Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Substrates with Different Dielectric Parameters on Left-Handed Frequency of Left-Handed Materials

Wedge-shaped left-handed materials (LHMs) with split ring resonators and wires structures are fabricated by photolithography and lift-off techniques, and the variation of left-handed frequency induced by substrates with different dielectric parameters is investigated. The Snell refraction experiments of the LHM samples are carried out on an angular resoled microwave spectrometer, and the results indicate that the left-handed frequencies of the LHMs shifted downward from 10.57 GHz to 9.74 GHz when the dielectric parameters of the LHM substrates increase from 3.7 to 4.8. Moreover, the finite difference time domain method is used to simulate the microwave transmission properties of the left-handed materials with different substrates, and the experimental results are in agreement with the numerical simulation results. In addition, the reason for the shifting of the left-handed frequency of the LHMs is discussed theoretically.
Backward, forward and stepwise automated subset selection algorithms: Frequency of obtaining authentic and noise variables

The use of automated subset search algorithms is reviewed and issues concerning model selection and selection criteria are discussed. In addition, a Monte Carlo study is reported which presents data regarding the frequency with which authentic and noise variables are selected by automated subset algorithms. In particular, the effects of the correlation between predictor variables, the number of candidate predictor variables, the size of the sample, and the level of significance for entry and deletion of variables were studied for three automated subset algorithms: BACKWARD ELIMINATION, FORWARD SELECTION, and STEPWISE. Results indicated that: (1) the degree of correlation between the predictor variables affected the frequency with which authentic predictor variables found their way into the final model; (2) the number of candidate predictor variables affected the number of noise variables that gained entry to the model; (3) the size of the sample was of little practical importance in determining the number of authentic variables contained in the final model; and (4) the population multiple coefficient of determination could be faithfully estimated by adopting a statistic that is adjusted by the total number of candidate predictor variables rather than the number of variables in the final model.
Did Covid-19 Pandemic Impact the Employability of Student-Apprentices? A Study via the Results of the University CFA in Corsica

The lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, coupled with the negative consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, have slowed growth in G20 economies while generating high price pressures (OCDE, 2022). While global GDP stagnated in the second quarter of 2022, global economic trends are darkening. Transposed to a local context like that of Corsica, a small island territory, is the picture also bleak? After an analysis of the trends of the Corsican economy in 2022, the present contribution will focus more specifically on analysing the impact of the health crisis on the employability of graduate University CFA students in the Corsican region.
Effects of Nonlinear MPPT Control and PV Array on Stability Analysis for a Utility-Scale PV Energy System

Various studies have focused on the stability analysis of PV energy systems. However, the majority of these methods rely on a linearized model around an equilibrium point, which cannot exactly reveal the influence of the nonlinear power controller and PV array on the PV energy system at low frequencies. To conquer this gap, this article contributes to providing intuitive insight into stability analysis and establishing a complete system model including the PV panel, boost converter, DC line, central inverter and AC grid. The describing function (DF) of the nonlinear discontinuous element in PV and the transfer function of the linear elements in the system are derived to determine the system stability. To support the stability hypothesis based on the DF-based stability analysis method, a comparative study in contrast to existing stability analysis methods is provided. The impedance-based method may not be accurate when the division of the ‘source-load’ subsystem is different. The proposed DF method can offer further concluding remarks on MPPT control, the number of PV panels, DC/DC converter, etc. Based on a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) operation, the proposed model is explicitly validated under different constraints, and the influence of control and circuit parameters on system stability are illustrated.
A piecewise linear spectral mapping for supervised speaker adaptation

A supervised spectral mapping method for speaker adaptation based on a piecewise linear transformation of cepstral vectors is proposed. In this method, an input vector is mapped onto the target spectral space by a weighted sum of linearly transformed vectors using a set of mapping matrices which are associated with fuzzy partitioned spaces. These matrices were estimated so as to minimize the total mean square error between the mapped and target spectra. This method was compared with the difference interpolation mapping (D-map) method, which is an extension of the codebook mapping methods. Through 16 phoneme recognition tests using a single Gaussian distribution hidden Markov model (HMM), it was found that the proposed method with 16 fuzzy partitioned spaces improved recognition performance by 4% compared to the usual linear mapping method when using 100 training words, and also achieved a 3% higher rate on average than the D-map method. <<ETX>>
The Functional Meaning of 5′UTR in Protein-Coding Genes

