Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Novel Heterogeneous Ensemble Framework Based on Machine Learning Models for Shallow Landslide Susceptibility Mapping

Landslides are devastating natural disasters that seriously threaten human life and property. Landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) plays a key role in landslide hazard management. Machine learning (ML) models are widely used in LSM but suffer from limitations such as overfitting and unreliable accuracy. To improve the classification performance of a single machine learning (ML) model, this study selects logistic regression (LR), support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT), and proposes a novel heterogeneous ensemble framework based on Bayesian optimization (BO), namely, stratified weighted averaging (SWA), to test its applicability in a typical landslide area in Yanbian Prefecture, China. Firstly, a dataset consisting of 1531 historical landslides was collected from field investigations and historical records, and a spatial database containing 16 predisposing factors was established. The dataset was divided into a training set and a test set in a ratio of 7:3. The results showed that SWA effectively improved the Accuracy, AUC, and robustness of the model compared to a single ML model. The SWA achieved the best classification results (Accuracy = 91.39% and AUC = 0.967). To verify the generalization ability of SWA, we selected published landslide datasets from Yanshan country and Yongxin country in China for testing. SWA also performed well, with an AUC of 0.871 and 0.860, respectively. As indicated by shapely values (SVs), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is the factor that has the greatest impact on landslide occurrence. The landslide susceptibility maps obtained from this study will provide an effective reference program for land use planning and disaster prevention and mitigation projects in Yanbian Prefecture, China.
Multi-Hazard Population Exposure in Low-Elevation Coastal Zones of China from 1990 to 2020

China’s low-elevation coastal zone (LECZ) is characterized by multiple hazards and high impacts. How to quantitatively portray the spatiotemporal characteristics of the exposed population to multi-hazards in the LECZ is an important subject of risk reduction. In this study, the overall characteristics, spatial patterns, and main impact hazard in the LECZ from 1990 to 2020 were investigated using a multi-hazard population exposure model, spatial autocorrelation method, and principal component analysis (PCA) method. The results show that among the four hazards (earthquake, tropical cyclones (TCs), flood, and storm surge), TCs cover the largest area, accounting for 90.1% of the total LECZ area. TCs were also the hazard with the largest average annual growth rate of the exposed population (2.36%). The central region of China’s LECZ is the cluster of exposed populations and the main distribution area with the largest increase in exposed populations. Therefore, the central region is a hotspot for multi-hazard risk management. Additionally, flood contributes the most to the multi-hazard population exposure index; thus, flood is a key hazard of concern in the LECZ. This study identifies the hotspot areas and priority hazards of multi-hazard exposed populations in the LECZ and provides important policy recommendations for multi-hazard risk management in the LECZ, which is important for LECZ to enhance the resilience of hazards.
Novel Modulation Technique Based Bidirectional DC to AC Dual Active Bridge for G2V and V2H

In this article, a triangular modulation based variable frequency modulation technique for a single-phase single-stage isolated bidirectional DC to AC dual active bridge has been proposed. The proposed modulation technique requires a single carrier and can be realized using two different methods. Distinctively in method 1, 50% gating signal is provided to the AC side bridge and one leg of the DC side bridge without any phase shift. However, there exists a center-to-center (C2C) phase shift between the gating signal of two legs of DC side bridge where one leg of DC side bridge is operating at 50% duty cycle and another operating at sinusoidally modified variable frequency pulse width modulation (PWM). In method 2, no C2C phase shift exists between the gating signal of the two legs of the DC side bridge. In this case phase shift exists between bridges operating at 50% duty cycle. Presented techniques offer true zero current switching (ZCS) for the AC side bridges over the wide envelope of the line frequency, zero voltage switching (ZVS) turn ON and ZCS turn OFF for the DC side switches, near unity power factor, bidirectional power flow with improved efficiency of 96.19%. DSP based digital realization of both methods is elaborated in detail and out of the two methods, the implementation of method 1 is presented in this article. The concept is validated through simulation results and experimentation on a 500 W prototype using TMS320F28335 for vehicle-to-home (V2H) and grid-to-vehicle (G2V) applications.
SEMICONDUCTORS AND DIELECTRICS

