Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High performing SPS based on native NIR-emitting single colour centers in diamond

Single-photon sources (SPS) play a key-role in many applications, spanning from quantum metrology, to quantum information and to the foundations of quantum mechanics. Even if an ideal SPS (i. e. emitting indistinguishable, ”on-demand” single photons, at an arbitrarily fast repetition rate) is far to be realized due to real-world deviations from the ideality, much effort is currently devoted to improving the performance of real sources. With regards to the emission probability, it appears natural to employ sources that are in principle deterministic in the single- photon emission (single quantum emitters such as single atoms, ions, molecules, quantum dots, or color centers in diamond) as opposed to probabilistic ones (usually heralded SPS based on parametric down-conversion). We present an overview of our latest results concerning a work-in-progress NIR pulsed single photon source based on single quantum emitters (color centers in diamond) exploiting recently reported centers. They are particularly interesting because of the narrow emission line (tipically less than 5 nm), the shorter excited state lifetime with respect to NV centres (1 - 2 ns compared to 12 ns, allowing a ten-fold photon emission rate upon saturation) and the polarized emission.
On the numerical simulation of the mechanical behaviour of articular cartilage

In this paper, a fibre‐reinforced porohyperelastic model is extensively presented and used for the simulation of soft hydrated tissues, like cartilage. The derivation of the classical governing equations for biphasic tissues is obtained from a complete and robust description for multiphasic systems. An Augmented Lagrangian formulation has been used to enforce the incompressibility condition in the whole tissue. Porohyperelasticity has been included in order to simulate the biphasic nature of the tissue associated to a porous solid matrix and interstitial fluid. Anisotropy in the hyperelastic behaviour has been formulated by means of a strain energy function that takes into account the influence of collagen fibres. Several numerical examples are shown in order to validate the proposed model. The confined compression problem has been solved to demonstrate the improvement that an Augmented Lagrangian Method provides with respect to a penalty approach. On the other hand, the unconfined compression problem allowed us to study the load distribution in each phase and its dependence on the strain rate. Finally, one realistic application of this model is briefly discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Discovering and Understanding Algorithmic Biases in Autonomous Pedestrian Trajectory Predictions

Pedestrian trajectory prediction is an important module in autonomous vehicles (AVs) to ensure safe and effective motion planning. Recently, many deep learning algorithms that achieve near real-time trajectory predictions have been developed. However, people in the artificial intelligence (AI) ethics community have raised critical concerns about the bias and fairness of many general deep learning algorithms. For example, most pedestrian trajectory data is collected from majority populations, and models learned from this data may not generalize well to the heterogeneous needs and behavior patterns of different pedestrian groups, especially for vulnerable pedestrians like the disabled, the elderly, and children. Biases present in trajectory prediction algorithms could mean that pedestrians from certain vulnerable demographics are more likely to be involved in vehicle crashes. In this work, we test two state-of-the-art pedestrian trajectory prediction models for age and gender biases across three different datasets. We design and utilize novel evaluation metrics for comparing model performance. We find that both models perform worse on children and the elderly compared to adults. However, their performance is similar between men and women. We identify potential sources of these biases, as well as discuss several limitations of our study. Our future work will consist of testing more models, refining our evaluation metrics, further differentiating the dataset bias from the algorithmic bias, and mitigating the algorithmic biases.
MicNest: Long-Range Instant Acoustic Localization of Drones in Precise Landing

We present MicNest: an acoustic localization system enabling precise landing of aerial drones. Drone landing is a crucial step in a drone's operation, especially as high-bandwidth wireless networks, such as 5G, enable beyond-line-of-sight operation in a shared airspace and applications such as instant asset delivery with drones gain traction. In MicNest, multiple microphones are deployed on a landing platform in carefully devised configurations. The drone carries a speaker transmitting purposefully-designed acoustic pulses. The drone may be localized as long as the pulses are correctly detected. Doing so is challenging: i) because of limited transmission power, propagation attenuation, background noise, and propeller interference, the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of received pulses is intrinsically low; ii) the pulses experience non-linear Doppler distortion due to the physical drone dynamics while airborne; iii) as location information is to be used during landing, the processing latency must be reduced to effectively feed the flight control loop. To tackle these issues, we design a novel pulse detector, Matched Filter Tree (MFT), whose idea is to convert pulse detection to a tree search problem. We further present three practical methods to accelerate tree search jointly. Our real-world experiments show that MicNest is able to localize a drone 120 m away with 0.53% relative localization error at 20 Hz location update frequency.
Numerical simulation of active separation control by a synthetic jet

