Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sedimentary Black Carbon Isotope Record of Holocene Climate Changes on the Northeastern Tibetan Plateau

The northeastern Tibetan Plateau (TP) is an unique area for studying the interactions between the Asian Monsoonal climate and the westerlies. However, significant contraries on Holocene paleoclimate evolution are still exist. To better understand the climate history on the northeastern TP particularly its variability, we here investigated the stable carbon isotope compositions of Black Carbon (BC) (δ13CBC) in Lake Gyaring sediment core from the source area of the Yellow River. The δ13CBC values were relatively positive before ∼6.2 cal kyr BP indicating that the climate on northeastern TP was warm and dry during the first half of the Holocene, while the decreasing trend thereafter reflects that the climate on the northeastern TP has become generally cooler and wetter since the middle Holocene. Superimposed on the long‐term paleoclimate evolution pattern, at least seven centennial‐scale cold‐wet events characterized by significant δ13CBC depletions occurred at about 8.4, 7.5, 6.2, 5.0, 4.3, 2.7, and 0.9 cal kyr BP. Those abrupt climate events well corresponded to the weak Asian Monsoon episodes and the ice‐rafted debris records in the North Atlantic. We speculate that the cold climate signals from the North Atlantic resulted from the sea‐ice expansion have been transported to the northeastern TP through the westerlies leading to a cold conditions there. Besides, the anomalous easterly water vapor transportation over the northern periphery of the TP during weak monsoon intervals has generated the wet conditions on the northeastern TP.
Underground Gravity Energy Storage: A Solution for Long-Term Energy Storage

Low-carbon energy transitions taking place worldwide are primarily driven by the integration of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. These variable renewable energy (VRE) sources require energy storage options to match energy demand reliably at different time scales. This article suggests using a gravitational-based energy storage method by making use of decommissioned underground mines as storage reservoirs, using a vertical shaft and electric motor/generators for lifting and dumping large volumes of sand. The proposed technology, called Underground Gravity Energy Storage (UGES), can discharge electricity by lowering large volumes of sand into an underground mine through the mine shaft. When there is excess electrical energy in the grid, UGES can store electricity by elevating sand from the mine and depositing it in upper storage sites on top of the mine. Unlike battery energy storage, the energy storage medium of UGES is sand, which means the self-discharge rate of the system is zero, enabling ultra-long energy storage times. Furthermore, the use of sand as storage media alleviates any risk for contaminating underground water resources as opposed to an underground pumped hydro storage alternative. UGES offers weekly to pluriannual energy storage cycles with energy storage investment costs of about 1 to 10 USD/kWh. The technology is estimated to have a global energy storage potential of 7 to 70 TWh and can support sustainable development, mainly by providing seasonal energy storage services.
Mineral and Ester Nanofluids as Dielectric Cooling Liquid for Power Transformers

Amidst the new techniques facing the improvement of cooling and insulating efficiency and the design of electric transformers, constrained by the current technologies, one of the more promising is the substitution of traditional dielectric oils for nanofluids. Research on nanofluids for their application in transformers as a coolant and dielectric medium have been performed during the last two decades and continue today. This review tries to collect and analyze the available information in this field and to offer it already dissected to researchers, focusing on the preparation methods and how nanoparticles affect the main properties of the base fluids. Here we also addressed the influence of different parameters as particle characteristics or environmental conditions in nanofluids performance, the evolution with time of the measured properties, or the neighboring relationship of nanofluids with other transformer components. In this sense, the most reviewed articles reflect enhancements of thermal conductivity or dielectric strength, as well as an improvement of time evolution of these properties, with respect to those that are found in base fluids, and, also, a better interaction between these nanofluids and dielectric cellulosics. Thus, the use of dielectric nanofluids in transformers may allow these machines to work safer or over their design parameters, reducing the risk of failure of the electrical networks and enhancing their life expectancy. Nevertheless, these advantages will not be useful unless a proper stability of nanofluids is ensured, which is achieved in a small part of revised articles. A compendium of the preparation methodology with this aim is proposed, to be checked in future works.
Impact of Generation and Relocation of Defects on Optical Degradation of Multi-Quantum-Well InGaN/GaN-Based Light-Emitting Diode

