Impact on Turnaround Time of Microbiological Samples in COVID Time

Background: Laboratory Automation (LA) is an innovative technology that is currently available for microbiology laboratories. LA can be a game changer by revolutionizing laboratory workflows through efficiency improvement and is also effective in the organization and standardization of procedures, enabling staff requalification. It can provide an important return on investment (time spent redefining the workflow as well as direct costs of instrumentation) in the medium to long term. Methods: Here, we present our experience with the WASPLab® system introduced in our lab during the COVID-19 pandemic. We evaluated the impact due to the system by comparing the TAT recorded on our samples before, during, and after LA introduction (from 2019 to 2021). We focused our attention on blood cultures (BCs) and biological fluid samples (BLs). Results: TAT recorded over time showed a significant decrease: from 97 h to 53.5 h (Δ43.5 h) for BCs and from 73 h to 58 h (Δ20 h) for BLs. Despite the introduction of the WASPLab® system, we have not been able to reduce the number of technical personnel units dedicated to the microbiology lab, but WASPLab® has allowed us to direct some of the staff resources toward other laboratory activities, including those required by the pandemic. Conclusions: LA can significantly enhance laboratory performance and, due to the significant reduction in reporting time, can have an effective impact on clinical choices and therefore on patient outcomes. Therefore, the initial costs of LA adoption must be considered worthwhile.
Can Survey Item Characteristics Relevant to Measurement Error Be Coded Reliably? A Case Study on 11 Dutch General Population Surveys

Item characteristics can have a significant effect on survey data quality and may be associated with measurement error. Literature on data quality and measurement error is often inconclusive. This could be because item characteristics used for detecting measurement error are not coded unambiguously. In our study, we use a systematic coding procedure with multiple coders to investigate the extent to which the coding of item characteristics could be done reliably. For this purpose, we constructed an item characteristics scheme that is based on typologies of characteristics. High intercoder reliability indicates a clear relation between item characteristic, item content, and measurement error. Our results show that intercoder reliability is often low, especially for item characteristics that are hard to code due to subjectivity. Low intercoder reliability complicates comparisons between studies about item characteristics and measurement error. We give suggestions for coping with low intercoder reliability.
Diagnóstico de glaucoma em retinografias utilizando funções geoestatística

O glaucoma e uma das doencas que mais causam cegueira em todo o mundo segundo estimativa da Organizacao Mundial da Saude (OMS). O Conselho Brasileiro de Oftalmologia (CBO) estima que no Brasil existam 985 mil portadores de glaucoma com mais de 40 anos de idade. A utilizacao de sistemas de deteccao e diagnostico auxiliados por computador (CAD - Computer Aided Detection e CADx -Computer Aided Diagnosis) tem contribuido para aumentar as chances de deteccao e diagnosticos corretos, que proporcionam, uma opiniao preliminar, auxiliando os especialistas na tomada de decisoes sobre o tratamento do glaucoma. O principal objetivo deste trabalho e apresentar um metodo para diagnostico automatico de glaucoma em imagens de retinografia utilizando caracteristicas de textura. Neste trabalho, o Local Binary Pattern e usado para gerar uma representacao do padroes de textura da imagem. As funcoes geoestatisticas, semivariograma, semimadograma, covariograma e correlograma, sao utilizadas como extratores de textura. Com as caracteristicas geradas e realizada uma etapa para selecionar o melhor modelo de classificacao utilizando o algoritmo genetico. Em seguida e realizada a classificacao usando a Maquina de Vetores de Suporte. O metodo apresentou como melhor resultado uma acuracia de 91%, sensibilidade de 95% e especificidade de 88%, comprovando que as caracteristicas geradas pelas funcoes geoestatisticas para extracao de textura geram um conjunto discriminante satisfatorio.
Prevalence and Trends of Handgrip Strength Asymmetry in the United States