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) and large-eddy simulation (LES) are carried out to investigate the frequency effect of zero-net-mass-flux forcing (synthetic jet) on a generic separated flow. The selected test case is a rounded ramp at a Reynolds number based on the step height of 28 275. The incoming boundary layer is fully turbulent with Rθ=1410. The whole flow in the synthetic jet cavity is computed to ensure an accurate description of the actuator effect on the flow field. In a first step, DNS is used to validate LES of this particular flow. In a second step, the effect of a synthetic jet at two reduced frequencies of 0.5 and 4 (based on the separation length of the uncontrolled case and the free-stream velocity) is investigated using LES. It is demonstrated that, with a proper choice of the oscillating frequency, separation can be drastically reduced for a velocity ratio between the jet and the flow lower than one. The low frequency is close to the natural vortex shedding frequency. Two different modes of the synthetic jet have been identified. A vorticity-dominated mode is observed in the low-frequency forcing case for which the separation length is reduced by 54%, while an acoustic-dominated mode is identified in the high-frequency forcing case for which the separation length is increased by 43%. The decrease of the separation length in the low-frequency forcing case is correlated with an increase of the turbulent kinetic energy level and consequently with an increase of the entrainment in the separated zone. A linear inviscid stability analysis shows that the increase of the separation length in the high-frequency forcing case is due to a modification of the mean velocity profile suggested by Stanek and coworkers. The result is a lower amplification of the perturbations and consequently, a lower entrainment into the mixing layer. To our knowledge, it is the first time that Stanek's hypothesis has been assessed, thanks to numerical simulations of fully turbulent flow.
Evaluation of ASR Systems for Conversational Speech: A Linguistic Perspective

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) meets more informal and free-form input data as voice user interfaces and conversational agents such as the voice assistants such as Alexa, Google Home, etc., gain popularity. Conversational speech is both the most difficult and environmentally relevant sort of data for speech recognition. In this paper, we take a linguistic perspective, and take the French language as a case study toward disambiguation of the French homophones. Our contribution aims to provide more insight into human speech transcription accuracy in conditions to reproduce those of state-of-the-art ASR systems, although in a much focused situation. We investigate a case study involving the most common errors encountered in the automatic transcription of French language.
Latest results on the XYZ states from Belle and BaBar

Recent experimental studies of new charmonium‐like states at B‐factories are reviewed. This review covers updates on the exotic candidates, the X(3872) and Z(4430), searches and measurements of other new or known states in the mass region 3.9–4.7 GeV, and measurements of exclusive processes including a charmonium or a D(*)‐meson pair in their final states, which are produced by initial‐state‐radiation processes related to the Y(4260) and other states.
Towards Fine-Grained Air Quality Sensing in Urban Environments

This paper presents preliminary findings from a deployment of an Internet of Things (IoT) air quality sensor that can provide realtime and historical fine-grained air quality data. Current air quality data provided to communities may be inaccurate meaning that people are breathing air that is more polluted than what is reported. Through this research, we share our findings from testing in a controlled environment, a test deployment in an urban environment, and an enclosure for future deployments. From our test deployment we are able to determine that there is a significant difference between two locations that are less than 4 miles apart where the average particulate matter reading was more than double. These findings show that fine-grained air quality monitoring can provide the community with more meaningful data of the air they breathe.
LSST Instrument Concept

The LSST Instrument is a wide-field optical (0.3 to 1um) imager designed to provide a three degree field-of-view with better than 0.2 arcsecond sampling. The image surface of the LSST is approximately 55cm in diameter with a curvature radius of 25 meters to flat. The detector format is currently defined to be a circular mosaic of 568 2k × 2k devices faceted to synthesize this surface within the constraints of LSST's f/1.25 focal ratio. This camera will provide over 2.2 Gigapixels per image with a 2 second readout time. With an expected typical exposure time of as short as 10s, this will yield a nightly data set on order of 3 terapixels. The scale of the LSST Instrument is equivalent to a square mosaic of 47k × 47k. The LSST Instrument will also provide a filter mechanism, as well as optical shuttering capability. Imagers of this size pose interesting challenges in many design areas including detectors, interface electronics, data acquisition and processing pipelines, dewar construction, filter and shutter mechanisms. Further more, the LSST 3 mirror optical system places this instrument in a highly constrained volume where these challenges are compounded. Specific focus is being applied to meeting defined scientific performance requirements with an eye to total cost, system complexity, power consumption, reliability, and risk. This paper will describe the current efforts in the LSST Instrument Concept Design.
Texture-Based Image Analysis For the Assessment of Soybeans

