Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Compact laser pulser for TOF SPAD rangefinder application

Fundamental mode, ~100 ps, ~40 W optical pulses are demonstrated from a laser diode with a strongly asymmetric waveguide structure and a relatively thick (~0.1 μm) active layer driven with ~15 A, ~1.5 ns injection current pulses produced by a simple avalanche transistor circuit. Using this compact laser source, pulsed time-of-flight laser rangefinding measurements were performed utilizing a single-photon avalanche detector. The results show the feasibility of a very compact overall device with centimeter-level distance measurement precision and walk-error compensated accuracy to passive targets at tens to hundreds of meters in a measurement time of about ten milliseconds.
Exploring the potential of multi-source unsupervised domain adaptation in crop mapping using Sentinel-2 images

ABSTRACT Accurate crop mapping is critical for agricultural applications. Although studies have combined deep learning methods and time-series satellite images to crop classification with satisfactory results, most of them focused on supervised methods, which are usually applicable to a specific domain and lose their validity in new domains. Unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) was proposed to solve this limitation by transferring knowledge from source domains with labeled samples to target domains with unlabeled samples. Particularly, multi-source UDA (MUDA) is a powerful extension that leverages knowledge from multiple source domains and can achieve better results in the target domain than single-source UDA (SUDA). However, few studies have explored the potential of MUDA for crop mapping. This study proposed a MUDA crop classification model (MUCCM) for unsupervised crop mapping. Specifically, 11 states in the U.S. were selected as the multi-source domains, and three provinces in Northeast China were selected as individual target domains. Ten spectral bands and five vegetation indexes were collected at a 10-day interval from time-series Sentinel-2 images to build the MUCCM. Subsequently, a SUDA model Domain Adversarial Neural Network (DANN) and two direct transfer methods, namely, the deep neural network and random forest, were constructed and compared with the MUCCM. The results indicated that the UDA models outperformed the direct transfer models significantly, and the MUCCM was superior to the DANN, achieving the highest classification accuracy (OA>85%) in each target domain. In addition, the MUCCM also performed best in in-season forecasting and crop mapping. This study is the first to apply a MUDA to crop classification and demonstrate a novel, effective solution for high-performance crop mapping in regions without labeled samples.
Impact of heat waves on egg survival and biological performance across life stages in the Asian corn borer

One of the many extreme events as a result of climate change is the frequent appearance of extraordinarily daily high temperatures that can directly drive an insect's adaptive response. Insects have complex life cycles that may uncouple temperature's effects in one stage from the physiology in the next. In this study we focused on the Asian corn borer (ACB), Ostrinia furnacalis (Guenée) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), one of the most important pests of maize (corn) in Asia, investigated the consequences of eggs exposed to ecologically relevant heat shock regimes, simulating heat waves at extreme high temperature. This consisted of five 90‐min heat treatments separated by two degrees that ranged from 37 to 45°C for three consecutive days compared to a constant temperature of 25°C. Temperature that triggered mortality was between 39 and 41°C. Egg hatching significantly declined when temperature was 41°C or higher. There was no egg hatching at 45°C. Developmental times were significantly prolonged and the larval growth rate became slower in treatments of 41 and 43°C. There were no significant differences in pupal mass, fecundity, and sex ratio among treatments. Life table parameters showed significant adverse effects at treatments of 41 and 43°C. Depending on the fitness response of the ACB, environmental heat waves can be classified into three categories based on temperature criteria, i.e., adaptable (35–39°C), critical (39–45°C), and fatal (≥45°C). The findings of the present study will serve as an important reference for forecasting the population dynamics of the ACB.
Influence of a sodium-saccharin sweetener on the rumen content and rumen epithelium microbiota in dairy cattle during heat stress