The processes of thermal transport in Si nanowires covered with an amorphous SiO2 shell have been studied using the nonequilibrium molecular dynamics method. The influence of the amorphous layer thickness, radius of the crystalline silicon core, and temperature on the thermal conductivity of the nanowires is considered. It is found that the increase of the amorphous shell thickness diminishes the thermal conductivity in Si/SiO2 nanowires of the core-shell type. The results obtained also testify that the thermal conductivity of Si/SiO2 nanowires at 300 K increases with the cross-section area of the crystalline Si core. The temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity coefficient in Si/SiO2 nanowires of the core-shell type is found to be considerably weaker than that in crystalline silicon nanowires. This difference was shown to result from different dominant mechanisms of phonon scattering in those nanowires. The results obtained demonstrate that Si/SiO2 nanowires are a promising material for thermoelectric applications.
Geochimie des eaux libres extraites de sols hydromorphes sur granite dans le masif armoricain. Mobilite du fer et dynamique saisonniere

Ce travail porte sur l'etude du fonctionnement geochimique des sols hydromorphes, plus particulierement sur la dynamique du fer en solution. Pour cela, nous avons effectue un suivi de la composition chimique d'eaux libres extraites in situ, de differents horizons de sols hydromorphes sur granite dans le massif armoricain. Le premiere partie de ce travail est consacree a des mises au point methodologiques; toutes les etapes de manipulation des solutions (extraction, transport, filtration, speciation du fer) mettent en jeu des materiaux chimiquement inertes, se deroulent en systeme ferme par rapport a l'oxygene atmospherique et a l'abri de la lumiere, afin d'assurer la validite des resultats obtenus. Les resultats montrent que le fer existe a des niveaux de concentration variables et sous differentes formes dans les solutions du sol. A fougeres, les eaux de la nappe sont bien oxygenees, le fer existe en solution essentiellement sous forme e suspensions colloidales et la mobilite du fer depend de phenomenes s'apparentant au lessivage. A quintin, le fer existe en solution a des niveaux de concentration plus eleves, essentiellement sous forme ferreuse aqueuse; la mobilite du fer temoigne d'une dynamique saisonniere marquee, qui reflete bien les conditions locales de deficience en oxygene regnant dans les horizons ou les eaux sont prelevees. Dans tous les cas, l'activite du fer en solution est controlee par l'equilibre avec l'hydroxyde ferrosoferrique fe#3(oh)#8. Les solutions sont sur-saturees par rapport aux phases solides ferriques, qui peuvent donc egalement se former
Using allophonic variation in L2 word recognition: French listeners’ processing of English vowel nasalization

During spoken word processing, native (L1) listeners use allophonic variation to predictively rule out word competitors and speed up word recognition. There is some evidence that second language (L2) learners develop an awareness of allophonic distributions in their L2, but whether they use their knowledge to facilitate word recognition online, like native listeners do, is largely unknown. In an offline gating experiment and an online eye-tracking experiment in the visual world paradigm, we compare advanced French learners of English and a control group of L1 English listeners on their processing of English vowel nasalization during spoken word recognition. In the gating task, the French listeners’ performance did not differ from that of the English ones. The eye-tracking results show that French listeners used the allophonic distribution in the same way as English listeners, although they were not as fast. Together, these results reveal that L2 learners can develop novel processing strategies using sounds in allophonic distribution to facilitate spoken word recognition.
Loss of Oxygen Atoms on Well-Oxidized Cobalt by Heterogeneous Surface Recombination

Calorimetry is a commonly used method in plasma characterization, but the accuracy of the method is tied to the accuracy of the recombination coefficient, which in turn depends on a number of surface effects. Surface effects also govern the kinetics in advanced methods such as atomic layer oxidation of inorganic materials and functionalization of organic materials. The flux of the reactive oxygen atoms for the controlled oxidation of such materials depends on the recombination coefficient of materials placed into the reaction chamber, which in turn depends on the surface morphology, temperature, and pressure in the processing chamber. The recombination coefficient of a well-oxidized cobalt surface was studied systematically in a range of temperatures from 300 to 800 K and pressures from 40 to 200 Pa. The coefficient increased monotonously with decreasing pressure and increasing temperature. The lowest value was about 0.05, and the highest was about 0.30. These values were measured for cobalt foils previously oxidized with oxygen plasma at the temperature of 1300 K. The oxidation caused a rich morphology with an average roughness as deduced from atomic force images of 0.9 µm. The results were compared with literature data, and the discrepancy between results reported by different authors was explained by taking into account the peculiarities of their experimental conditions.
Design of a Retransmitted Chipless Tag based on Multi-state Resonators

