Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MIP mapping the virtual environment for computer games

The paper describes how MIP-mapping and paging can be used to represent not only terrain imagery, but also terrain elevation. Previously the only things missing to implement Earth coverage were computing power, input/output bandwidth, graphics processing units (GPUs) and techniques to deal with large data sets. The article describes the rendering method that uses the GPU for most of the calculations. Modern graphics accelerators for personal computers allow you to solve problems that require the generation of images of the visual environment of photographic quality in real time. High-quality visualization of large continuous spaces of 3D vegetation is one of the requirements when creating most land transport simulators, as well as many virtual reality applications. Representation of large forest spaces in the form of free-standing tree models that have an acceptable visual quality for close-up display from the observer, it is impossible due to the huge number of primitives required for visualization. The article proposes use parallel calculations in GPU to accelerate rendering. We successfully integrated proposed visualization method into the standard rendering pipeline. For considered tests the application with GPU average ten times faster, than the version using only CPU. The proposed method takes into account the features of the architecture of modern GPUs and allows you to distribute the load on the display between the CPU and GPU. In this case, the method does not require significant resources for visualization. The implementation of the method showed that received speed in most cases is sufficient for the effective application of the method in computer games. The paper also proposes a method for high-quality visualization of large continuous spaces of 3D vegetation.
Comparative Extraction of Phenolic Compounds from Olive Leaves Using a Sonotrode and an Ultrasonic Bath and the Evaluation of Both Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity

A sonotrode ultrasound-assisted extraction of phenolic compounds from olive leaves has been developed using a Box–Behnken design to optimize the effects of solvent composition and ultrasound parameters. The determination of single phenolic compounds was performed by HPLC–MS and the highest recovery in total compounds, oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol was achieved using EtOH/H2O (55:45, v/v), 8 min and 100% of amplitude. The optimal conditions were applied on leaves from seven olive cultivars grown under the same conditions and the results were compared with those found by using a conventional ultrasonic bath, obtaining no statistical differences. Moreover, antioxidant activity by FRAP, DPPH and ABTS in these olive leaf extracts was evaluated and they exhibited a significant correlation with oleuropein and total phenolic content. All cultivars of olive leaf extracts were found to be active against S. aureus and methicillin-resistant S. aureus with minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values) that ranged from 5.5 to 22.5 mg mL−1. No extracts showed antimicrobial activity against C. albicans. The percentages of mycelium reduction in B. cinerea ranged from 2.2 and 18.1%. Therefore, sonotrode could be considered as an efficient and fast extraction technique that could be easily scaled-up at industrial level, thus allowing for olive leaves to be revalorized.
Deep Learning Approaches for Prognosis of Automated Skin Disease

Skin problems are among the most common ailments on Earth. Despite its popularity, assessing it is not easy because of the complexities in skin tones, hair colors, and hairstyles. Skin disorders provide a significant public health risk across the globe. They become dangerous when they enter the invasive phase. Dermatological illnesses are a significant concern for the medical community. Because of increased pollution and poor diet, the number of individuals with skin disorders is on the rise at an alarming rate. People often overlook the early signs of skin illness. The current approach for diagnosing and treating skin conditions relies on a biopsy process examined and administered by physicians. Human assessment can be avoided with a hybrid technique, thus providing hopeful findings on time. Approaches to a thorough investigation indicate that deep learning methods might be used to construct frameworks capable of identifying diverse skin conditions. Skin and non-skin tissue must be distinguished to detect skin diseases. This research developed a skin disease classification system using MobileNetV2 and LSTM. For this system, accuracy in skin disease forecasting is the primary aim while ensuring excellent efficiency in storing complete state information for exact forecasts.
Engineering Nanopatterned Structures to Orchestrate Macrophage Phenotype by Cell Shape

