Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Lane Changing in Heterogeneous Traffic Flow

The effects of lane changing on the characteristics of traffic flow have not been investigated sufficiently. In this paper, we use a driving model based on finite-state-machine to investigate the effects of lane changing on macroscopic characteristics of traffic flow. In homogenous traffic, the effects of lane changing are not significant. However, in heterogeneous traffic composed of vehicles with different maximum speed, the flux in the low to middle density increase if lane changing is permitted. Furthermore, in heterogeneous traffic where vehicles only have difference in normal acceleration, lane changing can’t increase the flux significantly. In conclusion, the effects of lane changing on traffic are tightly related to both the difference of vehicles and the density of traffic.
Single energy CT-based mass density and relative stopping power estimation for proton therapy using deep learning method

Background The number of patients undergoing proton therapy has increased in recent years. Current treatment planning systems (TPS) calculate dose maps using three-dimensional (3D) maps of relative stopping power (RSP) and mass density. The patient-specific maps of RSP and mass density were obtained by translating the CT number (HU) acquired using single-energy computed tomography (SECT) with appropriate conversions and coefficients. The proton dose calculation uncertainty of this approach is 2.5%-3.5% plus 1 mm margin. SECT is the major clinical modality for proton therapy treatment planning. It would be intriguing to enhance proton dose calculation accuracy using a deep learning (DL) approach centered on SECT. Objectives The purpose of this work is to develop a deep learning method to generate mass density and relative stopping power (RSP) maps based on clinical single-energy CT (SECT) data for proton dose calculation in proton therapy treatment. Methods Artificial neural networks (ANN), fully convolutional neural networks (FCNN), and residual neural networks (ResNet) were used to learn the correlation between voxel-specific mass density, RSP, and SECT CT number (HU). A stoichiometric calibration method based on SECT data and an empirical model based on dual-energy CT (DECT) images were chosen as reference models to evaluate the performance of deep learning neural networks. SECT images of a CIRS 062M electron density phantom were used as the training dataset for deep learning models. CIRS anthropomorphic M701 and M702 phantoms were used to test the performance of deep learning models. Results For M701, the mean absolute percentage errors (MAPE) of the mass density map by FCNN are 0.39%, 0.92%, 0.68%, 0.92%, and 1.57% on the brain, spinal cord, soft tissue, bone, and lung, respectively, whereas with the SECT stoichiometric method, they are 0.99%, 2.34%, 1.87%, 2.90%, and 12.96%. For RSP maps, the MAPE of FCNN on M701 are 0.85%, 2.32%, 0.75%, 1.22%, and 1.25%, whereas with the SECT reference model, they are 0.95%, 2.61%, 2.08%, 7.74%, and 8.62%. Conclusion The results show that deep learning neural networks have the potential to generate accurate voxel-specific material property information, which can be used to improve the accuracy of proton dose calculation. Advances in knowledge Deep learning-based frameworks are proposed to estimate material mass density and RSP from SECT with improved accuracy compared with conventional methods.
New Step-Up DC/DC Converter With Ripple-Free Input Current

This article introduces a new single-switch high-voltage-gain dc/dc converter with soft-switching performance for renewable energy applications. By using an auxiliary circuit, zero input current ripple is achieved that significantly reduces the size of the input inductor compared with the conventional converter. Therefore, the inductor equivalent series resistance (ESR) will be significantly lower for improving power efficiency. In this converter, a coupled inductor (CI) along with a voltage multiplier circuit are used to achieve high voltage gains. While achieving high voltage gains, the maximum voltage stress across the single power switch is mitigated by means of a simple regenerative clamp circuit. A resonant tank that absorbs the leakage inductance of the CI is adopted to achieve soft switching and alleviate reverse-recovery issues of the converter diodes. In this article, the operating principle of the suggested topology and analysis for voltage gain, voltage stress, and efficiency have been presented. A comparison against the latest counterparts is thoroughly discussed. Finally, the theoretical analysis is validated by a 300-W (25 V/400 V) sample prototype.
A microencapsulation approach to design microbial seed coatings to boost wheat seed germination and seedling growth under salt stress