At 4.44 billion bushels worth an estimated $57.7 billion dollars, soybeans are one of the most produced crops in the United States and are appraised using a standard grading system set by the USDA(NASS, 2022). The grading and inspection process is based on twenty factors, including six that are visual based (USDA, 2020). The aim of this research is to apply texture-based image analysis to assess visual indicators of damage in soybeans and demonstrate potential use in increasing efficiency and consistency in soybean grading. Surface texture is one of the characteristics that is examined by inspectors as part of assessing soybean damage, while “image texture” is a calculated set of parameters that are used in image processing and analysis to quantify the apparent actual texture captured in an image. In this study, texture analysis using Haralick textural features is performed on sets of soybean images to assess damage types (as defined by the USDA inspection handbook and visual reference images) and improve soybean classification.
Common rules underlying optogenetic and behavioral modulation of responses in multi-cell-type V1 circuits

The visual cortex receives non-sensory inputs containing behavioral and brain state information. Here we propose a parallel between optogenetic and behavioral modulations of activity and characterize their impact on cell-type-specific V1 processing under a common theoretical framework. We infer cell-type-specific circuitry from large-scale V1 recordings and demonstrate that, given strong recurrent excitation, the cell-type-specific responses imply key aspects of the known connectivity. In the inferred models, parvalbumin-expressing (PV), but not other, interneurons have responses to perturbations that we show theoretically imply that their activity stabilizes the circuit. We infer inputs that explain locomotion-induced changes in firing rates and find that, contrary to hypotheses of simple disinhibition, locomotory drive to VIP cells and to SOM cells largely cancel, with enhancement of excitatory-cell visual responses likely due to direct locomotory drive to them. We show that this SOM/VIP cancellation is a property emerging from V1 connectivity structure.
Formate Promotes Invasion and Metastasis by Activating Fatty Acid Synthesis and Matrix Metalloproteinases

Metabolic rewiring is essential to enable cancer onset and progression. One important metabolic pathway that is often hijacked by cancer cells is the one-carbon cycle, in which the third carbon of serine is oxidized to formate. We have previously shown that formate production in cancer cells often exceeds the anabolic demand, resulting in formate overflow. Furthermore, we observed that high extracellular formate promotes the in vitro invasiveness of glioblastoma (GBM) cells. However, additional data supporting this in vitro observation and mechanistic details remained elusive so far. In the present study, we now demonstrate that inhibition of formate overflow results in a decreased invasiveness of GBM cells ex vivo and in vivo. Additionally, we observed that exposure to exogeneous formate can induce a transiently stable pro-invasive phenotype that results in increased metastasis formation in vivo. All in all, these results suggest that a local formate increase within the tumor microenvironment may be one factor that can promote cancer cell motility and dissemination. Mechanistically, we uncover a previously undescribed interplay where formate acts as a trigger to alter fatty acid metabolism and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activity which in turn impacts cancer cell invasiveness. We thus highlight the role of formate as a pro-invasive metabolite. Gaining a deeper understanding of formate overflow and how it promotes invasion in cancer, may open new therapeutic opportunities to prevent cancer cell dissmination.
A lizard is never late: squamate genomics as a recent catalyst for understanding sex chromosome and microchromosome evolution