As it is well known, messenger RNA has many regulatory regions along its sequence length. One of them is the 5′ untranslated region (5’UTR), which itself contains many regulatory elements such as upstream ORFs (uORFs), internal ribosome entry sites (IRESs), microRNA binding sites, and structural components involved in the regulation of mRNA stability, pre-mRNA splicing, and translation initiation. Activation of the alternative, more upstream transcription start site leads to an extension of 5′UTR. One of the consequences of 5′UTRs extension may be head-to-head gene overlap. This review describes elements in 5′UTR of protein-coding transcripts and the functional significance of protein-coding genes 5′ overlap with implications for transcription, translation, and disease.
Sexual Behavior and Perceived Loneliness in Elderly People Living with HIV in China during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: The proportion of elderly people living with HIV (PLHIV) is increasing in China. To advance targeted interventions and substantially improve their quality of life, we investigate indicators of loneliness and sexual behavior among elderly PLHIV in 10 districts/counties in China during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The demographic information and laboratory test results of the potential respondents were initially collected from the China Information System for Disease Control and Prevention. A two-stage stratified cluster sampling was used. The questionnaire survey was individually provided to all PLHIV aged +60. Results: We recruited 1017 valid respondents with a median age of 66 years (interquartile range of 63–71), of which 776 (76.3%) were male. Overall, 341 respondents (33.5%) lived alone, and 304 (29.9%) felt lonely. A total of 726 respondents (71.4%) informed others of their HIV diagnosis. Among the 726 respondents, children were the most common group with whom the older people shared their HIV infection status, accounting for 82.9%. Approximately 20% of the older PLHIV engaged in sexual behavior in the last year, and 70% reported not using condoms. A significantly greater risk of loneliness was found among the females (AOR = 1.542, CI: 1.084, 2.193), those who suffered discrimination from informed people (AOR = 4.719, CI: 2.986, 7.459), were diagnosed <1 year prior (AOR = 2.061, CI: 1.345, 3.156), those living alone (AOR = 2.314, CI: 1.632, 3.280), those having no friends (AOR = 1.779, CI: 1.327, 2.386), and those who had a divorced or widowed marital status (AOR = 1.686, CI: 1.174, 2.421). Conclusions: Compared with non-lonely participants, the lonely participants were more likely to have a rural registered residence, a lower education level, no friends, be divorced or widowed, live alone, and lack knowledge of smartphones and reproductive health. The influence of COVID-19 had caused social activities to be more confined to the community, which impacts elderly HIV patients suffering from severe discrimination within families and communities.
Estimation of Wind-Induced Error of Rainfall Gauge Measurements Using a Numerical Simulation

Abstract A new method of estimating the wind-induced error of rainfall gauge measurements is presented. The method is based on a three-dimensional numerical simulation of the airflow around a precipitation gauge and subsequent computation of particle trajectories. Three-dimensional velocity and turbulence flow fields around a gauge are computed for wind speeds ranging between 1 and 12 m s−1 by employing the k–e turbulence model. Two-dimensional measurements of the flow using a constant temperature anemometer are carried out in a wind tunnel. The measurement results are used to verify numerical flow simulations. Subsequently, the computed flow fields are used for raindrop trajectory simulations and assessment of wind-induced measurement errors related to a given unique drop diameter and wind speed. These errors are approximated by a gamma-type function and integrated over a gamma drop size distribution. The resulting wind-induced error is presented as a function of the rate of rainfall, wind speed, and dro.
Snow Studies. Part II: Average Relationship between Mass of Snowflakes and Their Terminal Fall Velocity

Abstract This study uses a dataset of low-density snow aggregates measurements collected by a ground-based optical disdrometer that provides particle size and terminal fall speed for each size interval from which the velocity–size and area ratio–size relationships can be derived. From these relationships and relations between the Best and Reynolds numbers proposed in the literature, the mass power-law coefficients are obtained. Then, an approximate average relation between the coefficients in the experimentally determined velocity–size power law (with exponent fixed at 0.18) and the coefficients in the estimated mass power law (with exponent fixed at 2) is obtained. The validation of the retrieved relation is made by comparing, for each snowfall event, the time series of the reflectivity factor calculated from the derived mass–size relationship for a snowflake and from the size distribution measured by the optical disdrometer, with the reflectivity obtained from measurements. Using the measured snow size .
Robust estimation of vessel misfocus and real-time misfocus correction in laser speckle contrast imaging

Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging (LSCI) is a flexible, non-invasive, label-free technique to measure relative blood flow speeds in-vivo. Near IR illumination allows deep tissue penetration due to low tissue absorption in that wavelength range. However, the low absorption leads to a reduced observed image contrast between tissue and blood vessels. This leads to a challenge in determining and automatically adjusting the best focus location invivo. Traditional autofocus algorithms that are based on either intensity contrast or frequency domain analysis do not work well during flow imaging with the LSCI technique, due to increased speckle and low contrast in the image. Using the LSCI-derived contrast ratio K directly, over a vessel of interest, provides a better metric for determining the location of imaging system focal plane, but the method is not robust as it is possesses low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) within a single frame. In this work we use a different metric, kurtosis of the flow profile cross-section, to estimate the degree of misfocus (axial deviation of imaging system focal plane from the imaged blood vessel) and provide a feedback mechanism for robust autofocusing during blood flow imaging in a rats brain. We demonstrate via flow imaging simulations, imaging of flow in microfluidic capillaries, and in-vivo imaging of blood flow in brains of anaesthetized rats that this metric allows for the determination of the location of best focus and assessing the degree of misfocus.
Fuzzy Logic for Solving the Water-Energy Management Problem in Standalone Water Desalination Systems: Water-Energy Nexus and Fuzzy System Design

This work investigates an important topic of energy and water security (water-energy nexus). For this purpose, Water-Energy Management Strategy (W-EMS) for a standalone water desalination system powered by PV-Wind source is designed. The proposed W-EMS is based on fuzzy logic. In this context, authors focus on the design phase of the Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) through which three design methods are described and analyzed. The influence of FIS design on W-EMS performance is highlighted. First, it is shown that based on the designer's knowledge, the handmade-FIS can offer good performance for the W-EMS. Then, the water-energy management is formulated as an optimization problem. Therefore, genetic algorithm is used to optimize the FIS design to reduce iterative hand-tuning trials. Furthermore, the design of the fuzzy W-EMS can be addressed by a data-driven approach as a third step. This method shows its good performance in terms of water production and energy efficiency compared to the designed FISs by the two previous methods (handmade tuning and genetic algorithm).
Facial recognition method based on feature fusion and data enhancing

Face expression recognition is a technique that recognizes the emotions of a person from a static picture or a dynamic video. So it has great potential application value in psychology, intelligent robotics, intelligent monitoring, virtual reality and synthetic animation. In this paper, we propose an innovative method of feature fusion in view of the low accuracy of the traditional method facial expression recognition algorithm in the real environmental. And the fusion features are predicted by using the support vector machine, which makes the detection of the model accurate rate reach 67% on FER2013, surpassing the single method. Furthermore, we use the GAN network to enhance the data, minimize the impact of irregular data on the results, and finally reach 72% accuracy.
Complex variables BIE and BEM for a plane doubly periodic system of flaws

Abstract New complex variable, singular and hypersingular, boundary integral equations (CV‐BIE) are derived for doubly periodic plane elasticity problems. They refer to systems of blocks (grains), inclusions, holes and cracks. Their forms, convenient when adjusting conventional programs for non‐periodic systems to periodic problems, are suggested. Simple formulae are presented to calculate effective compliances in complex variables. Numerical implementation of the derived complex variable hypersingular (CVH) BIE in the mentioned forms is carried out by appropriately adjusting a program of CVH‐BEM, previously developed for non‐periodic problems. It is used to check accuracy and to obtain new results for doubly periodic systems of cracks. Stress intensity factors (SIFs) and effective compliances are calculated for straight cracks in square and triangular lattices to compare them with published results. They show agreement within the accuracy reached by other authors. New data on SIFs and effective complianc.
Development and Characterization of Thermal Enhancement Structures for Single-Phase Liquid Cooling in Microelectronics Systems

In this paper, the development and characterization of thermal enhancement structures for single-phase liquid cooling in microelectronics systems are presented. Miniature heat sinks with three different types of thermal enhancement structures were examined. The first type was a metallic microchannel heat sink (MMCHS) made of aluminum with the channel dimensions of 15 mm (length) × 0.2 mm (width) × 2 mm (height). The second type was the silicon microchannel heat sinks (SMCHS) made through the deep reactive ion etching technique on a 6 inch wafer, with identical channel height of 0.45 mm and average channel widths of 66.6 μ m and 46.6 μ m, respectively. The last type was the metallic foam heat sinks (MFHSs), which were formed by brazing porous foam materials of high pore density onto copper base plates. All three types of heat sinks were fabricated and experimentally characterized by incorporating into electronic packages in standard flip chip ball grid array format. Characterization results indicate that, given a thermal window of 50°C, both the MMCHS and MFHSs can achieve an equivalent package heat dissipation above 100 W/cm2 at moderate pressure drops and the SMCHS above 200 W/cm2 at larger pressure drops. A comparison of thermal enhancement and manufacturability of the three types of heat sinks is also presented.
Rapid-Thermal-Processed BaTiO3 Thin Films Deposited by Liquid-Source Misted Chemical Deposition