Introduction Salt stress in seed germination and early seedling growth is the greatest cause of crop loss in saline-alkali soils. Microbial seed coating is an effective way to promote plant growth and salt resistance, but these coatings suffer from poor seed adhesion and low survival rates under typical storage conditions. Methods In this study, the marine bacterium Pontibacter actiniarum DSM 19842 from kelp was isolated and microencapsulated with calcium alginate using the emulsion and internal gelation method. Results Compared to unencapsulated seeds, the spherical microcapsules demonstrated a bacterial encapsulation rate of 65.4% and survival rate increased by 22.4% at 25°C for 60 days. Under salt stress conditions, the seed germination percentage of microcapsule-embedded bacteria (M-Embed) was 90%, which was significantly increased by 17% compared to the germination percentage (73%) of no coating treatment (CK). Root growth was also significantly increased by coating with M-Embed. Chlorophyll, peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, catalase, proline, hydrogen peroxide and malondialdehyde levels indicated that the M-Embed had the best positive effects under salt stress conditions. Discussion Therefore, embedding microorganisms in suitable capsule materials provides effective protection for the survival of the microorganism and this seed coating can alleviate salt stress in wheat. This process will benefit the development of sustainable agriculture in coastal regions with saline soils.
17. LOWER TO MIDDLE EOCENE SEQUENCES OF THE NEW JERSEY COASTAL PLAIN AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE FOR GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE 1

Boreholes from Island Beach, Allaire, Atlantic City, and Mays Landing, NJ provide an excellent chronology of lower to middle Eocene passive margin sequences and allow analysis of long-term sea-level changes and sedimentation patterns. These New Jersey sequences are tied directly to the geomagnetic polarity time scale through magnetostratigraphy. Integrated stratigra phy (including magnetostratigraphy, lithostratigraphy, plankton biostratigraphy, and benthic foraminiferal biofacies studies) reveals that these sections contain a relatively continuous record of lowermost Eocene to middle Eocene deposition interrupted by short hiatuses. A sequence boundary at the base of the section spans the Paleocene/Eocene boundary, representing a hiatus from 55.8 to 54.7 Ma. A second sequence boundary is associated with a hiatus from 54.0 to 53.4 Ma. A third sequence boundary is associated with a hiatus from 52.9 to 52.3 Ma. Two major unconformities occur near the lower/middle Eocene boundary at all three boreholes. The first represents a hiatus between 50.9 and ~50.5 to 49.9 Ma; the second, between ~49.6 and 48.6 Ma. Early Eocene water depths inferred from benthic foraminiferal biofacies analysis varied from 150 to 200 m and reached their maximum depth between 53.4 and 53.2 Ma. In the middle Eocene, the sedimentation record is less continuous with hiatuses from 48.3 to 47.9 Ma, 46.9 to 44.5 Ma, and 43.4 to ~41.2 Ma. A major lithofacies change from carbonate dominated to siliciclastic dominated occurred by 41.2 Ma. Of the 14 sequences inferred by Exxon for the early to middle Eocene, nine are resolvable on the New Jersey Margin and the remaining five appear to be combined with others. Thus the New Jersey record is consistent with the Exxon record for the early to middle Eocene, although the New Jersey record is better dated. Comparison of the record of sedimentation with the global δ18O record shows interesting parallels. It is unlikely that early Eocene sequence boundaries are the result of glacioeustasy because hiatuses from the New Jersey Coastal Plain in this interval do not match increases in the δ18O record. In the late middle Eocene, concomitant increases in the planktonic and benthic δ18O records coincide with the timing of hiatuses on the New Jersey Coastal Plain. Increases in the δ18O records between 43 and 41 Ma coincide with a New Jersey hiatus and a corresponding change in sedimentation type from carbonate dominated to siliciclastic dominated. We conclude that these represent evidence of the first Antarctic ice cap and the beginning of the “Icehouse” world.
Synergistic cytotoxicity of fludarabine, clofarabine, busulfan, vorinostat and olaparib in AML cells