In order to increase the encoding capacity and reduce the size of the tag, this paper proposes the frequency sharing method to design a retransmitted chipless tag, which is composed of N resonators, a coupled microstrip transmission line, and the orthogonal transmitting antenna and receiving antenna. A pair of the same size resonators is placed symmetrically on both sides of the coupled microstrip transmission line. M open-ended stubs (OES) with different combinations are embedded in each resonator to obtain different resonance frequencies. The frequency sharing multi-state resonators’ chipless tags are designed where N=6, M=4, and the dimension of the tag is 46 mm × 30 mm, which can generate about 212 codes. Simulation and measurement results show good agreement and feasibility of the tag design. The chipless tag is small in size, has large encoding capacity and is easy to print. This kind of tag has no silicon chip so the cost is low. It can be widely used in logistics, supermarkets and other fields to replace the barcode.
Metabolomic profiling of CSF and blood serum elucidates general and sex-specific patterns for mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease patients

Background Beta-amyloid (Abeta) and tau protein in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are established diagnostic biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, these biomarkers may not the only ones existing parameters that reflect Alzheimer’s disease neuropathological change. The use of quantitative metabolomics approach could provide novel insights into dementia progression and identify key metabolic alterations in CSF and serum. Methods In the present study, we quantified a set of 45 metabolites in CSF (71 patients) and 27 in serum (76 patients) in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), AD, and controls using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabolomics. Results We found significantly reduced CSF (1.32-fold, p = 0.0195) and serum (1.47-fold, p = 0.0484) levels of the ketone body acetoacetate in AD and MCI patients. Additionally, we found decreased levels (1.20-fold, p = 0.0438) of the branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) valine in the CSF of AD patients with increased valine degradation pathway metabolites (such as 3-hydroxyisobutyrate and α-ketoisovalerate). Moreover, we discovered that CSF 2-hydroxybutyrate is dramatically reduced in the MCI patient group (1.23-fold, p = 0.039). On the other hand, vitamin C (ascorbate) was significantly raised in CSF of these patients (p = 0.008). We also identified altered CSF protein content, 1,5-anhydrosorbitol and fructose as further metabolic shifts distinguishing AD from MCI. Significantly decreased serum levels of the amino acid ornithine were seen in the AD dementia group when compared to healthy controls (1.36-fold, p = 0.011). When investigating the effect of sex, we found for AD males the sign of decreased 2-hydroxybutyrate and acetoacetate in CSF while for AD females increased serum creatinine was identified. Conclusion Quantitative NMR metabolomics of CSF and serum was able to efficiently identify metabolic changes associated with dementia groups of MCI and AD patients. Further, we showed strong correlations between these changes and well-established metabolomic and clinical indicators like Abeta.
Exploring Novel Therapeutic Approaches for Depressive Disorders: The Role of Allopregnanolone Agonists

Depressive disorders are caused due to the impaired functioning of important brain networks. Recent studies have also shown that it is caused by a significant reduction in the levels of allopregnanolone, which is a progesterone metabolite. Newer treatment modalities are now focusing on the usage of neuroactive steroids, such as allopregnanolone, in various depressive disorders. Our aim was to provide a comprehensive literature review on the clinical aspects of the allopregnanolone agonists brexanolone and zuranolone with reference to the physiological role of allopregnanolone. Brexanolone was approved by the FDA in 2019 for the treatment of postpartum depression and has greatly influenced further research into potential drugs such as zuranolone, which is currently undergoing phase 3 of clinical trials. Although these drugs exhibit improvement in symptoms of depressive disorders along with notable side effects, further research is required for their future clinical use.
Performance analysis and optimisation of wireless powered decode-and-forward considering circuit power consumption

Idle nodes are used in cooperative communications to achieve diversity gain or coverage extension. Energy harvesting (EH) allows cooperative communications to be less dependent on batteries. In this study, the performance of EH decode-and-forward relaying is analysed in terms of achievable rate for non-ideal relaying nodes whose circuit power cannot be neglected. Two time switching protocols, continuous time switching and discrete time switching, are studied. The analytical expressions for the achievable rate are derived and optimised. Numerical results show the validity of the analytical expressions and determine the influence of the circuit power consumption.
Real-time monitoring of optimum timing for harvesting fresh tea leaves based on machine vision