BaTiO3 thin films deposited on the RuO2(250 nm)/Ru(20 nm)/TiN(200 nm)/Ti(20 nm)/(100)Si substrates by liquid-source misted chemical deposition are reported. The rapid thermal processing (RTP) technique was used for post deposition annealing. It was found that the strain was released and grain size increased for BaTiO3 films treated at high RTP temperature or for long RTP time. The interface between BaTiO3 and the bottom electrode was still sharp for the RTP-treated sample at 950°C. The leakage current density decreases as the RTP temperature increases. It can be decreased to 2.09 nA/cm2 under a supply voltage of 1.5 V. The dielectric constant can be increased up to 250 measured at 100 kHz for the sample treated by RTP at 950°C. The improvements in the BaTiO3 characteristics are due to the fact that RTP can enhance the crystallinity, relax the strain, alleviate the impurities in the films and does not result in significant interdiffusion of the materials.
Implementation of numerical integration schemes for the simulation of magnetic SMA constitutive response

Several constitutive models for magnetic shape memory alloys (MSMAs) have been proposed in the literature. The implementation of numerical integration schemes, which allow the prediction of constitutive response for general loading cases and ultimately the incorporation of MSMA response into numerical solution algorithms for fully coupled magneto-mechanical boundary value problems, however, has received only very limited attention. In this work, we establish two algorithmic implementations of the internal variable model for MSMAs proposed in (Kiefer and Lagoudas 2005 Phil. Mag. Spec. Issue: Recent Adv. Theor. Mech. 85 4289–329, Kiefer and Lagoudas 2009 J. Intell. Mater. Syst. 20 143–70), where we restrict our attention to pure martensitic variant reorientation to limit complexity. The first updating scheme is based on the numerical integration of the reorientation strain evolution equation and represents a classical predictor–corrector-type general return mapping algorithm. In the second approach, the inequality-constrained optimization problem associated with internal variable evolution is converted into an unconstrained problem via Fischer–Burmeister complementarity functions and then iteratively solved in standard Newton–Raphson format. Simulations are verified by comparison to closed-form solutions for experimentally relevant loading cases.
Case report: Successful outcome of a young patient with rhabdomyolysis and shock caused by diquat poisoning

The widespread use of diquat as a substitute for paraquat has led to an increase in poisoning deaths. A successful case of diquat poisoning complicated with rhabdomyolysis and shock was lacking. A 13-year-old previously healthy girl ingested 40 ml of diquat solution in a suicide attempt. The concentration of diquat in serum was 436.2 ug/L at 10 h after poisoning. The clinical course was characterized by progressive multi-organ dysfunction, particularly rhabdomyolysis and shock. The main treatments included intensive hemoperfusion combined with continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), drainage, and activated carbon adsorption. Meanwhile, accurate dilatation under the model of pulse indicator continuous cardiac output (PICCO) was essential for the successful treatment of shock. The serum concentration of diquat declined to 20 ug/L after 96 h of treatments. The patient was discharged from the hospital after 3 weeks of treatment without obvious symptoms. So far, this was the first successful case of diquat poisoning complicated with rhabdomyolysis and shock, which would enrich the experience of diquat poisoning treatment.
Reliability of a Wearable Motion System for Clinical Evaluation of Dynamic Lumbar Spine Function

Background: Low back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Subjective assessments are often used to assess extent of functional limitations and treatment response. However, these measures have poor sensitivity and are influenced by the patient’s perception of their condition. Currently, there are no objective tools to effectively assess the extent of an individual’s functional disability and inform clinical decision-making. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability of a wearable motion system based on Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensors for use in quantifying low back function. Methods: Low back motion assessments were conducted by 3 novice raters on 20 participants using an IMU-based motion system. These assessments were conducted over 3 days with 2 days of rest in between tests. A total of 37 kinematic parameters were extracted from the low back motion assessment in all three anatomical planes. Intra-rater and inter-rater reliability were assessed using Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICCs) calculated from repeated measures, mixed-effects regression models. Results: Lumbar spine-specific kinematic parameters showed moderate to excellent reliability across all kinematic parameters. The ICC values ranged between 0.84–0.93 for intra-rater reliability and 0.66 – 0.83 for inter-rater reliability. In particular, velocity measures showed higher reliabilities than other kinematic variables. Conclusion: The IMU-based wearable motion system is a valid and reliable tool to objectively assess low back function. This study demonstrated that lumbar spine-specific kinematic metrics have the potential to provide good, repeatable metrics to assess clinical function over time.