Abstract The effect of a saccharin-based artificial sweetener was tested on animal performance measures and on the microbial communities associated with the rumen content and with the rumen epithelium during heat stress. Ten cannulated Holstein-Friesian milking dairy cattle were supplemented with 2 g of saccharin-based sweetener per day, top-dressed into individual feeders for a 7-day adaptation period followed by a 14-day heat stress period. A control group of ten additional cows subjected to the same environmental conditions but not supplemented with sweetener were included for comparison. 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing was performed on rumen content and rumen epithelium samples from all animals, and comparisons of rumen content microbiota and rumen epithelial microbiota were made between supplemented and control populations. Supplementation of the saccharin-based sweetener did not affect the rumen content microbiota, but differences in the rumen epithelial microbiota beta-diversity (PERMANOVA, P = 0.003, R2 = 0.12) and alpha-diversity (Chao species richness, P = 0.06 and Shannon diversity, P = 0.034) were detected between the supplemented and control experimental groups. Despite the changes detected in the microbial community, animal performance metrics including feed intake, milk yield, and short-chain fatty acid (acetic, propionic, and butyric acid) concentrations were not different between experimental groups. Thus, under the conditions applied, supplementation with a saccharin-based sweetener does not appear to affect animal performance under heat stress. Additionally, we detected differences in the rumen epithelial microbiota due to heat stress when comparing initial, prestressed microbial communities to the communities after heat stress. Importantly, the changes occurring in the rumen epithelial microbiota may have implications on barrier integrity, oxygen scavenging, and urease activity. This research adds insight into the impact of saccharin-based sweeteners on the rumen microbiota and the responsivity of the rumen epithelial microbiota to different stimuli, providing novel hypotheses for future research.
Multi-sensor image fusion for pansharpening in remote sensing

The main objective of this article is quality assessment of pansharpening fusion methods. Pansharpening is a fusion technique to combine a panchromatic image of high spatial resolution with multispectral image data of lower spatial resolution to obtain a high-resolution multispectral image. During this process, the significant spectral characteristics of the multispectral data should be preserved. For images acquired at the same time by the same sensor, most algorithms for pansharpening provide very good results, i.e. they retain the high spatial resolution of the panchromatic image and the spectral information from the multispectral image (single-sensor, single-date fusion). For multi-date, multi-sensor fusion, however, these techniques can still create spatially enhanced data sets, but usually at the expense of the spectral consistency. In this study, eight different methods are compared for image fusion to show their ability to fuse multitemporal and multi-sensor image data. A series of eight multitemporal multispectral remote sensing images is fused with a panchromatic Ikonos image and a TerraSAR-X radar image as a panchromatic substitute. The fused images are visually and quantitatively analysed for spectral characteristics preservation and spatial improvement. It can not only be proven that the Ehlers fusion is superior to all other tested algorithms, it is also the only method that guarantees excellent colour preservation for all dates and sensors used in this study.
Impact fracture characteristics of multilayer laminate based on near-alpha titanium alloy

Titanium near-alpha alloy Ti-6Аl-2Zr-1. 2Мо-1.3V was used to manufacture a multilayer laminate by diffusion bonding. The laminate consisted of thirteen sheets stacked relative to each other in a way that they all had common rolling direction. The influence of cutting orientation of specimens on the mechanical behavior under impact loading of the laminate was determined. The results of quantitative assessment of the impact fracture characteristics for the studied specimens was analyzed. The transverse specimens had a higher impact strength value in comparison to the longitudinal specimens. The results of fractographic studies showed the presence of minor delaminations on the surfaces of fractured specimens.
Implications of Post-Translational Modifications in Autoimmunity with Emphasis on Citrullination, Homocitrullination and Acetylation for the Pathogenesis, Diagnosis and Prognosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) influence cellular processes and consequently, their dysregulation is related to the etiologies of numerous diseases. It is widely known that a variety of autoimmune responses in human diseases depend on PTMs of self-proteins. In this review we summarize the latest findings about the role of PTMs in the generation of autoimmunity and, specifically, we address the most relevant PTMs in rheumatic diseases that occur in synovial tissue. Citrullination, homocitrullination (carbamylation) and acetylation are responsible for the generation of Anti-Modified Protein/Peptide Antibodies (AMPAs family), autoantibodies which have been implicated in the etiopathogenesis, diagnosis and prognosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Synthetic peptides provide complete control over the exact epitopes presented as well as the specific positions in their sequence where post-translationally modified amino acids are located and are key to advancing the detection of serological RA biomarkers that could be useful to stratify RA patients in order to pursue a personalized rheumatology. In this review we specifically address the latest findings regarding synthetic peptides post-translationally modified for the specific detection of autoantibodies in RA patients.
Identifikasi Varietas Jagung Mutiara Berdasarkan Data Citra Digital Menggunakan Algoritma K-Nearest Neighbor