Physical features on the biomaterial surface are known to affect macrophage cell shape and phenotype, providing opportunities for the design of novel “immune-instructive” topographies to modulate foreign body response. The work presented here employed nanopatterned polydimethylsiloxane substrates with well-characterized nanopillars and nanopits to assess RAW264.7 macrophage response to feature size. Macrophages responded to the small nanopillars (SNPLs) substrates (450 nm in diameter with average 300 nm edge-edge spacing), resulting in larger and well-spread cell morphology. Increasing interpillar distance to 800 nm in the large nanopillars (LNPLs) led to macrophages exhibiting morphologies similar to being cultured on the flat control. Macrophages responded to the nanopits (NPTs with 150 nm deep and average 800 nm edge-edge spacing) by a significant increase in cell elongation. Elongation and well-spread cell shape led to expression of anti-inflammatory/pro-healing (M2) phenotypic markers and downregulated expression of inflammatory cytokines. SNPLs and NPTs with high availability of integrin binding region of fibronectin facilitated integrin β1 expression and thus stored focal adhesion formation. Increased integrin β1 expression in macrophages on the SNPLs and NTPs was required for activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway, which promoted macrophage cell spreading and negatively regulated NF-κB activation as evidenced by similar globular cell shape and higher level of NF-κB expression after PI3K blockade. These observations suggested that alterations in macrophage cell shape from surface nanotopographies may provide vital cues to orchestrate macrophage phenotype.
Crossover Tabu Search for Traveling Salesman Problem

An improved tabu search-crossover tabu search(CTS)was proposed,which is applied for solving a well-known combinatorial optimization problem--the traveling salesman problem(TSP). The key strategies of the CTS are intensification strategy and diversification strategy.Intensification strategies,based on modifying choice rules to encourage move combinations,were used to enhance the efficiency of local search.Diversifications strategies were designed to drive the search into new regions,i.e.,exploit the new search spaces.The CTS implement the crossover operator of the genetic algorithm(GA)as the diversification strategy,and the strategy for selecting elite solutions as the intensification strategy.CTS,standard TS,standard TS with intensification strategy and ant colony system(ACS)were used to solve the same TSP problems which come from the library of TSP instances TSPLIB and other three TSP instances of Fogel's path.The results show better CTS performances than other kinds of algorithms.
Potential of Onshore Wind Turbine Inertia in Decarbonising the Future Irish Energy System

Power system inertia is an essential part for grid frequency stability and decreases due to the replacement of fossil fuel fired power plants with variable renewable energy sources. This development is not represented sufficiently in unit commitment and economic dispatch models. If considered at all, only synchronous inertia from fossil fuel driven power plants is modelled. This results in increased CO2 emissions, curtailed renewable energy and high system costs. While wind turbines are a source for synthetic inertia and an important renewable energy source, their capability to provide inertia is not incorporated into energy system models. The work at hand closes this research gap and applies a methodology to depict synthetic inertia provided by wind turbines as part of the optimisation dispatch model. A unit commitment and economic inertia dispatch model of the the all-Island Irish power system is created. The potential of wind inertia is analysed and quantified by assessing CO2 emissions, curtailed renewable energy and system costs. Results show that synthetic inertia provided by wind turbines can save up 30.99% of the CO2 emissions, reduce curtailment by up to 39.90% and reduce system costs by 32.72%.
Ten Year Experience of Global Capstone Design Projects in China

Yiming (Kevin) Rong is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the Associate Program Director of Manufacturing/Materials Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He received his Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from University of Kentucky, in 1989. Dr. Rong worked as a faculty member at Southern Illinois University for eight years before joining WPI in 1998. Since 2010, Professor Rong has also worked at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, taking the leadership in Manufacturing Engineering.
Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress

Pediatric medical traumatic stress is a newly emerging term in the literature that is used to describe the impact of negative health care experiences on children and their families. The aim of this scoping review is to explore the health care conditions in which the pediatric traumatic stress framework has been described and what is known about the experiences of children and families who are facing pediatric medical traumatic stress. Best practices for conducting a scoping review were utilized which included the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses extension checklist for scoping reviews (PRIS-MA-ScR). Following the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 16 articles were included in this review. Results demonstrate a lack in the knowledge around variants within health condition, developmental stage, pre-existing factors, the longevity of symptoms, child reports on trauma, and how trauma can impact future health care. Pediatric medical traumatic stress (PMTS) is described as trauma resulting from negative medical experiences which can have a devastating effect on both the child and their family, as well as impact future hospital visits (Kazak et al., 2006). PMTS is not viewed as a traumatic stress disorder, but rather as post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), in which a variety of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be present without meeting the full diagnostic criteria for PTSD (Kazak et al., 2006). Identifying the varying symptoms of PTSD has shown to be more supportive to patients and families than looking at the psychiatric diagnosis alone (Kazak et al., 2006). In order to develop an understanding of the unique aspects of trauma symptoms in children that are caused by a medical event, the term PMTS was developed to describe these
A Knowledge-Enriched Ensemble Method for Word Embedding and Multi-Sense Embedding

Representing words as embeddings has been proven to be successful in improving the performance in many natural language processing tasks. Different from the traditional methods that learn the embeddings from large text corpora, ensemble methods have been proposed to leverage the merits of pre-trained word embeddings as well as external semantic sources. In this paper, we propose a knowledge-enriched ensemble method to combine information from both knowledge graphs and pre-trained word embeddings. Specifically, we propose an attention network to retrofit the semantic information in the lexical knowledge graph into the pre-trained word embeddings. In addition, we further extend our method to contextual word embeddings and multi-sense embeddings. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed word embeddings outperform the state-of-the-art models in word analogy, word similarity and several downstream tasks. The proposed word sense embeddings outperform the state-of-the-art models in word similarity and word sense induction tasks.
Gastric Signet Ring Cell Adenocarcinoma Presenting as Intermittent Volvulus of Small Bowel: A Case Presentation and Review of the Literature

Signet ring cell carcinoma (SRCC) is an uncommon and poorly differentiated tumor. It arises mostly in the gastrointestinal tract. The incidence of gastric SRCC has increased in the past few years. Volvulus is the twisting of the bowel around its mesentery. It is classified as either primary or secondary. It is relatively common in the cecum and sigmoid colon. Volvulus of other parts of the gastrointestinal tract is relatively rare. Herein, we present a case of small bowel volvulus (SBV) secondary to advanced gastric SRCC with peritoneal carcinomatosis. The patient had presented with nausea and vomiting. Initial computed tomography (CT) scan of abdomen unveiled jejunal volvulus. SBV resolved spontaneously on a repeat CT scan. Enteroscopy with histopathology confirmed the diagnosis of gastric SRCC, which turned to be metastatic to peritoneum on laparoscopy. We believe our case is unique due to the rarity of advanced gastric SRCC presenting as secondary jejunal SBV without appreciated gastric mass on imaging.
Towards physics-inspired data-driven weather forecasting: integrating data assimilation with a deep spatial-transformer-based U-NET in a case study with ERA5

Abstract. There is growing interest in data-driven weather prediction (DDWP), e.g., using convolutional neural networks such as U-NET that are trained on data from models or reanalysis. Here, we propose three components, inspired by physics, to integrate with commonly used DDWP models in order to improve their forecast accuracy. These components are (1) a deep spatial transformer added to the latent space of U-NET to capture rotation and scaling transformation in the latent space for spatiotemporal data, (2) a data-assimilation (DA) algorithm to ingest noisy observations and improve the initial conditions for next forecasts, and (3) a multi-time-step algorithm, which combines forecasts from DDWP models with different time steps through DA, improving the accuracy of forecasts at short intervals. To show the benefit and feasibility of each component, we use geopotential height at 500 hPa (Z500) from ERA5 reanalysis and examine the short-term forecast accuracy of specific setups of the DDWP framework. Results show that the spatial-transformer-based U-NET (U-STN) clearly outperforms the U-NET, e.g., improving the forecast skill by 45 %. Using a sigma-point ensemble Kalman (SPEnKF) algorithm for DA and U-STN as the forward model, we show that stable, accurate DA cycles are achieved even with high observation noise. This DDWP+DA framework substantially benefits from large (O(1000)) ensembles that are inexpensively generated with the data-driven forward model in each DA cycle. The multi-time-step DDWP+DA framework also shows promise; for example, it reduces the average error by factors of 2–3. These results show the benefits and feasibility of these three components, which are flexible and can be used in a variety of DDWP setups. Furthermore, while here we focus on weather forecasting, the three components can be readily adopted for other parts of the Earth system, such as ocean and land, for which there is a rapid growth of data and need for forecast and assimilation.
The Addition of Charcoal Fines Can Increase the Photodegradation Resistance of Polymeric Biocomposites