Background: Strength asymmetries are a type of muscle function impairment that is associated with several health conditions. However, the prevalence of these asymmetries among adults from the United States remains unknown. We sought to estimate the prevalence and trends of handgrip strength (HGS) asymmetry in American adults. Methods: The unweighted analytic sample included 23,056 persons aged at least 50-years with information on HGS for both hands from the 2006–2016 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. A handgrip dynamometer measured HGS, with the highest recorded values for each hand used to calculate asymmetry. Persons were categorized into the following asymmetry severity categories: (1) >10%, (2) >20.0%, and (3) >30.0%. Survey weights were used to generate nationally-representative asymmetry estimates. Results: Overall, there were no statistically significant trends in HGS asymmetry categories over time. The prevalence of HGS asymmetry in the 2014–2016 wave was 53.4% (CI: 52.2–54.4), 26.0% (CI: 25.0–26.9), and 11.7% (CI: 10.9–12.3) for asymmetry at >10%, >20%, and >30%, respectively. HGS asymmetry was generally higher in older Americans compared to middle-aged adults at each wave. In the 2014–2016 wave, >30% asymmetry prevalence was 13.7% (CI: 12.7–14.6) in females and 9.3% (CI: 8.4–10.2) in males. Some differences in asymmetry prevalence by race and ethnicity were observed. Conclusions: The prevalence of asymmetry was generally high, especially in women and older adults. Ongoing surveillance of strength asymmetry will help monitor trends in muscle dysfunction, guide screening for disablement, identify subpopulations at risk for asymmetry, and inform relevant interventions.
Deep learning for check dam area extraction with optical images and digital elevation model: A case study in the hilly and gully regions of the Loess Plateau, China

Check dams are widely used on the Loess Plateau of China to control soil and water loss, develop agricultural land and improve watershed ecology. Detailed information on the spatial distribution of check dams and the area of dam land is critical for quantitatively evaluating hydrological and ecological effects, planning the construction of new dams and repairing damaged dams. Therefore, this research presents a method that integrates deep learning and geospatial analysis to facilitate the extraction of check dam areas in broad areas from high‐resolution Gaofen‐2 (GF‐2) multispectral imageries, including red (R), green (G), blue (B) and near‐infrared (NIR) bands and digital elevation model (DEM). First, we generated three datasets with different band combinations (RGB, RGB + NIR and RGB + DEM) using GF‐2 remote sensing images combined with Advanced Land Observing Satellite—the Phased Array type L‐band Synthetic Aperture Radar DEM data to determine the optimal data combination for dam area extraction. Next, four widely used semantic segmentation networks—Fully Convolutional Network (FCN), U‐Net, PSPNet and DeepLabv3+—were modified to support the arbitrary number of input channels and evaluated for check dam area extraction. Finally, the check dam candidate areas in the Yan River basin were extracted from DEM using geospatial analysis to optimize the dam area extraction results. The results showed that all deep learning (DL) models could extract dam areas quickly and accurately with mean intersection over union and overall accuracy values >85% and >98%, respectively. PSPNet had the best performance for testing datasets with different band combinations. We also found that the DL models in the RGB + DEM images had the best remote sensing image segmentation results, avoiding many miss‐classified pixels. The F1 scores in the RGB + DEM test dataset for FCN U‐Net, PSPNet and DeepLabv3+ reached up to 92%, or 3.3%, 2.3%, 1.9% and 3.1% higher than the corresponding values for RGB images. Potential check dam candidate regions (~3969 km2) were obtained for application analysis, which reduced the original area by 50%. The DL models for the RGB + DEM images were applied in the dam candidate regions, extracting 91.9 km2 of agricultural production dam land and 10.6 km2 of runoff and sediment silted dam land. The extraction results will facilitate quantitative analyses of check dams, improve the management of these structures and promote the efficiency of controlling soil losses.
Measurement of charmonium photoproduction in Ultra-Peripheral Collisions with the ALICE detector at the LHC

Ultra-relativistic heavy ions generate strong electromagnetic fields which offer the possibility to study gamma-gamma and gamma-nucleus processes at the LHC in so called ultra-peripheral collisions (UPC). The photoproduction of J/ψ vector mesons in UPC is sensitive to the gluon distribution of the interacting nuclei. Here we report on ALICE results of J/ψ coherent and incoherent production measured in Pb-Pb collisions at √ sNN = 2.76 TeV. The J/ψ has been measured via its leptonic decay both in the rapidity range −3.6 < y <−2.6 and −0.9 < y < 0.9. The results at forward rapidity have been recently published in [1], while for the central region we show a preliminary study.