Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Real-Time Degradation Level Assessment of IGBT Gate Oxide Layer Using Turn-Off Delay Time

Condition monitoring (CM) of the components with highest probability of failure in converter circuits can significantly contribute to having a long-term reliable operation. Insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) are considered as one of the most fragile parts with the highest failure rates in many power electronics applications. This article proposes a real-time CM technique for assessing the IGBT gate oxide degradation level. The proposed technique is based on the device turn-off delay time interval, which as we discovered, decreases during the device gate oxide degradation (DGOD) process. Therefore, this article proposes a practical fully analogue circuit to capture the device turn-off delay time and convert it to a dc voltage as the final output of the CM circuit. The DGOD precursor output can be effectively used to assess the health status of IGBT gate oxide layer during the device real-time operation. Two different types of 600 V/60 A discrete IGBTs from different manufacturers are used in the experimental verification process. In addition, the proposed CM technique is applied to a 500 W boost dc–dc converter to evaluate the applicability of the proposed CM technique to real-world converter operation. The results indicate that the proposed DGOD precursor shows a 50% change when the device experiences full gate oxide degradation.
Trend and Drivers of Satellite‐Detected Burned Area Changes Across Arctic Region Since the 21st Century

The Arctic has experienced the frequent and severe fires in recent years. Due to the unique geography and vegetation type in Arctic region, the fire trend and its driving mechanism are different from other regions and still unclear. This study investigated the fire trends across Arctic region based on Moderate‐resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) burned area product MCD64A1 during 2001–2020. In addition, the burned area change was attributed at spatial and temporal scales based on 15 natural and anthropogenic factors. Results show that the average burned area in Arctic region during 2001–2020 is 31.2 × 103 km2, with a maximum of 51.9 × 103 km2 in 2019. The change of burned area in Arctic region is spatially heterogeneous, with a significant increasing trend (Z > 1.96) in central Russia and a significant decreasing trend (Z < −1.96) in western Russia. There is a clear seasonality in the occurrence of fires in the Arctic, with a peak in the summer months and almost no fires in the winter. Relative humidity has the largest explanatory power for the spatial variation of burned area (q = 0.487), followed by vapor pressure deficit (q = 0.475) and land surface temperature (q = 0.367). The combined effect of precipitation and land surface temperature is the most powerful interaction (q = 0.587) to explain the spatial variation of burned area. The significant increase in time‐series burned area is primarily driven by the decrease of relative humidity. The results of this study are helpful to understand the fire trends and the contribution of climate change to Arctic fires.
Worldwide growth of animal production and environmental consequences.

Ensuring environmental sustainability is one of the Millennium Development Goals to which FAO and its Members are committed. The conservation, improvement and sustainable utilization of natural resources, including land, water, forests, fi sheries and genetic resources for food and agriculture is one of the three global goals of FAO’s Strategic Framework between 2000 and 2015. In this document, the issue of livestock’s impact on the environment is presented.
Editorial: Sex differences in the neurobiology of drug relapse vulnerability

COPYRIGHT © 2023 Manvich, Loweth, Lynch and McReynolds. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Editorial: Sex di erences in the neurobiology of drug relapse vulnerability
Patterns of Correlation Among Landscape Metrics

Representations of real and virtual landscapes are often abstracted and quantified as "landscape metrics" in landscape ecology, and while much is known about them after 20 years of use, some relations are as yet unexplored. The objective of this research is to gain a better understanding of the effects of spatial representation in landscape ecology. Nine hundred artificial landscapes were generated with varying spatial patterns created using a fractal landscape generator with 3D fractal dimensions ranging from 2.1 to 2.9 in increments of 0.1. The 3D landscapes were reduced to 2D patterns by putting the cells into five classes. Forty-four landscape metrics were used to measure the resulting 2D landscape spatial patterns, and the relations of nine of these to the generating 3D fractal dimensions and to each other across these fractal dimensions were analyzed. The expected nonlinear relations between metrics and the generating 3D fractal dimensions led to unimodal correlation structures between some of the metrics, with low, nonsignificant correlations in the middle range of the 3D fractal dimensions. The selection of metrics and their interpretation, especially in the midrange of landscape complexity, may need to be reassessed.
Systematic Handling of Environmental Fate Data for Model Development—Illustrated for the Case of Biodegradation Half-Life Data