Combinations of nucleoside analog(s) and DNA alkylating agent(s) are used for cancer treatment as components of pre-transplant regimens used in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Their efficacies are enhanced by combining drugs with different mechanisms of action, which also allows a reduction in the individual drug dosages and thus potentially in toxicity to the patient. We hypothesized that addition of SAHA and olaparib, an HDAC- and a PARP-inhibitor, respectively, to the established combination of fludarabine, clofarabine and busulfan would enhance AML cell cytotoxicity. Exposure of the AML cell lines KBM3/Bu2506, MV4-11, MOLM14 and OCI-AML3 to the 5-drug combination resulted in synergistic cytotoxicity with combination indexes < 1. Increased protein acetylation and decreased poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation were observed, as expected. Activation of apoptosis was suggested by cleavage of Caspase 3 and PARP1, DNA fragmentation, increased reactive oxygen species, and decreased mitochondrial membrane potential. The reduction in poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation was independent of caspase activation. Several proteins involved in DNA damage response and repair were downregulated, which may be contributing factors for the observed synergism. The increased phosphorylation of DNAPKcs suggests inhibition of its kinase activity and diminution of its role in DNA repair. A similar synergism was observed in patient-derived cell samples. These findings will be important in designing clinical trials using these drug combinations as pre-transplant conditioning regimens for AML patients.
Epidemiology, Molecular Pathogenesis, Immuno-Pathogenesis, Immune Escape Mechanisms and Vaccine Evaluation for HPV-Associated Carcinogenesis

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is implicated in over 90% of cervical cancer cases, with factors like regional variability, HPV genotype, the population studied, HPV vaccination status, and anatomical sample collection location influencing the prevalence and pathology of HPV-induced cancer. HPV-16 and -18 are mainly responsible for the progression of several cancers, including cervix, anus, vagina, penis, vulva, and oropharynx. The oncogenic ability of HPV is not only sufficient for the progression of malignancy, but also for other tumor-generating steps required for the production of invasive cancer, such as coinfection with other viruses, lifestyle factors such as high parity, smoking, tobacco chewing, use of contraceptives for a long time, and immune responses such as stimulation of chronic stromal inflammation and immune deviation in the tumor microenvironment. Viral evasion from immunosurveillance also supports viral persistence, and virus-like particle-based prophylactic vaccines have been licensed, which are effective against high-risk HPV types. In addition, vaccination awareness programs and preventive strategies could help reduce the rate and incidence of HPV infection. In this review, we emphasize HPV infection and its role in cancer progression, molecular and immunopathogenesis, host immune response, immune evasion by HPV, vaccination, and preventive schemes battling HPV infection and HPV-related cancers.
MUID: Detecting Sensitive User Inputs in Miniapp Ecosystems

In recent years, the rise of miniapps, lightweight applications based on WebView, has become a prominent trend in mobile app development. This trend has rapidly expanded on popular social platforms like WeChat, TikTok, Grab, and even Snapchat. In these miniapps, user data is pivotal for providing personalized services and improving user experience. However, there are still shortcomings in identifying the source of sensitive data in miniapps. This paper introduces MUID, an innovative method for detecting user input data in miniapps. MUID integrates an engine that can dynamically test miniapps to overcome the challenges in WebView page extraction, uses a hybrid analysis approach to identify sensitive components, and infers the type of information collected based on contextual hint words. In the evaluation of MUID across 30 popular miniapps randomly selected on WeChat, we demonstrated its high dynamic testing efficiency and its capability to recognize components with a recall rate of 95.74% and a precision rate of 81.32%. The overall precision of MUID is 78.31%, and the recall rate is 92.19%, demonstrating the effectiveness of MUID in conducting security and privacy analyses.
Impact of land use on the distribution of toxic metals in surface soils in Birjand city, Iran