In 2011, the first high-quality genome assembly of a squamate reptile (lizard or snake) was published for the green anole. Dozens of genome assemblies were subsequently published over the next decade, yet these assemblies were largely inadequate for answering fundamental questions regarding genome evolution in squamates due to their lack of contiguity or annotation. As the “genomics age” was beginning to hit its stride in many organismal study systems, progress in squamates was largely stagnant following the publication of the green anole genome. In fact, zero high-quality (chromosome-level) squamate genomes were published between the years 2012–2017. However, since 2018, an exponential increase in high-quality genome assemblies has materialized with 24 additional high-quality genomes published for species across the squamate tree of life. As the field of squamate genomics is rapidly evolving, we provide a systematic review from an evolutionary genomics perspective. We collated a near-complete list of publicly available squamate genome assemblies from more than half-a-dozen international and third-party repositories and systematically evaluated them with regard to their overall quality, phylogenetic breadth, and usefulness for continuing to provide accurate and efficient insights into genome evolution across squamate reptiles. This review both highlights and catalogs the currently available genomic resources in squamates and their ability to address broader questions in vertebrates, specifically sex chromosome and microchromosome evolution, while addressing why squamates may have received less historical focus and has caused their progress in genomics to lag behind peer taxa.
Network Path Integrity Verification using Deterministic Delay Measurements

—If an attacker succeeds in planting a device in a network, detecting the alien device can be extremely difﬁcult. With the intuition that every device on the data path contributes to the end-to-end delay, we propose a simple and deterministic measurement-based approach for detecting the insertion of a layer-2 switch on the data path of a network operator. For this purpose, we use commodity hardware and the standard ping tool for collecting ICMP RTTs. To minimise inaccuracies in the measurements, we increase timing determinism on both ICMP source and target by using a real-time kernel on both, a dedicated source (a Linux server) and target (an RPI4 with custom image). Additionally, we manipulate real-time attributes for prioritising the ping process. By using this approach on different loaded networks: lab, campus network, research and education network and an ISP, we are able to reliably detect that a switch was added at the end of the path or within it. Our method yields an excellent performance on networks with considerable cross trafﬁc as well as lightly loaded networks.
The 35 Day Evolution of the Hercules X-1 Pulse Profile: Ginga Observations and Their Implications

We observed Her X-1 using the Ginga observatory in the spring of 1989 with the primary intention of studying the evolution of the pulse profile through the course of the 35 day X-ray HIGH-LOW cycle in that source. These observations cover 16 separate days in two MAIN HIGH states and in the intervening SHORT HIGH state. We have augmented these data with four additional Ginga observations of Her X-1 taken for other purposes but useful for our study. We present light curves in the 1-37 keV energy band for the seven high states covered by these data together with a representative sample of pulse profiles. The signal-to-noise ratio for these profiles is generally excellent, and collectively they provide a sound base for studying the evolution of the pulse profile. Of particular utility is the 1989 May observation, which for the first time provides extensive coverage of a short high state at high photon counting rate. By combining pulse phase and frequency information from all three high state observations in 1989, we are able to determine the phase alignment of main high and short high pulse profiles with high confidence. We identify components in the Her X-1 pulse profile by their distinctive spectral signatures, and we establish the existence of a definite, repetitive pattern of pulse shape variations tied to the 35 day high-low cycle. Comparing pre-Ginga observations of pulse profiles superposed according to the 35 day phase indicates that this pattern has persisted over the past two decades. Moreover, the pulse phase alignment of the 1989 data allows the identification of components common to the main high and short high pulse profiles. One of the key elements of this pattern is the rapid change in pulse profile that occurs roughly 7 days into each main high state. In examining possible mechanisms for this interval of accelerated evolution, we are led to consider a class of models that involve dynamical changes in accretion flow geometry arising from neutron star obliquity. These models, however, suggest asymmetries in the X-ray illumination of the companion star that may conflict with extensive optical observations of the Her X-1 system. By contrast, kinematic changes in the geometrical aspect of obscuring matter flows near or within the magnetosphere that are tied to accretion disk precession provide a mechanism that may be consistent with observations.
A numerical study on the nocturnal frontogenesis of the sea-breeze front

A numerical simulation of a sea-breeze front (SBF) is carried out to investigate the nocturnal frontogenesis (FG) phenomenon that occurs as the SBF propagates inland during the nighttime. At first, we reproduce the FG event of the nighttime SBF based on high-resolution numerical modeling. Then, to reveal its formation mechanism, the FG equation is used, and contributions of each term in the FG equation are estimated for explaining this nocturnal FG event. The results show that the nocturnal FG event of the nighttime SBF: (1) is mostly attributed to the confluence effect due to the horizontal velocity convergence and intensification of the horizontal potential temperature gradient at the front; (2) is partly attributed to the no significant tendency of the turbulence effect associated with the surface cooling.