The defectiveness of InGaN-based quantum wells increases with low indium contents, due to the compressive strain induced by the lattice mismatch between the InGaN and GaN layers, and to the stronger incorporation of defects favored by the presence of indium. Such defects can limit the performance and the reliability of LEDs, since they can act as non-radiative recombination centers, and favor the degradation of neighboring semiconductor layers. To investigate the location of the layers mostly subjected to degradation, we designed a color-coded structure with two quantum wells having different indium contents. By leveraging on numerical simulations, we explained the experimental results in respect of the ratio between the emissions of the two main peaks as a function of current. In addition, to evaluate the mechanisms that limit the reliability of this type of LED, we performed a constant-current stress test at high temperature, during which we monitored the variation in the optical characteristics induced by degradation. By comparing experimental and simulated results, we found that degradation can be ascribed to an increment of traps in the active region. This process occurs in two different phases, with different rates for the two quantum wells. The first phase mainly occurs in the quantum well closer to the p-contact, due to an increment of defectiveness. Degradation follows an exponential trend, and saturates during the second phase, while the quantum well close to the n-side is still degrading, supporting the hypothesis of the presence of a diffusive front that is moving from the p-side towards the n-side. The stronger degradation could be related to a lowering of the injection efficiency, or an increment of SRH recombination driven by a recombination-enhanced defect generation process.
Models on Event Symmetric Space-Time

In the event symmetric approach to quantum gravity it is assumed that the fundamental laws of physics must be invariant under exchange of any two space-time events. The fact that this symmetry if obviously not observed is attributed to the possibility of a spontaneous symmetry breaking mechanism in which the residual symmetry is diffeomorphism invariance on a continuum. The approach has a discrete nature while dimensionality, continuity of space-time and causality are abandoned as fundamental principles. Consequently space-time is a dynamical object which may undergo changes of topology or dimension. A number of different types of Event Symmetric model are described. The most interesting models are event symmetric superstring models based on discrete string supergroups.
ContourNet : a new deep convolutional neural network for 2D contour classification

In this paper, we present a new deep convolutional neural network to classify 2d contours, described by a sequence of points coordinates representing the boundary of objects. Several works dealt with this subject, even those using learning, but few works use deep learning. This is due to the fact that contours data are very narrow and inappropriate for convolution. To enrich this representation, we use curve evolution and consider simultaneously a multi-scale representation of a contour. Associated with coordinates, curvature estimated at each point is the most used descriptor who can help distinguishing objects. Despite deficiency of large 2d contour datasets, required for a convergent learning, the use of several additional techniques, such as data augmentation, lead to results outperforming the state of the art. We train ContourNet on MPEG-7 database CE-1 part B, witch achieves 100% for Top-1 accuracy rate on MPEG-7 test set, and 91.78% on Kimia216 dataset.
Cyber–Physical Verification of Intermittently Powered Embedded Systems

Intermittently powered embedded systems are a foundational and growing component of the Internet of Things. It is essential to rigorously prove these systems’ correctness because they arise both in safety-critical applications and applications where quality-of-service is essential to social good. Such proofs are challenging because they are simultaneously cyber–physical and time-sensitive: correctness is affected by physical properties that change with time. This article introduces a new general-purpose formal verification approach for cyber–physical properties of intermittent systems. We define a high-level modeling and specification language for intermittent systems, define its formal semantics, and prove that the language reduces to hybrid games, enabling the application of existing theorem-proving software. Cold storage for COVID vaccines serves as a running example; we provide a machine-checked proof that safe temperatures are maintained under suitable assumptions. The crux of our proof approach is to identify power and timing assumptions under which sufficient power is available to complete time-sensitive tasks. Orthogonal to approaches that prove new guarantees on power or timing, our work rigorously shows which power and timing assumptions are needed for cyber–physical correctness.
Interactions between Jumbo Phage SA1 and Staphylococcus: A Global Transcriptomic Analysis

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is an important zoonotic pathogen that poses a serious health concern to humans and cattle worldwide. Although it has been proven that lytic phages may successfully kill S. aureus, the interaction between the host and the phage has yet to be thoroughly investigated, which will likely limit the clinical application of phage. Here, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was used to examine the transcriptomics of jumbo phage SA1 and Staphylococcus JTB1-3 during a high multiplicity of infection (MOI) and RT-qPCR was used to confirm the results. The RNA-seq analysis revealed that phage SA1 took over the transcriptional resources of the host cells and that the genes were categorized as early, middle, and late, based on the expression levels during infection. A minor portion of the resources of the host was employed to enable phage replication after infection because only 35.73% (997/2790) of the host genes were identified as differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses showed that the phage infection mainly affected the nucleotide metabolism, protein metabolism, and energy-related metabolism of the host. Moreover, the expression of the host genes involved in anti-phage systems, virulence, and drug resistance significantly changed during infection. This research gives a fresh understanding of the relationship between jumbo phages and their Gram-positive bacteria hosts and provides a reference for studying phage treatment and antibiotics.
Novel compact bandpass filter using sextuple‐mode ceramic cavity resonator