Accumulation of toxic metals in the soil is one of the most important issues and treats plants, animals and humans. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of land use on the distribution of Pb, Cu, Ni, Cr, Zn and Cd in the surface soils of Birjand city (Amir Abad Area). Dairy farm, agriculture, roads, residentialroad, residential-agriculture and educational centre land use were studied. The samples were taken from depth of 0-20 cm at 16 stations, as regular grid soil sampling. After digestion with perchloric acid and nitric acid, the concentration of toxic elements was measured using atomic absorption. The results show the highest concentration of Pb (166.64 mg/kg) is found in the station number 10 in residential–road land use. The highest zinc concentration (346.50mg/kg) is shown at the station number 1 in dairy farm land use. The maximum concentration of cadmium (8.57 mg/kg) was at station number 10 with residential–road land use. The mean concentration of cadmium element is greater than the threshold values. While mean concentrations of other elements when compared to other researches shows high values, indicating that the soil is contaminating and in the near future the concentration of toxic metal will be beyond the threshold values. So entry of toxic elements into the human food chain greatly increases. It can suggest, in order to cleanup and reduce the rate of increases toxic elements in the soil and special management and considerations may apply.
Climatology in support of climate risk management

Climate risk management has emerged over the last decade as a distinct area of activity within the wider field of climatology. Its focus is on integrating climate and non-climate information in order to enhance the decision-making process in a wide range of climate-sensitive sectors of society, the economy and the environment. Given the burgeoning pure and applied climate science literature that addresses a range of climate risks, the purpose of this progress report is to provide an overview of recent developments in the field of climatology that may contribute to the risk assessment component of climate risk management. Data rescue and climate database construction, hurricanes and droughts as examples of extreme climate events and seasonal climate forecasting are focused on in this report and are privileged over other topics because of either their fundamental importance for establishing event probability or scale of societal impact. The review of the literature finds that historical data rescue, climate reconstruction and the compilation of climate data bases has assisted immensely in understanding past climate events and increasing the information base for managing climate risk. Advances in the scientific understanding of the causes and the characterization of hurricanes and droughts stand to benefit the management of these two extreme events while work focused on unravelling the nature of ocean–atmosphere interactions and associated climate anomalies at the seasonal timescale has provided the basis for the possible seasonal forecasting of a range of climate events. The report also acknowledges that despite the potential of climate information to assist with managing climate risk, its uptake by decision makers should not be automatically assumed by the climatological community.
Gruppindelningens och grupparbetets betydelse för attityder och känslor för ämnet matematik

Skolverket forsoker att positivt paverka elevers larande i amnet matematik. Ett satt att astadkomma detta kan vara genom grupparbete. Kvalitativa intervjuer med tolv amneslararstudenter i matematik har i detta arbetet utforts i syfte att undersoka betydelsen av gruppindelningsprocessen, gruppsammansattningen och grupparbetet for kanslor och attityd till amnet matematik. Intervjuerna har visat att studenterna upplevt bade positiva och negativa kanslor i samband med gruppindelningsprocesser, gruppsammansattningar och grupparbete. Ett storre antal av studenterna har en positiv attityd till amnet matematik nu pa hogskolan, an antalet studenter som hade en positiv attityd till amnet matematik nar de gick i gymnasiet. Intervjuerna visade aven att majoriteten av informanterna aldrig upplevt grupparbete i matematik pa gymnasiet. Resultatet stalls sedan i diskussionen mot tidigare forskning till attityd och larande, och en slutsats ar att grupparbete kan vara ett satt att positivt paverka elevers larande i amnet matematik, men att vidare forskning forst ar onskvart.
Pervasive dolomitization with subsequent hydrothermal alteration in the Clarke Lake gas field, Middle Devonian Slave Point Formation, British Columbia, Canada