The assessment of environmental hazard indicators such as persistence, mobility, toxicity, or bioaccumulation of chemicals often results in highly variable experimental outcomes. Persistence is particularly affected due to a multitude of influencing environmental factors, with biodegradation experiments resulting in half-lives spanning several orders of magnitude. Also, half-lives may lie beyond the limits of reliable half-life quantification, and the number of available data points per substance may vary considerably, requiring a statistically robust approach for the characterization of data. Here, we apply Bayesian inference to address these challenges and characterize the distributions of reported soil half-lives. Our model estimates the mean, standard deviation, and corresponding uncertainties from a set of reported half-lives experimentally obtained for a single substance. We apply our inference model to 893 pesticides and pesticide transformation products with experimental soil half-lives of varying data quantity and quality, and we infer the half-life distribution for each compound. By estimating average half-lives, their experimental variability, and the uncertainty of the estimations, we provide a reliable data source for building predictive models, which are urgently needed by regulatory authorities to manage existing chemicals and by industry to design benign, nonpersistent chemicals. Our approach can be readily adapted for other environmental hazard indicators.
Measuring the Oceans from Space: The Principles and Methods of Satellite Oceanography

Fundamentals of Ocean Remote Sensing - Why study the ocean from space? - Sensors for remote sensing. - Ocean Colour - Variable wavelength remote sensing. - Sea Surface Temperature - Infrared measurement of SST - Microwave radiometry. - Ocean Surface Topography - Radar altimeters. - Sea Surface Roughness - Active microwave remote sensing of sea surface roughness. - Remote Sensing in the Wider Oceanographic Context - Enhancing the role of remote sensing in ocean science. - The way forward - An Evaluation of the achievements of satellite oceanography.
Remote sensing of phytoplankton pigments: A comparison of empirical and theoretical approaches

Algorithms that have been used on a routine basis for remote sensing of the phytoplankton pigment, chlorophyll- a, from ocean colour data from satellite sensors such as the CZCS (Coastal Zone Color Scanner), SeaWiFS (Sea Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor) and OCTS (Ocean Colour and Temperature Scanner) are all of an empirical nature. However, there exist theoretical models that allow ocean colour to be expressed as a function of the inherent optical properties of seawater, such as the absorption coefficient and the backscattering coefficient. These properties can in turn be expressed as functions of chlorophyll- a, at least for the so-called Case 1 waters in which phytoplankton may be considered to be the single, independent variable responsible for most of the variations in the marine optical properties. Here, we use such a theoretical approach to model variations in ocean colour as a function of chlorophyll- a concentration, and compare the results with some empirical models in routine use. The parameters of phytoplankton absorption necessary for the implementation of the ocean colour model are derived from our database of over 700 observations of phytoplankton absorption spectra and concurrent measurements of phytoplankton pigments by HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) techniques. Since there are reports in the literature that significant differences exist in the performance of the algorithms in polar regions compared with lower latitudes, the model is first implemented using observations made at latitudes less than 50. It is then applied to the Labrador Sea, a high-latitude environment. Our results show that there are indeed differences in the performance of the algorithm at high latitudes, and that these differences may be attributed to changes in the optical characteristics of phytoplankton that accompany changes in the taxonomic composition of their assemblages. The sensitivities of the model to assumptions made regarding absorption by coloured dissolved organic matter (or yellow substances) and backscattering by particles are examined. The importance of Raman scattering on ocean colour and its influence on the algorithms are also investigated.
SLM Printed Wideband Circularly Polarized Multilayer Antenna Array With Reduced Impact by the Manufacturing Imperfection

A novel three-dimensional (3-D)-printed wideband circularly-polarized (CP) waveguide based $4\times4$ slotted antenna array is proposed for wireless communications in the paper. For radiating CP waves, several additional eigenmodes are introduced by designing several additional layers. By adjusting the multiple resonances within the cavity, the axial ratio (AR) bandwidth can be enhanced, and the impedance matching can be improved. Due to the good AR performance of the well-designed radiation subarray, the antenna scale can be easily extended by a simple full-corporate-feed network. The multilayered antenna array is fabricated using the cost-effective commercial direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) technology. By incorporating the Huray model, this study considers and simulates the influence of roughness. The antenna has a measured impedance bandwidth of 20.4% (18- 22.1 GHz), which is exactly the same as its AR bandwidth. A maximum gain of 21.6 dBic is achieved at 21.3 GHz. It has validated that, compared with state-of-art technologies, the proposed antenna has wide bandwidth and good radiation pattern. The developed antenna shows competitive performance in terms of gain and efficiency with the state-of-the-art antennas. This demonstrates the viability of employing the advanced 3-D printing technique for realizing complex microwave structures, which holds high potential for future wireless communication applications.
The Association of Dyslipidemia and Atherogenic Indices With Glycemic Control in Diabetic Dyslipidemia Patients: A Real-World Landscape