This letter proposes a novel compact ceramic cavity bandpass filter with surface silver coating and air coupling apertures. It is constituted of a sextuple‐mode ceramic cavity as the main resonator, two single‐mode cavities to connect the sextuple modes transversely with source and load, and two single cavities to suppress higher harmonics. This proposed filter has the advantages of compact size, wide band, low insertion loss, high selectivity, wide spurious‐free window, as well as coplanar source and load interfaces. There are no blind holes in the filter, which is beneficial for improving the machining accuracy. One prototype filter operating at 3.5 GHz is fabricated and measured. The minimum insertion loss in the passband is 0.65 dB. The inherent spurious mode of the sextuple‐mode resonator at around 1.2fC (fC center frequency) is suppressed under −30 dB. The measured and simulated results are in good agreement.
Chemical defense strategies, induction timing, growth, and trade‐offs in
 Pinus aristata
 and
 Pinus flexilis

Trade-offs between plant defense investment and fitness traits, including growth, are often invoked to explain evolutionary strategies targeted at resisting herbivores. Many Pinus species have specialized herbivores, including the mountain pine beetle (MPB), Dendroctonus ponderosae , and have histori-cally been a focus of defense investigations. We compared defense traits of two high-elevation Pinus species, P. aristata and P. flexilis , that are hosts to MPB and hypothesized to have different growth and defense traits and potential trade-offs. Interspecific differences were assessed by sampling trees within the same stands, and intraspecific differences were assessed by sampling stands at sites across latitudes where both species co-occurred. Constitutive defenses were measured at Day 0, and the timing, concentration, and composition of an induced resin defense response were assessed by sampling at 1, 4, and 30 days following either mechanical wounding only or a simulated MPB attack using its primary fungal symbiont Grosmannia clavigera . At Day 4, induced resin concentrations did not differ between mechanical wounding and simulated MPB attack in either species. By Day 30, resin defense concentrations in response to simulated MPB attack were greater than those in response to mechanical wounding and were >19-fold greater than constitutive levels. Results suggest that initial induced resin defense responses in the two species are likely generalized, with a delayed response that is targeted specifically at MPB and G. clavigera . At all sites, P. aristata had higher concentrations of constitutive and Day-30 induced resin defenses than P. flexilis , although P. flexilis induced proportionately more. Trade-offs in growth and defense between the species were only found at the two most climatically favorable sites where P. aristata grew slower than P. flexilis . No trade-offs were found between the two defense types at either biological scale. Overall, our findings highlight that the two pine species growing in the same stands (1) have a delayed response to a specialized native herbivore and fungal symbiont, (2) only exhibited interspecific defense – growth trade-offs at two climatically favorable sites, and showed no intraspecific defense – growth trade-offs, (3) showed no trade-offs between constitutive and induced defenses at either biological scale, and (4) have evolved different defense strategies. Study site locations. The distribution of Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine ( Pinus aristata ) is limited to Colorado (CO), New Mexico (NM), and an isolated population in Arizona (AZ). Limber pine ( ), which has a larger distribution across the western United States and Canada, co-occurs with P. aristata . Distributions on Little (1971) and Ellenwood et
Human Norovirus Molecular Analysis and Development of Norovirus Vaccine

The most common organism of acute viral gastroenteritis is norovirus, which accounts for roughly 20% of all occurrences of acute gastroenteritis globally. The virus kills over 200,000 children each year and is the leading cause of childhood diarrhea in the rotavirus-vaccinated population. This study aims to review available studies regarding the information on the genogroup norovirus in humans, development of norovirus vaccines, and eﬀectiveness of norovirus vaccines. A systematic review using Science Direct, PubMed, and Scopus databases to identify eligible case studies. The search was conducted in September-October 2021. The quality of the included literature used checklists from the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP). All of the six selected studies with populations given RT-PCR intervention showed positive for norovirus infection. The most predominant genogroups in humans are GI and GII. As for the research results of the two selected studies on norovirus vaccine, namely the human phase 2 trial containing two Virus-Like Particles (VLP) genotypes, one study showed eﬃcacy at 18-49 one study at ≥ 60 years of age. This study analysis uses Takeda bivalent vaccine. The vaccine includes norovirus antigens of the GI and GII genogroups, intending to expand its protective immune potential. GI, GII, and GIV genogroups are prevalent in humans. VLP that contains GI.I and consensus GII.4c have been created as the NoV vaccine, providing signiﬁ cant eﬃcacy. Very likely because they contain GI dan GII antigens, which are the genogroups that infect humans the most. Patients given a placebo developed acute gastroenteritis due to norovirus GII.2, indicating a genotype cross-reactivity.
1,2‐Propyleneglycol sulfite as a surface stabilizing agent for Ni‐rich layered oxide cathodes of lithium‐ion batteries