The Clarke Lake gas field in British Columbia, Canada, is hosted in pervasively dolomitized Middle Devonian carbonates of the Slave Point Formation. The Clarke Lake field consists mostly of pervasive matrix dolomite and some saddle dolomite, the latter varying in volume from about zero in limestones to normally 20–40% (locally up to 80%) in dolostones over any given 10-m (33-ft) core interval. Some of the saddle dolomite is replacive, some is cement, and both varieties are associated with dissolution porosity and recrystallized matrix dolomite. The major objective of this study is to identify the causes and timing of matrix and saddle dolomite formation, specifically, whether these dolomites are hydrothermal. A comprehensive petrographic and geochemical examination indicates that pervasive matrix dolomitization was accomplished by long-distance migration of halite-saturated brines during the Late Devonian to Mississippian. Fluid-inclusion homogenization temperatures suggest about 150 (uncorrected) to 190C (corrected) at the time of matrix dolomitization. These temperatures differ markedly from most published work on the dolomitized Devonian reefs in the Alberta Basin south of the Peace River arch, where pervasive matrix dolomitization was accomplished by advection of slightly modified seawater at temperatures of about 60–80C, and where no hydrothermal influence was ever present. The saddle dolomites at Clarke Lake are not cogenetic with matrix dolomite and are not the product of hydrothermal dolomitization (sensu stricto). Instead, they formed through the hydrothermal alteration of matrix dolomite by way of invasion of a gypsum-saturated brine during periods of extremely high heat flow and regional plate-margin tectonics in the Late Devonian to Mississippian. Fluid-inclusion homogenization temperatures suggest that hydrothermal alteration occurred between 230 (uncorrected) and 267C (corrected), which is significantly higher than the maximum temperature of about 190C attained by the Slave Point Formation during burial. The sources of the halite- and gypsum-saturated brines are Middle Devonian evaporite depositional environments roughly 200 km (124 mi) south and/or east of Clarke Lake, near the Peace River arch.
The influence of environmental risk factors in the development of ALS in the Mediterranean Island of Cyprus

Introduction Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating, uniformly lethal degenerative disease of motor neurons, presenting with relentlessly progressive muscle atrophy and weakness. The etiology of ALS remains unexplained for over 85% of all cases, suggesting that besides the genetic basis of the disease, various environmental factors are implicated in the pathogenesis of ALS. This study aimed to investigate the contribution of known environmental risk factors of ALS in the Cypriot population. Methods We conducted a case–control study with a total of 56 ALS cases and 56 healthy gender/age-matched controls of Cypriot nationality. Demographic, lifestyle characteristics, medical conditions, and environmental exposures were collected through the use of a detailed questionnaire. Statistical analyses using the R programming language examined the association between the above environmental factors and ALS. Results A chi-square test analysis revealed a statistically significant (p = 0.000461) difference in smoking status between the two groups. In addition, univariate logistic regression analysis showed a statistically significant association between ALS cases for head trauma/injury (p = 0.0398) and exposure to chemicals (p = 0.00128), compared to controls. Conclusion This case–control investigation has shed some light on the epidemiological data of ALS in Cyprus, by identifying environmental determinants of ALS, such as smoking, head trauma, and chemical exposure, in the Cypriot population.
Kuntayhtiöiden hallitusten puheenjohtajien poliittinen tausta ja monimuotoisuus

The political background and diversity of MOC chairs Study examines whether the chairs of the board of Finnish municipally owned companies (MOCs) have political backgrounds and what their distribution by gender is. Specifically, the study aims to discover possible differences between the MOCs of the 21 largest Finnish cities (C21) and those owned by the smaller municipalities. By using agency theory, statistical methods, and a dataset of 1012 MOCs and political background of chairs, this study finds support for the hypothesis that the MOCs of C21 cities have less politically connected chairs than the MOCs of the smaller municipalities. 46,6 % have a chair with a political background. While the study discovers the share of female chairs to be rather small (16,7 %), there appears to be no significant difference in diversity between the MOCs of larger and smaller municipalities.