Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Static Map Building Scheme for Vision and Lidar Fusion

Aiming at the limitations of SLAM systems using a single sensor, this paper proposes a vision and LiDAR fusion large scene-building scheme. First, in order to effectively utilize the advantages of the rich color texture of visual sensors and accurate 3D geometric information of LIDAR sensors, visual images and LIDAR point clouds are inputted into the SLAM system for fusion, which improves the accuracy of overall localization and map construction. Secondly, in order to solve the influence of dynamic obstacles on building maps, a dynamic obstacle rejection algorithm based on PointPillars is proposed to reject the obstacles present in SLAM building maps in dynamic scenes. Finally, the visual DBoW2 is used to perform closed-loop detection, and the radar keyframes are aligned to the places where loopbacks occur. This reduces the impact of low accuracy and low recall of the point cloud for closed-loop detection on the accuracy of SLAM construction.
Inverse Electromagnetic Imaging via Time-Reversal Method of Moments

The electromagnetic sensing and imaging has many potential important applications such as localization and identification. Advanced methods need to be developed for fast and accurate electromagnetic image reconstruction, especially when the received electromagnetic signals are corrupted by a large amount of noise and interference. Here we propose such advanced method to tackle this problem through combination of the electromagnetic time reversal method and the Method of Moments (MoM), with the help of reciprocity theorem. First, electromagnetic time reversal method in the frequency domain is used to obtain the approximate electromagnetic image; then the reduced estimated image domain is obtained by thresholding the intensity of the roughly reconstruct image; finally, with the help of electromagnetic reciprocity theorem, the MoM is applied to the reduced image domain to reconstruct the electromagnetic image efficiently. Simulations have been performed for an electromagnetic sensing and imaging metallic cube system with 3 radiating dipole antennas and 28 receiving antennas aligned in the vertical direction to validate our proposed method, and the results are very promising.
Malware Detection Based on Deep Learning

In this article, we delve into the realm of malware detection, We’ve created an advanced deep learning method designed to classify malicious software contained in an executable files. This stands in sharp contrast to traditional malware detection systems that depend on signatures, our method hinges on static detection techniques for discerning between malicious and benign files. We introduce an efficient deep learning technique for the identification of malware. Our proposed method leverages a 1D Convolutional Neural Network (1DCNN) specifically tailored to the characteristics of portable executable files. Empirically, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by comparing it to state-of-the-art methods across three datasets. The experimental results unequivocally show that our approach surpasses several classification models, providing a practical, dependable, and swift means of detecting malware in executable files.
Mini course: Curvature tensors and measures of singular spaces

The following is a slightly extended version of the mini course I gave at the Erwin Schr¨odinger institute in the summer school of the thematic program “Geometry beyond Riemann: Curvature and Rigidity”, organized by Ivan Izmestiev, Athanase Papadopoulos, Marc Troyanov and Sumio Yamada. We show how integral geometric methods, as introduced by Chern, Weyl, Alesker and others, can be used to define very natural curvature quantities associated to certain singular, but tame sets. In the first lecture, we review the background from integral geometry in flat spaces. The main point is the notion of valuation on convex bodies. The second lecture generalizes this notion to smooth manifolds. We introduce the normal cycle of a sufficiently tame set and introduce the notion of smooth valuations and curvature measures. In the third lecture we introduce the intrinsic volumes (also called Lipschitz-Killing curvatures) on Riemannian manifolds. We give two different approaches: the one due to Allendoerfer-Weil, Weyl and Alesker, based on isometric embeddings, and the one due to Chern and Fu-Wannerer based on the Cartan formalism. In the last lecture, we use these results in order to associate certain curvature measures to singular sets, in particular a scalar curvature measure. The classical variational formula for the Einstein-Hilbert action can be generalized to the singular setting and allows to define a distributional Einstein tensor of singular spaces.
The Effectiveness of Medial Branch Blocks and Radiofrequency Neurotomy in Managing Chronic Thoracic Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

heterogeneity of the available studies in terms of their inclusion and exclusion criteria, defining their endpoints and the effectiveness of the procedures. Conclusion: This systematic review and meta-analysis show Level II evidence of medial branch blocks and Level III evidence for radiofrequency neurotomy on a long-term basis in managing chronic thoracic pain.
Impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on Bilateral Trade with China

: The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is China’s most ambitious foreign policy initiative of the century. Through cheap loans and massive investment in infrastructure, it aims to closely tie dozens of countries to the Chinese economy. However, the current literature fails to empirically measure the effects of the BRI on bilateral trade between participating countries and China. This paper uses a database from the College of William & Mary and a two-way fixed effects difference-in-differences design to show that the trade between China and the BRI countries has become more linked thanks to the initiative. In fact, we find that bilateral trade between China and BRI countries has grown up to 8% faster than it has with the non-BRI countries. We follow this finding with a discussion of the results and a few suggestions for future research.
The use of operational ice charts for evaluating passive microwave ice concentration data