Background: Dyslipidemia is an important comorbid factor of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) that increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases. This study aimed to assess the pattern of dyslipidemia and atherogenic indices and determine its relation with glycemic control. Methods:A cross-sectional study enrolled 382 patients with diabetic dyslipidemia. The socio-demographics data, clinical features, and laboratory parameters were collected. The baseline lipid parameters such as total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C) were measured. Atherogenic indices such as TC/HDL-C ratio, TG/HDL-C ratio, LDL-C/HDL-C ratio, non-HDL-C/HDL-C and atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) [log10 (TG/HDL-C)] were calculated. T2DM patients were classified into three groups based on the degree of glycemic control: Good glycemic control (HbA1C<7%), fair control (HbA1C 7-8%), and poor control (HbA1C>8%). Results:The population’s mean age was 48.60±6.15 years, with 145 (38%) males. We found mixed dyslipidemia as the most prevalent (36.1%) form of dyslipidemia in our patients. The most common pattern in atherogenic indices was AIP (94.2%). HbA1c was positively correlated with duration of diabetes (r=0.253, p<0.001). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, duration of diabetes (>10 years) was significantly associated with poor glycemic control with an odds ratio (OR) of 2.31(95% CI; 1.25-4.24, p=0.007). Conclusion:The present study indicated that neither the pattern of dyslipidemia nor the atherogenic indices were markers of poor glycemic control among South Indian patients attending our tertiary care institute. However, duration of diabetes was significantly associated with poor glycemic control.
Diagnostic Accuracy of Elastography to Differentiate Between Benign and Malignant Lymph Nodes of Head and Neck Region taking Histopathology as the Gold Standard

Objective: To estimate the diagnostic accuracy of Elastography to distinguish between benign and malignant lymph nodes of the head and neck region; taking histopathology as the gold standard. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Radiology Department, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad Pakistan, from Jul to Oct 2021. Methodology: Elastography, Color Doppler and B-mode ultrasound were used to examine fifty participants with enlarged cervical lymph nodes. Elastographic forms (1–5) were characterized based on the hard area in the cervical lymph nodes. In addition, the shear wave elastography of cervical lymph nodes was evaluated. Outcomes of diagnostic sono-elastographic parameters were matched with the histopathology of lymph nodes as a reference of standard. Results: The mean age of patients was 30.50±8.95 years. Out of 50 patients, 31(62%) were men, and 19(38%) were women. Out of 50 patients enrolled, 29(58%) showed benign lymph nodes, while 21(42%) showed malignant lymph nodes on elastography.All 50 patients underwent a biopsy for histopathology. Conclusion: Ultrasound elastography has high diagnostic accuracy in differentiating benign from malignant lymph nodes. Therefore, it can be used as a reliable and non-invasive modality for diagnosing lymphadenopathy in the cervical region.Keywords: Cervical, Elasticity imaging techniques, Elastography, Lymph nodes, Lymphadenopathy, Neck, Ultrasound
Extension of environmental parameters over the land surface by improved fuzzy classification of remotely sensed data

Recent studies have shown that useful information can be derived from remotely sensed data to extend local environmental measurements over the land surface. A flexible fuzzy classification approach, in particular, was demonstrated to be superior to conventional multivariate regression methods for this purpose. This new extension methodology is described and discussed in detail. Next, some modifications are proposed in order to improve the consideration of the spectral information and to produce per-pixel estimates of the error committed. The performances of the original and modified methodologies are then evaluated in two case studies representative of different parameters to extend and satellite data. The results show the efficiency of the new strategy and, in particular, some improvements obtained by the modified method which testify to the effectiveness of the modifications proposed.
Room-Temperature Low-Noise Amplifier With 11-K Average Noise From 0.6 to 2 GHz

In this letter, a low-noise amplifier (LNA) with 11-K average noise in the frequency range from 0.6 to 2 GHz at <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$+25 ^{\circ} \text{C}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is designed, manufactured, and measured. The input matching network (IMN) of the amplifier is realized by a stepped high-impedance suspended substrate line structure that achieves input reflection coefficients lower than −10 dB over the whole frequency range. The LNA has an integrated temperature-stable noise calibration source for the system noise measurement. Furthermore, when the operating temperature drops to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$- 40\,\,^{\circ} \text{C}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, the average noise of the LNA will decrease to 7.5 K. The LNA achieves good noise without the need for high-cost cryogenics, which will greatly reduce the cost of high-performance receiving systems for wide-band applications at low microwave frequencies.
Starting and Specialisation Ages of Elite Athletes across Olympic Sports: An International Cross-sectional Study