This study aims to analyze the addition of widely available, cheap, and biologically-based 13 residues, such as charcoal fines, in the production of polymeric biocomposites reinforced with nat14 ural fibers subjected to UV-c radiation. The addition of charcoal fines was 0, 10, 20, 30% in the pol15 ymeric matrix of the biocomposites. Mechanical and chemical properties of the biocomposites were 16 evaluated. The flexural strength was more resistant when subjected to UV-c radiation with 20% 17 filling. These results attested that biocomposites with the addition of vegetative charcoal fines were 18 less susceptible to photodegradation. 19
AKTIVITAS ANTIOKSIDAN EKSTRAK DAUN KENIKIR (Cosmos caudatus Kunth) DENGAN BERBAGAI METODE EKSTRAKSI (ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF LEAVES EXTRACT OF KENIKIR (Cosmos caudatus Kunth) WITH VARIOUS EXTRACTION METHODS)

Cosmos caudatus Kunth is a vegetable plant that is often used as a food ingredient and traditional medicine. This study aims to determine the antioxidant activity of C. caudatus Kunth leaves extract obtained by a variety of extraction methods. The antioxidant activity test was carried out using the DPPH method. The results showed that the yield of C. caudatus Kunth leaves extract by maceration method (10.98%) was higher than the percolation (7.28%) and soxhletation (8.22%). The antioxidant activity (IC50) of the macerated extract (12.5 ± 0.3 µg/mL) was also higher than the percolated extract (16.8 ± 0.2 µg/mL) and soxhletation (18.8 ± 0.2 µg/mL). The macerated extract showed the highest antioxidant activity because it contained many secondary metabolites such as flavonoids and phenolics.
Tumor Infiltration Levels of CD3, Foxp3 (+) Lymphocytes and CD68 Macrophages at Diagnosis Predict 5-Year Disease-Specific Survival in Patients with Oropharynx Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Simple Summary Head and neck cancer (HNC) is the sixth most common cancer worldwide, with a general prognosis of 50% disease-specific survival (DSS). The subgroup of oropharyngeal (OP) cancers are of interest because HPV infection is one of several causative agents and carries favorable prognosis. Influxes of inflammatory cells into tumors may vary with prognosis. T lymphocytes are important regarding specific immune defense. Within the immune system T regulatory cells (Foxp3 positive) co-governs this process. We have therefore primarily studied levels of Foxp3 (+) cells in malignant tumors from 170 patients related to prognosis of the patients. Higher levels of T lymphocyte Foxp3 (+) cells predicted better 5-year DSS. This case was unique relative to age, gender, TNM stage, and HPV infection; but more so among tumor HPV (+) than HPV (−) patients. The results encourage further study into the use of immune-based therapy in HNC patients. Abstract Head and neck cancer (HNC) is the sixth most common cancer worldwide. Oropharyngeal (OP) cancers are of special interest because of possible underlying HPV infection which is tied to prognosis. Influxes of inflammatory cells into tumors may vary with prognoses. We wanted to study whether the number of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) and tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) in tumors correlated to HPV status and predicted 5-year disease-specific survival (DSS). Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) biopsies cut sections from 170 patients treated for OP cancer were stained by immunohistochemistry and evaluated for the number of CD68 (+) TAMs, CD3 (+), and Foxp3 (+) (T regulatory) TILs. From FFPE slides HPV by PCR and p16 by immunohistochemistry were established. From FFPE Hematoxylin-Eosin slides, levels of tumor nuclear polymorphism, tumor invasion, desmoplasia, and inflammation were determined as previously published. Levels of TIL CD3 (+) and TIL Foxp3 (+) were increased among the HPV (+) compared to the HPV (−) patients. High levels of TIL Foxp3 (+) and CD68 (+) macrophages predicted better 5-year DSS. TIL Foxp3 (+) levels predicted independent of age, gender, TNM stage, and HPV infection as well as level of stromal desmoplasia, tumor invasion, and nuclear polymorphism, but more pronounced among tumor HPV (+) than HPV (−) patients.
U-Pb age of a late Cenozoic ultra-high temperature metamorphic event under Central Mexico, as inferred from granulite xenoliths from Cerro El Toro, Mexico