Abstract More than 1380 regional Canadian weekly sea‐ice charts for four Canadian regions and 839 hemispheric U.S. weekly sea‐ice charts from 1979 to 1996 are compared with passive microwave sea‐ice concentration estimates using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Team algorithm. Compared with the Canadian regional ice charts, the NASA Team algorithm underestimates the total ice‐covered area by 20.4% to 33.5% during ice melt in the summer and by 7.6% to 43.5% during ice growth in the late fall. The wide range in performance occurs because some Canadian regions such as the western Canadian Arctic are only partly in the marginal sea‐ice zone while the Hudson Bay and the East Coast regions are entirely in the marginal sea‐ice zone, being completely ice free in summer. Compared with the U.S. National Ice Center hemispheric chart series, the average underestimation is 18.6% in summer. During other times of the year the differences are less than 7.8%. The magnitudes of the underestimation during ice melt and ice growth periods with respect to the Canadian regional charts are higher than found in other studies in the literature. The difference in performance of the NASA Team algorithm when compared with the Canadian regional ice charts and hemispheric charts is attributed to: 1) passive microwave data are used in preparing the hemispheric charts so comparison with the hemispheric charts is not independent; 2) the Canadian regional charts are in the marginal ice zone where sea‐ice melt or growth conditions occur over a large percentage of the region and last for several weeks to a month; and 3) the tie points used to calibrate the NASA Team algorithm are tuned to perform best over the hemisphere rather than over individual regions. If the Canadian regional ice charts can be accepted as correct, then these results suggest exercising caution in using passive microwave ice concentration data in the marginal ice zone where ice melt and ice growth conditions are a major component of the sea‐ice regime.
On the Recycling of Random FM Radar Waveforms

Random frequency modulated (RFM) waveforms have been found to possess a number of useful radar properties such as high dimensionality, good spectral containment, and amenability to high-power transmitters. Moreover, RFM waveforms can be optimized according to a desired spectral template and/or to obtain relatively low range sidelobes. Here we examine a way to greatly reduce the need for the optimization/ storage of new waveforms by performing “recycling” of existing waveforms that have already been optimized. It is shown via hardware loopback capture that recycled versions can largely preserve characteristics of the original while still producing sufficiently distinct new waveforms.
Sustained increase in ice discharge from the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica, from 1973 to 2013

We combine measurements of ice velocity from Landsat feature tracking and satellite radar interferometry, and ice thickness from existing compilations to document 41 years of mass flux from the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) of West Antarctica. The total ice discharge has increased by 77% since 1973. Half of the increase occurred between 2003 and 2009. Grounding‐line ice speeds of Pine Island Glacier stabilized between 2009 and 2013, following a decade of rapid acceleration, but that acceleration reached far inland and occurred at a rate faster than predicted by advective processes. Flow speeds across Thwaites Glacier increased rapidly after 2006, following a decade of near‐stability, leading to a 33% increase in flux between 2006 and 2013. Haynes, Smith, Pope, and Kohler Glaciers all accelerated during the entire study period. The sustained increase in ice discharge is a possible indicator of the development of a marine ice sheet instability in this part of Antarctica.
Effect of magnesium fertilizer on sustaining upland agricultural development in Guangxi province.

Plant available Mg in the main upland soils of Guangxi province is quite variable (10.9 to 370.6 mg exchangeable Mg/kg), but soils commonly used for crop production.such as lateritic red earth, latosols and silicosols.often test less than 70 mg exchangeable Mg/kg. This study found a negative correlation between soil exchangeable Mg levels and applied Mg. That is, at high levels of soil Mg, application of Mg fertilizer reduced yields. This is expressed in the following The rainfed upland soils of Guangxi province in south China are subject to high rainfall and heat, as well as an intense climate that has effectively made most agricultural soils nutrient poor. When fertilized, these soils can support a wide variety of high value crops. It is apparent, however, that the future profitability of the region depends on balanced fertilization. This article describes how insufficient soil magnesium (Mg) is limiting crop yield, quality, and use efficiency of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K).
Beat the Heat: Signaling Pathway-Mediated Strategies for Plant Thermotolerance

The frequent high temperatures caused by climate change have a very adverse impact on the growth and development of plants at different growth stages. Almost all cellular processes in plants are highly sensitive to high temperatures, but plants have their unique heat-resistant strategies. The plasma membrane usually senses temperature changes through changes in membrane fluidity. The accumulation of damaged proteins and reactive oxygen species in biofilms also helps calcium ions and thermal sensors cascade signals to transcription factors, thereby resisting high temperatures. There are also misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum and cytoplasm due to heat stress, which act as heat conduction signals. Carbohydrates commonly found in organisms can also serve as signaling molecules and participate in heat stress response. Heat shock transcription factor can effectively regulate the expression of heat-induced genes, producing heat shock proteins to maintain intracellular homeostasis.
An overview of constraint-based path selection algorithms for QoS routing