Talent development models are the frameworks that guide sports stakeholders in developing potential athletes, within which early specialisation and diversification remain contradictory strategies. This paper presents new insights into the starting and specialisation ages of world-class athletes in various Olympic sports. A total of 2,838 athletes from 13 nations and 44 Olympic sports were included in this study. The results show that world-class athletes started with their current sport at the age of 10.6 (±5.3) and decided to focus on this sport at the age of 15.6 (±5.0), with obvious variations in these ages across different sports. The study showed a moderate relationship between athletes’ starting and specialisation ages (r = 0.639), which demonstrates the variable duration of the multiple sport sampling period. This period, during which athletes pursue a variety of sports, lasts 4.9 years on average. There is a high degree of variation among different athletes in starting and specialisation ages, even within the same sport. All sports in the study can be classified into five categories based on a combination of their starting ages (early/intermediate/late) and specialisation ages (early/intermediate/late). The Developmental Model of Sports Participation provides the age guidelines for the categories. The five categories contain (I) early specialisation sports, (II) intermediate starting and specialisation sports, (III) late specialisation sports, (IV) late starting sports, and (V) late starting and late specialisation sports. The study concludes by proposing that there is a need for sport-specific talent development models with increased attention to each sport’s starting age, sampling period, and specialisation age.
An oceanographic survey of the Tasman Front

Abstract Results of a detailed expendable bathythermograph survey in the northern Tasman Sea are presented. The Tasman Front, with its origin in the edge of an East Australian Current eddy, extended throughout the survey region. The front marked a coherent, meandering, zonal jet which crosses the Tasman Sea and hence links at least part of the East Australian Current to the other western boundary currents in the subtropical gyre. The frontal meandering derives from both the variability of the East Australian Current system and the topographic effects of the major ridge systems in the north Tasman Sea. The front is less distinct over the crests of these ridges. The flow field in the survey area contained a number of anticyclonic eddies, and current records show that the oceanic eddies are long‐lived features similar to the eddies in the East Australian Current.
Weathering of granite in Antarctica: II. Thermal stress at the grain scale

Granular disintegration has long been recognized and referred to in weathering texts from all environments, including the Antarctic. Despite this universal identification and referral, few to no data exist regarding thermal conditions at this scale and causative mechanisms remain little more than conjecture. Here, as part of a larger weathering study, thermal data of individual grains (using infrared thermometry and ultra‐fine thermocouples) composing a coarse granite, as well as the thermal gradients in the outer 10 cm (using thermistors), were collected from a north‐facing exposure. Measurements were also made regarding the surface roughness of the rock. Based on recorded temperatures, the nature of the rock surface and the properties of the minerals, an argument is made for complex stress fields that lead to granular disintegration. Mineral to mineral temperature differences found to occur were, in part, due to the changing exposure to solar radiation through the day (and through seasons). Because the thermal conductivity and the coefficient of thermal expansion of quartz are not equal in all directions, coupled with the vagaries of heating, this leads to inter‐granular stresses. Although fracture toughness increases with a decrease in temperature, it is suggested that the tensile forces resulting from falling temperatures are able to exceed this and produce granular disassociation. The lack of equality with respect to crystal axis of both thermal conductivity and expansion in quartz further exacerbates the propensity to failure. Grain size and porosity also influence the thermal stresses and may help explain why some grains are held in place despite disassociation near the surface. While the data presented here appear to beg more questions than providing answers, they do provide a basis for better, more detailed studies of this important weathering scale. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Past and future changes in global tropospheric ozone: Impact on radiative forcing

Calculations by a global three‐dimensional chemical transport model of the atmosphere suggest that increased surface emissions of chemical compounds caused by industrial activities at mid‐latitudes in the northern hemisphere and by biomass burning in the tropics since the middle of the 19th century have produced an increase in the abundance of tropospheric ozone along with a reduction in the oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere (globally averaged OH concentration reduced by 17% and methane lifetime enhanced by 1.5 years). These perturbations in tropospheric ozone result in a change in annually averaged radiative forcing of 0.37 W m−2 (0.62 W m−2 in the northern hemisphere during the summer months). Future changes (1990–2050) in tropospheric ozone associated with population increase and economic development (primarily in developing countries) are expected to be largest in the tropics, specifically in South and Southeast Asia. Further changes in the oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere could be small if the abundance of tropospheric water vapor increases as a result of anticipated climate change.