The harvesting time of fresh tea leaves has a significant impact on product yield and quality. The aim of this study was to propose a method for real-time monitoring of the optimum harvesting time for picking fresh tea leaves based on machine vision. Firstly, the shapes of fresh tea leaves were distinguished from RGB images of the tea-tree canopy after graying with the improved B-G algorithm, filtering with a median filter algorithm, binary processing with the Otsu algorithm, and noise reduction and edge smoothing using open and close operations. Then the leaf characteristics, such as leaf area index, average length, and leaf identification index, were calculated. Based on these, the Bayesian discriminant principle and method were used to construct a discriminant model for fresh tea-leaf collection status. When this method was applied to a RGB tea-tree canopy image acquired at 45° shooting angle, the fresh tea-leaf recognition rate was 90.3%, and the accuracy for fresh tea-leaf harvesting status was 98% by cross validation. Hence, this method provides the basic conditions for future tea-plantation operation and management using information technology, automation, and intelligent systems. Keywords: agricultural machinery, fresh tea leaves, machine vision, intelligent recognition, real-time monitoring DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe. 20191201.3418 Citation: Zhang L, Zhang H D, Chen Y D, Dai S H, Li X M, Imou K, Liu Z H, et al. Real-time monitoring of optimum timing for harvesting fresh tea leaves based on machine vision. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2019; 12(1): 6–9.
RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION (RTI) PROGRAM FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS IN FIRST-YEAR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Objectives: To develop a second-tier Response to Intervention (RTI) program for the development of executive functions in first-year elementary school students and to analyze the clinical significance of the program via a pilot study. Method: The work was carried out in two phases: elaboration and application of the RTI program; followed by a clinical significance analysis of the children’s performance in pre and post-test situations. Participants: The initial sample comprised 71 children (age from 6 years to 6 years and 11 months, of both sexes) from two public schools (groups GI and GII). These were submitted to a pre-assessment protocol: Attention Screening Test by digit cancellation; Five Digit Test; Digit Span subtest, Track Testing, and Protocol for Early Identification of Reading Problems. Risk for difficulty in executive function was presented by 18/37 of the participants that completed the pre-assessment protocol and these were selected for the intervention program. Results: There was a reliable improvement in the components of executive function inhibition, working memory and alternation, for some children and in rhyme identification tasks, phoneme production, and phonological working memory, although the program does not focus on its development. Conclusion: The program we elaborated demonstrated applicability and can be used by educational speech therapists, school psychologists and educators as a scientific evidence-based intervention tool to support the development of executive functions in second-tier RTI programs.
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF METRONIDAZOLE AND RIFAXIMIN IN PATIENTS WITH HEPATIC ENCEPHALOPATHY

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a complex neuropsychiatric syndrome due to liver brokenness, especially in patients with cirrhosis or intense liver failure. The study's main objective is to find the comparative effectiveness of metronidazole and rifaximin in patients with hepatic encephalopathy. This prospective comparative study was conducted at Islamabad Medical and Dental College, Islamabad, over six months, from January 2023 to July 2023. The study population consisted of adult patients (age 18 years and above) diagnosed with hepatic encephalopathy admitted to the hospital's medical wards or gastroenterology department during the study duration. Patients with a confirmed diagnosis of hepatic encephalopathy based on clinical and laboratory criteria were included in the study. Out of the 150 patients enrolled in the study, 75 were randomized to receive metronidazole (Group A) and 75 to receive rifaximin (Group B). All patients completed the 10-day treatment period, and there were no dropouts during the study. In Group A (metronidazole), 60 out of 75 patients (80%) showed improvement in hepatic encephalopathy based on the West Haven criteria. In Group B (rifaximin), 70 out of 75 patients (93.33%) showed improvement in hepatic encephalopathy based on the West Haven criteria. The improvement in hepatic encephalopathy was significantly higher in Group B (rifaximin) compared to Group A (metronidazole) (p < 0.05).
Research on rheological properties and phenomenological theory-based constitutive model of magnetorheological shear thickening fluids

This paper investigates the rheological properties of magnetorheological shear thickening fluid (MRSTF) and proposes a phenomenological theory-based constitutive model. Multiple samples with varying mass fractions and particle sizes were prepared. Then, the rheological properties were experimentally studied, including the effects of silicon particle size and concentration, carbonyl iron powder concentration and magnetic field on rheological properties. Next, the sedimentation stability experiment was also carried out by the static observation method. Finally, based on phenomenological theory, a constitutive model called the M-S model was derived through geometric transformation of shear stress curves. The results show that there is an inhibitory relationship between magnetorheological and shear thickening effect, and the correlation between composition and rheological properties was established, which can provide guidance for preparation of MRSTF with required properties. It also shows that the MRSTF under specific preparation scheme could effectively avoid sedimentation, and its performance is clearly superior to traditional materials in terms of sedimentation resistance and damping adjustment. The accuracy and universality of the proposed model are fully verified by fitting shear stress curves and calculating the goodness of fit values. All these investigations can offer an effective guidance for further study of MRSTF in controllable damping equipment development.