Corn is one of the most important carbohydrate-producing food crops in Indonesia besides rice and wheat. Every year Indonesia can produce a very large amount of corn. It is proven that in 2017 Indonesia can produce 22.59 million tons of corn. This number is very meaningful for the economy in Indonesia. One of the most widely grown corns in Indonesia is pearl corn. However, it is quite difficult to distinguish each variety of corn because the shape and color tend to be the same. One way to find out a corn variety is by utilizing the image processing data for each corn. One of the classification methods used is K-NN. Each corn image is taken the value of area, parimeter, width, length, metric and eccentricity using the Matlab application to determine the shape of a corn, then 250 data are collected. The data that has been collected is divided based on a ratio of 70% training data 30% test data and applying k values, namely 3, 5 and 7. The classification process uses the cloud-based Rstudio application. The results obtained, it is known that the test at k = 3 gets the highest accuracy value compared to other k values. The accuracy obtained is 93.24% followed by recall 91.89% precision 94.44% specificity 94.59% error rate 6.76% and f-measure 0.9315.
Bíbí í Berlín uppfrædd og fermd

Bíbí hét fullu nafni Bjargey Kristjánsdóttir (1927–1999) og var kennd við kotbæ foreldra sinna, Berlín, sem var rétt utan við Hofsós. Hún þótti bráðgert barn en veiktist á fyrsta ári og var í kjölfarið stimpluð sem „fáviti“ af fjölskyldu sinni og sveitungum. Bíbí var fædd á þeim tíma sem fötluðu fólki og fjölskyldum þess stóð engin opinber þjónusta til boða. Hún naut engrar formlegrar skólagöngu, var hornreka á heimilinu framan af og var falin fyrir gestum og gangandi. Bíbí skildi eftir sig umfangsmikla sjálfsævisögu sem hún skrifaði í einrúmi, hélt leyndri fyrir fjölskyldu sinni og samferðafólki og fáir vissu um tilvist hennar. Sjálfsævisaga Bíbíar ber vott um góða greind og innsæi í líf sitt og aðstæður og kemur að flestum tímabilum í lífshlaupi hennar. Markmið greinarinnar sem hér fer á eftir er tvíþætt. Annars vegar að varpa ljósi á barnæsku Bíbíar, uppfræðslu hennar og fermingu eins og birtist í sjálfsævisögunni, en þó að hún hafi ekki gengið í skóla fékk hún kennslu heima fyrir og lærði meðal annars að lesa og skrifa. Hins vegar er rýnt í margþættar opinberar heimildir sem til eru um barnæsku Bíbíar með það að markmiði að afhjúpa söguleg viðhorf sem enn þann dag í dag setja mark sitt á skólagöngu og tilveru fatlaðs fólks. Með þeim hætti teljum við að greina megi þau menningarlegu viðhorf sem finna mátti á þeim tíma sem Bíbí var að alast upp og um leið spegla samtímann í sögu hennar. Sjálfsævisaga Bíbíar er einstök heimild sem stendur framarlega í flokki íslenskra sjálfsbókmennta þar sem hún er til þess fallin að auka þekkingu á stöðu þeirra sem voru á jaðri samfélagsins, ekki síst fatlaðra kvenna og stúlkna.
Nanoscratch tester for thin film mechanical properties characterization

Quantitative instrumentation has become a necessity for adequate evaluation of material properties, particularly scratch resistance and adhesion at the film-substrate interface. The nanoscratch tester is a new instrument that combines the features of both the classical stylus scratch test (normal force range) and the scanning force microscope (SFM) (short sliding distances), allowing scratch lengths of up to 10 mm. Tangential force and penetration depth are measured during the scratching process. For high-resolution inspection of the scratched area, a SFM is integrated into the system. Typical uses are presented for a range of applications, particularly on curved sample geometries and the use of scratch mapping.
An experimental study on the ZnO/sapphire layered surface acoustic wave device