Constraint-based path selection aims at identifying a path that satisfies a set of quality of service (QoS) constraints. In general, this problem is known to be NP-complete, leading to the proposal of many heuristic algorithms. We provide an overview of these algorithms, focusing on restricted shortest path and multi-constrained path algorithms.
Evaluation of Chronic Postoperative Pain in Hernioplasty Tapp versus Lichtenstein by Residents

The incidence of inguinal hernia throughout life is variable but more prevalent in males. Today there is no superior technique for reducing chronic postoperative pain, which is the greatest morbidity afflicts patients. That is why we carried out a brief comparative analysis, where we evaluated the incidence of chronic pain between conventional versus laparoscopic
Theoretical study of quantum and thermal properties of particles’ bound state in quantum disks

The present study aims to investigate the thermal properties of low-quantum structures (LQS) with a described non-central potential. Additionally, the study investigates the influence of relativistic parameters such as the constituent mass (effective mass) of particles and the effect of thermal properties. The magnitude of distortion of an LQS due to a non-central potential was found to have a profound effect on the system's quantum and thermal properties, which is crucial to understanding the behavior of practical quantum systems in an LQS. This paper studies the critical concepts in the fundamental optimization of mass and thermal properties of interactions in LQS based on canonical operators. It explores and analytically calculates the radial part of the Schrödinger equation at finite temperatures with two intertwined spaces using the normal ordering method in a combination of the Coulomb potential and the distortion potential. We provide analytical expressions for the ground state energy eigenvalues to define the zeroth approximation with the quantum and thermal effect and properties. Results showed that the energy of a system decreases with an increase in temperature and strength of the distortion.
Stirred tank reactor with dual impeller Rushton turbine for application of wastewater treatment - Process optimization and CFD simulation

The treatment of industrial wastewater by economical and efficient methods is being explored to improve treatment efficiency and costs. Wastewater treatment via biological methods to reduce carbonaceous matter is common in the form of an activated sludge process (ASP). In the current work, the aerobic decomposition of waste was carried out in a reactor with constant stirring with a Rushton type turbine. The optimum values of the flow rate of air were obtained for two reactor impeller configurations for better waste degradation. The extent of degradation in the stirred tank reactor was studied for different values of impeller clearances. Two configurations, C1 and C2, were investigated. It was observed that under a continuous air supply for 36 hours, the impeller configuration C2 provided 80% degradation compared to 74.4 % for C1. Increased values of superficial gas velocity (U G ) and impeller speed resulted in decreased degradation due to shear stress on microorganisms for two impeller configurations. The hydrodynamic study confirmed that the impeller configuration C1 required less power consumption than C2 for the same operating condition. The k-epsilon turbulent model and the population balance model were used in combination. The models were validated with the experimental results of the hydrodynamic parameters for the values of operating parameters over a considerable range. The forecasting of mass transfer coefficients from different models was compared with practically determined values for the two configurations of impeller positions in the tank
Indole-3 carbinol on lipid accumulation in Caenorhabditis elegans as a novel therapeutic for Type II Diabetes

Over the past 35 years, an epidemic in diabetes has caused a spike in health and cardiovascular complications worldwide, impacting especially our most vulnerable populations. An accumulation of lipids in cells plays an important role in the development of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D), a chronic condition that affects the way the body processes blood sugar. The pathology of T2D is marked by an increased deposition of lipids with subsequent decreases in insulin sensitivity. This lipid-induced hepatic insulin resistance, however, is difficult to target because the molecular mechanisms regarding the pathogenesis of T2D have remained elusive. Despite this, there is reason to believe that Indole-3 carbinol (I3C),which regulates the expression and activity of enzymes involved in the metabolism and elimination process of organic compounds, may therefore provide a valuable therapeutic strategy against the lipid accumulation associated with T2D. This study investigates the effect of the antioxidant I3C as a prospective novel treatment to reduce lipid accumulation, thus countering the progression of T2D. The purpose of this study was to test if exposing a model organism to varying amounts of I3C would lead to a decrease in lipid levels. Using transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans (Strain LIU1) to model T2D, this study found a correlation between an I3C high diet and decreased lipid accumulation, suggesting that it may be an effective treatment.
Using intensity edges to improve parameter estimation in blind image restoration