Ni‐rich LiNixCoyMnzO2 (NCM) cathode material has received a lot of attention as an advanced cathode material for lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs). However, increasing internal resistance triggered by continuous electrolyte decomposition has become an important issue, as it seriously decreases the cycling retention of cells. Herein, this study will describe the means of a functional additive to improve the interfacial stability of Ni‐rich NCM cathode materials, 1,2‐propyleneglycol sulfite (PGS), which has a –SO3– functional group. The PGS can create layers of artificial cathode‐electrolyte interphase (CEI) through electrochemical oxidation reactions, which inhibit electrolyte decomposition in the cell. The cells without the PGS additive suffered seriously from low‐cycling retention (57.1%) after 100 cycles, but their cycling performance increased to 76.9% for the cell with 2.0 wt% PGS. Electrolyte decomposition is subsequently suppressed considerably in cells, indicating that artificial CEI layers incorporated by the electrochemical reaction of PGS improve the interfacial stability. First‐principle calculations reveal that PGS exhibited a higher oxidation preference and stronger Ni2+ affinity compared with solvents, and inhibited the formation of detrimental F−‐like species.
Effects of aging on auditory duration discrimination

The effects of aging on auditory processing are well documented. The involved anatomy includes the entire auditory pathway from peripheral to central mechanisms. Existing procedures to identify auditory processing disorders include a wide variety of signals with distortions or reduced redundancy in the temporal or frequency domains or the addition of noise. This project investigated the effects of aging on the ability to discriminate duration of a musical auditory signal. A musical signal was used to add temporally-variant acoustical information that would not be present in a pure tone. A digitized.wav piano note (fo = 422 Hz) with gradually decaying amplitude was edited in Sound Forge to produce two signals equal in spectrum, RMS amplitude, and VU level but differing durations (1000 and 800 ms). One hundred pairs of these musical signals were arranged in random order with half equal and half unequal in duration. The subject’s task was to designate same or different. Subjects ranged in age from 18 to 90 y.
Some Applications of Our Newer Knowledge of Nutrition

We are told that in the northernmost region of India, high up in the Himalayas, there is a state called Hunza. Here an isolated people have subsisted for generations upon a frugal diet—the grains which they grow (wheat, barley and maize), an abundance of apricots which they sun-dry for winter use, vegetables, and goat's milk. Goats are the only live stock, and while butter is made from the milk, goat's meat is eaten only on feast days. Dr. McCarrison, of the British Medical Service in India, reports that in seven years of residence in this state he had occasion to treat mostly accidental lesions, senile cataract, and other maladies wholly unconnected with the question of the food supply. Is this high state of public health to be directly correlated with diet?
Stand-alone external power-free microfluidic fuel cell system harnessing osmotic pump for long-term operation

External pumps (e.g. syringe pump) that operate microfluidic fuel cell (MFFC) devices are inefficient because the amount of electricity required to run such pumps easily exceeds that generated by the MFFC. Herein, we propose a suitable small, lightweight, and external power-free osmosis-driven pump embedded with an MFFC system, capable of steady-flow generation. Methanol and vanadium are used as fuel, and the electrodes are made of carbon paper. We do not utilize sputtering equipment, commonly used for electrode fabrication. To incorporate the carbon paper-based electrode into the MFFC, the cross section of the microchannel is uniquely designed into a bridge-shaped channel, and its electrochemical and fluid dynamic influences are analyzed through experiments and simulations. The total weight of our MFFC system is less than 20 g, the size is approximately 5 cm, and the power density generated is approximately 0.3 mW cm−2. The presented methods will contribute to the development of standalone MFFCs operable for prolonged durations (~1 d), thereby enhancing the possibility of MFFC commercialization.
TeleLayering: Teleoperated Construction 3D Printing Using Multimodal Feedback for Extraterrestrial and Terrestrial Construction

 Abstract - In this paper, we propose a teleoperated construction 3D printing technology, called TeleLayering, for planetary and terrestrial applications. The TeleLayering technology is enabled by effective multimodal control and monitoring systems and enhanced construction 3D printing robots to build or repair a variety of structures in extreme environments without the need for human presence on the jobsite. This paper presents a general description, main technical requirements, implementation challenges, and applications of this technology.
A Property of g-Expectation

This paper proves that, under the hypothesis g(t, 0, 0) ≡ 0 and some natural assumptions, the generator g of a backward stochastic differential equation can be uniquely determined by the corresponding g-expectations with all terminal conditions. The main result of this paper also confirms and extends Peng Shige's conjecture.