ABSTRACT Cerro El Toro, a Pliocene scoria cone that carried abundant lower crust xenoliths to the surface, is located in the Mesa Central (MC), Mexico, where mafic alkalic intra-plate volcanism has occurred since the early Miocene (end of the Sierra Madre Occidental volcanism). Early studies of El Toro xenoliths showed that the feldspathic granulite equilibrated at P = 0.9–1.4 GPa and T = 900−1100°C under anhydrous conditions (ternary feldspars calculations). A young (Oligocene-Quaternary? ) pulse of ultra-high temperature (UHT) metamorphism was thus proposed for the region, without a strict age constrain. Zircon crystals recovered from a set of nine xenoliths (7 Grt-Sil bearing metapelites, a Px-bearing meta-quartz diorite, and a Grt-Opx bearing orthogneiss) were selected for LA-(MC)-ICPMS U-Pb geochronology. Palaeozoic to Neoproterozoic zircon crystals are scant, whereas Mesozoic to Cenozoic ages are more abundant. Based on their chondrite-normalized REEs all Neoproterozoic to Mesozoic zircons are interpreted as igneous, whereas those of late Oligocene to late Miocene age (ca. 27–6 Ma) are mostly metamorphic and grew during a protracted pulse of UHT metamorphism in the lower crust. The presence of Cenozoic metasediments in the lower crust under Cerro El Toro is indicative of the action of the subducted Farallon plate, coupled with tectonic erosion of continentally derived sediments, either from a forearc basin and/or an accretionary prism that were relaminated to the lower crust by sediment diapirism. Similarities among the xenolith zircon ages with those from modern sediments belonging to Central Mexico Pacific coast point towards a NW-SE 100 km long coast stretch across Zihuatanejo as a possible sediment source. The paucity of Grenville-age detrital zircon grains in the recovered xenoliths suggests that the El Toro area is not underlain by a Proterozoic basement, thus implying a substantial reduction of Oaxaquia extension beneath Central Mexico and presence of the younger Guerrero terrane.
Single-Switch Wireless-Power-Transfer Circuit With P-CLC Compensation Network Used for Battery Charging

At present, most of the analysis or studies about Wireless-Power-Transfer (WPT) with the load-independent characteristics of constant current output (CCO) and constant voltage output (CVO) are carried out based on full-bridge topologies. The study about single-switch circuits used in wireless charging is infrequent. However, compared with full-bridge topologies, the structure and the control strategy of single-switch WPT circuit are simple, and avoid the shoot-through problem, which makes it more advantageous in reliability and cost. In this paper, a single-switch WPT circuit with P-CLC compensation network is proposed to realize CCO and CVO at two different frequencies fCC and fCV, respectively. Compared with hybrid compensation, this switching method from CCO to CVO does not require extra mode switches and corresponding control circuits. Moreover, the transfer gain does not rely on the transformer parameters, more parameters design freedom can be realized. The analysis of the P-CLC compensation network illustrates that the proposed charging circuit could have a long transmission distance in low frequency. The few passive devices are used in this circuit for higher efficiency and lower cost. Finally, the simulation and the experimental verification are carried out to verify the superiority of the proposed circuit.