In blind image restoration the parameters of the imaging system are unknown, and must be estimated along with the restored image. Assuming that the images are piecewise smooth, the most part of the information needed for the estimation of the degradation parameters is expected to be located across the discontinuity and hence a better estimation of the paper we adopt a fully Bayesian approach which enables the joint MAP estimation of the image field and the ML estimations of the degradation parameters and the MRF hyperparameters. Owing to the presence of an explicit, binary line process, we exploit suitable approximations to greatly reduce the computational cost of the method. In particular, we employ a mixed-annealing algorithm for the estimation of the intensity and the line fields, periodically interrupted for updating the degradation parameters and the hyperparameters, based on the current estimate of the image field. The degradation parameters are updated by solving a least square problem of very small size. To update the hyperparameters we exploit MCMC techniques and saddle point approximations to reduce the computation of expectations to low cost time averages over binary variables only.
Real-time coherence imaging of suspicious breast masses recommended for aspiration or biopsy

Our group previously demonstrated that coherence-based imaging improves the certainty of fluid mass content in breast ultrasound images, and therefore has the potential to decrease unnecessary biopsies. However, this potential was demonstrated with post-processed raw channel data after patient examination. This work is the first to implement real-time short-lag spatial coherence (SLSC) imaging on an FDA-approved clinical ultrasound scanner to investigate a combined B-mode and coherence-based imaging approach to improve the diagnostic capabilities of breast ultrasound imaging. Real-time SLSC imaging was provided through GPU-based SLSC scripts that we developed and installed on our FDA-approved Alpinion ECUBE12R ultrasound scanner. A total of 47 hypoechoic breast masses from 32 patients were examined. First, the board-certified breast radiologists performing the patient exam predicted the mass contents and the BI-RADS category of the mass using real-time clinical B-mode images provided by the scanner. Then, the scanner was switched to present real-time SLSC images of the masses alongside real-time B-mode images, and the radiologist performing the scan repeated the predictions. The inclusion of SLSC images resulted in correct predictions of 100% of complicated cysts as BI-RADS 2 lesions (compared to 50% of complicated cysts being predicted as BI-RADS 2 lesions with only B-mode images). In addition, SLSC correctly identified presence of non-solid content in clusters of cysts, and no change in the BI-RADS category of malignant masses was observed after the inclusion of SLSC imaging. These results demonstrate the real-time potential of SLSC to decrease unnecessary biopsies by correctly identifying complicated cysts as benign fluid lesions.
Applications of spaceborne radar laboratory data to the study of aeolian processes

Aerodynamic roughness (z0) is an important parameter in studies of sand and dust transport, as well as atmospheric circulation models. Aerodynamic roughness is a function of the size and spacing of surface roughness elements and is typically determined at point locations in the field from wind velocity profiles. Because field measurements require complex logistics, z0 values have been obtained for very few localities. If radar can be used to map z0, estimates can be obtained for large areas. In addition, because aerodynamic roughness can change in response to surface processes (e.g., flooding of alluvial surfaces), radar remote sensing could obtain new measurements on short timescales. Both z0 and the radar backscatter coefficient σ0 are dependent on topographic roughness at the submeter scale, and correlation between these two parameters was developed based on radar data obtained from aircraft (AIRSAR). The Spaceborne Radar Laboratory (SRL) afforded the opportunity to test the correlation for data obtained from orbit. SRL data for sites in Death Valley, California; Lunar Lake, Nevada; and Gobabeb, Namibia, were correlated with wind data and compared with previous radar z0 relations. Correlations between σ0 and z0 for L band (λ=24 cm) HV (H, vertically and V, vertically polarized modes) L band HH, and C band (λ=5.6 cm) HV compare favorably with previous studies. Based on these results, maps of z0 values were derived from SRL data for each site, demonstrating the potential to map z0 for large vegetation-free areas from orbit using radar systems.
Promoting antihepatocellular carcinoma activity against human HepG2 cells via pyridine substituted palladium complexes: in vitro evaluation and QSAR studies

Bis(4-(4-nitrobenzyl)pyridine)dichloropalladium(II), [PdCl2L12], bis(2-amino-5-bromopyridine)dichloropalladium(II), [PdCl2L22], bis(2,4-dimethylpyridine)dichloropalladium(II), [PdCl2L32], bis(3,4-dimethylpyridine)dichloropalladium(II), [PdCl2L42] were prepared. The spectroscopic techniques (FT-IR and 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR) were used to characterize the compounds. Theoretical calculations were used to validate the experimental results. The LanL2DZ-based DFT/B3LYP method was used to define the most stable possible molecular structure for the complexes. Potential energy distribution analysis was performed to determine the theoretical vibration bands of the complexes. Molecular electrostatic potential maps, boundary molecular orbitals and Mulliken charge distribution were used to determine the active sites of the molecules. The interaction mechanisms between the complexes and liver cancer protein were investigated via molecular docking. The study on the antiproliferative effects of these complexes on hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2) showed that they are potent candidates for use against this liver cancer cell line.