In this study, ZnO thin films with different thicknesses were deposited on C-plane sapphire substrates by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering. Properties of interdigital transducer/ZnO/sapphire layered surface acoustic wave device including surface wave velocity, electromechanical coupling coefficient, and propagatiion loss were measured and discussed. Combining the effective permittivity approach and the coupling-of-modes (COM) model, the dispersion characteristics and frequency responses of the ZnO/sapphire layered structure were simulated. By substituting the measured parameters into the COM model, the simulated frequency response has shown good agreement with the experimental results.
Outcomes of Heart Transplantation Using a Temperature-controlled Hypothermic Storage System

Background. The SherpaPak Cardiac Transport System is a novel technology that provides stable, optimal hypothermic control during organ transport. The objectives of this study were to describe our experience using the SherpaPak system and to compare outcomes after heart transplantation after using SherpaPak versus the conventional static cold storage method (non-SherpaPak). Methods. From 2018 to June 2021, 62 SherpaPak and 186 non-SherpaPak patients underwent primary heart transplantation at Stanford University with follow-up through May 2022. The primary end point was all-cause mortality, and secondary end points were postoperative complications. Optimal variable ratio matching, cox proportional hazards regression model, and Kaplan-Meier survival analyses were performed. Results. Before matching, the SherpaPak versus non-SherpaPak patients were older and received organs with significantly longer total allograft ischemic time. After matching, SherpaPak patients required fewer units of blood product for perioperative transfusion compared with non-SherpaPak patients but otherwise had similar postoperative outcomes such as hospital length of stay, primary graft dysfunction, inotrope score, mechanical circulatory support use, cerebral vascular accident, myocardial infarction, respiratory failure, new renal failure requiring dialysis, postoperative bleeding or tamponade requiring reoperation, infection, and survival. Conclusions. In conclusion, this is one of the first retrospective comparison studies that evaluated the outcomes of heart transplantation using organs preserved and transported via the SherpaPak system. Given the excellent outcomes, despite prolonged total allograft ischemic time, it may be reasonable to adopt the SherpaPak system to accept organs from a remote location to further expand the donor pool.
A generic multiplication in quantized Schur algebras

We define a generic multiplication in quantized Schur algebras and thus obtain a new algebra structure in the Schur algebras. We prove that via a modified version of the map from quantum groups to quantized Schur algebras, defined in (A. A. Beilinson, G. Lusztig and R. MacPherson, A geometric setting for the quantum deformation of GL(n), Duke Math. J. 61 (1990), 655-677), a subalgebra of this new algebra is a quotient of the monoid algebra in Hall algebras studied in (M. Reineke, Generic extensions and multiplicative bases of quantum groups at q = 0, Represent. Theory 5 (2001), 147-163). We also prove that the subalgebra of the new algebra gives a geometric realization of a positive part of 0-Schur algebras, defined in (S. Donkin, The q-Schur Algebra, London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series 253. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998, x + 179. ISBN: 0-521-64558-1.). Consequently, we obtain a multiplicative basis for the positive part of 0-Schur algebras.
XM-1: the high-resolution soft x-ray microscope at the Advanced Light Source

The XM-1 soft x-ray microscope utilizes bending-magnet radiation from the Advanced Light Source in Berkeley, CA. This radiation is collected by a `large' (9 mm diameter) fresnel condenser zone plate which projects light through a pinhole and illuminates the sample. The radiation transmitted through the sample is then focused and magnified by a high-precision objective micro zone plate and recorded by a soft x-ray CCD camera. Our condenser zone plate and pinhole combination serves ad our adjustable monochromator for selecting the desired photon energy, giving us a (lambda) /(Delta) (lambda) of 700. This moderate spectral resolution allows for spectroscopic imaging with XM-1, including samples of magnetic materials with contrast provided by magnetic circular dichroism. Our user-friendly software programs allow for frequent utilization of complex image processing techniques.
On Bayesian analysis, Bayesian decision theory and the sample size problem

Lindley (1997) has written an interesting discussion piece relating the purely Bayesian approach to sample size determination to the approach associated with the average length criterion (ALC) proposed by Joseph et al. (1 995a, b). Reconciliation of two different methods has always been a difficult, and quite often not a very rewarding, task, since differences in starting points, concepts, designs and expectations mean that only some steps can be matched. However, Lindley (1997) should be congratulated for succeeding in finding most of these steps.
GRB 990123: reverse and internal shock flashes and late afterglow behaviour

The prompt (t≲0.16 d) light curve and initial 9th-magnitude optical flash from GRB 990123 can be attributed to a reverse external shock, or possibly to internal shocks. We discuss the time decay laws and spectral slopes expected under various dynamical regimes, and the constraints imposed on the model by the observations, arguing that they provide strongly suggestive evidence for features beyond those in the simple standard model. The longer term afterglow behaviour is discussed in the context of the forward shock, and it is argued that, if the steepening after 3 d is due to a jet geometry, this is likely to be a result of jet-edge effects, rather than sideways expansion.
Genome-wide association study of birth weight and pre-weaning body weight of crossbred pigs

In piggery, birth weight and body weight remains most vital economic trait as they directly influence on the production performance of the farm. Implementing the genomic selection would pay way for rapid genetic gain along with increased accuracy than conventional breeding. Prior to genomic selection, genome wide association study (GWAS) has to be conducted in order to find informative SNPs associated with the traits of interest in a given population. Under this study 96 crossbred pigs were genotyped using double digest genotype by sequencing (GBS) technique using Hiseq platform. Raw FASTQ data were processed using dDOCENT Pipeline on Reference based method and variants were called using Free Bayes (version 1.1.0-3). Using Plink (v1.09b), variants having MAF>0.01, HWE<0.001 and genotyping rate >80% were filtered out and 20,467 SNPs were retained after quality control, for ascertaining GWAS in 96 pigs. Before conducting association studies, the data were adjusted for significant nongenetic factors affecting the traits of interest. GWAS was performed using Plink software (v1.9b) identified 9, 11, 12, 23, 28, 24, 30, 33 and 42 SNPs significantly (adjusted P<0.001) associated with birth weight, body weight at weekly interval from 1st week to 8th week, respectively. A large proportion of significant (adjusted P<0.001) SNPs were located on SSC10, SSC6, SSC13, SSC8 and SSC1. One genome wide significant SNP and four genome wide suggestive SNPs were identified. Two common SNPs affecting all body weight at different weeks were located on SSC5:40197442 and SSC13:140562 base pair position. This study helps to identify the genome wide scattered significant SNPs associated with traits of interest which could be used for genomic selection, but further validation studies of these loci in larger population are recommended.
Lossless adaptive differential coding of images

Directly encoding the image pixel values using noiseless coding techniques such as Lempel- Ziv-Welch codes or arithmetic codes is inefficient as it fails to capitalize on the normally abundant correlation among neighboring pixels. A simple modification that exploits the pixels correlation as in the Delta Pulse Code Modulation scheme can improve the compression efficiency. Motivated by the `adaptive coding by block classification' idea of Chen and Smith, we take into account the pixels non-stationary nature and present a more sophisticated lossless adaptive differential image coding system that can further improve the compression efficiency.
Position Control of a Rehabilitation Robotic Joint Based on Neuron Proportion-Integral and Feedforward Control

The joint of the upper limb rehabilitation robot, which is designed and built in our lab, is driven by pneumatic muscles (PMs) in an opposing pair configuration. Each PM drives the robotic joint through a steel wire with a flexible sleeve and a tension device, which causes delay and various frictions as disturbances to the robotic joint system. These factors make the rehabilitation robotic joint very complex to model and control. Especially in position control, the overshoot is difficult to deal with when the directions of the friction forces are changing. The main purpose of this paper is to enhance the position control performance of the robotic joint by neuron PI and feedforward. Neuron PI control has a powerful capability of learning, adaptation, and tackling nonlinearity, and feedforward control demonstrates good performance in dealing with frictions, which cause overshoot. The results of the experiments indicate that the proposed controller, which combines neuron PI and feedforward, can enhance the performance in position control of the robotic joint, especially on dealing with overshoot.