Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evolutionary Method of Heterogeneous Combat Network Based on Link Prediction

Currently, research on the evolution of heterogeneous combat networks (HCNs) mainly focuses on the modeling process, with little attention paid to the impact of changes in network topology on operational capabilities. Link prediction can provide a fair and unified comparison standard for network evolution mechanisms. This paper uses link prediction methods to study the evolution of HCNs. Firstly, according to the characteristics of HCNs, a link prediction index based on frequent subgraphs (LPFS) is proposed. LPFS have been demonstrated on a real combat network to be superior to 26 baseline methods. The main driving force of research on evolution is to improve the operational capabilities of combat networks. Adding the same number of nodes and edges, 100 iterative experiments demonstrate that the evolutionary method (HCNE) proposed in this paper outperforms random evolution and preferential evolution in improving the operational capabilities of combat networks. Furthermore, the new network generated after evolution is more consistent with the characteristics of a real network.
Sharing the Sidewalk: Observing Delivery Robot Interactions with Pedestrians during a Pilot in Pittsburgh, PA

Sidewalk delivery robots are being deployed as a form of last-mile delivery. While many such robots have been deployed on college campuses, fewer have been piloted on public sidewalks. Furthermore, there have been few observational studies of robots and their interactions with pedestrians. To better understand how sidewalk robots might integrate into public spaces, the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania conducted a pilot of sidewalk delivery robots to understand possible uses and the challenges that could arise in interacting with people in the city. Our team conducted ethnographic observations and intercept interviews to understand how residents perceived of and interacted with sidewalk delivery robots over the course of the public pilot. We found that people with limited knowledge about the robots crafted stories about their purpose and function. We observed the robots causing distractions and obstructions with different sidewalk users (including children and dogs), witnessed people helping immobilized robots, and learned about potential accessibility issues that the robots may pose. Based on our findings, we contribute a set of recommendations for future pilots, as well as questions to guide future design for robots in public spaces.
Amino Acid-Derived Bacterial Metabolites in the Colorectal Luminal Fluid: Effects on Microbial Communication, Metabolism, Physiology, and Growth

Undigested dietary and endogenous proteins, as well as unabsorbed amino acids, can move from the terminal part of the ileum into the large intestine, where they meet a dense microbial population. Exfoliated cells and mucus released from the large intestine epithelium also supply nitrogenous material to this microbial population. The bacteria in the large intestine luminal fluid release amino acids from the available proteins, and amino acids are then used for bacterial protein synthesis, energy production, and in other various catabolic pathways. The resulting metabolic intermediaries and end products can then accumulate in the colorectal fluid, and their concentrations appear to depend on different parameters, including microbiota composition and metabolic activity, substrate availability, and the capacity of absorptive colonocytes to absorb these metabolites. The aim of the present review is to present how amino acid-derived bacterial metabolites can affect microbial communication between both commensal and pathogenic microorganisms, as well as their metabolism, physiology, and growth.
Intraarticular Implantation of Autologous Chondrocytes Placed on Collagen or Polyethersulfone Scaffolds: An Experimental Study in Rabbits

Hyaline cartilage has very limited repair capability and cannot be rebuilt predictably using conventional treatments. This study presents Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (ACI) on two different scaffolds for the treatment of lesions in hyaline cartilage in rabbits. The first one is a commercially available scaffold (Chondro–Gide) made of collagen type I/III and the second one is a polyethersulfone (PES) synthetic membrane, manufactured by phase inversion. The revolutionary idea in the present study is the fact that we used PES membranes, which have unique features and benefits that are desirable for the 3D cultivation of chondrocytes. Sixty-four White New Zealand rabbits were used in this research. Defects penetrating into the subchondral bone were filled with or without the placement of chondrocytes on collagen or PES membranes after two weeks of culture. The expression of the gene encoding type II procollagen, a molecular marker of chondrocytes, was evaluated. Elemental analysis was performed to estimate the weight of tissue grown on the PES membrane. The reparative tissue was analyzed macroscopically and histologically after surgery at 12, 25, and 52 weeks. RT-PCR analysis of the mRNA isolated from cells detached from the polysulphonic membrane revealed the expression of type II procollagen. The elementary analysis of polysulphonic membrane slices after 2 weeks of culture with chondrocytes revealed a concentration of 0.23 mg of tissue on one part of the membrane. Macroscopic and microscopic evaluation indicated that the quality of regenerated tissue was similar after the transplantation of cells placed on polysulphonic or collagen membranes. The established method for the culture and transplantation of chondrocytes placed on polysulphonic membranes resulted in the growth of the regenerated tissue, revealing the morphology of hyaline-like cartilage to be of similar quality to collagen membranes.
Sensitivity of the Tropical Easterly Jet to the Distribution and Magnitude of Latent Heating in an Aqua-Planet Model

Sensitivity of the tropical easterly jet (TEJ) to the distribution and magnitude of tropical latent heating was examined using an aqua-planet configuration of the Community Atmosphere Model, version 3.1 (CAM-3.1), of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. A series of aqua-planet simulations show that the wind speeds associated with the TEJ are directly controlled by the magnitude and location of tropical heating. Specifically, heating in the off-equator and higher tropical latitudes can generate strong easterlies. In contrast, a single heat source in the equatorial region, even with high magnitude, does not force strong easterlies. However, heating in the higher tropical latitudes is not relevant to explain the structure of the TEJ, whereas equatorial heating is crucial for the realistic vertical and meridional structures of the TEJ. The location of peak zonal wind is influenced by the off-equatorial heating near the TEJ. In a realistic model configuration, it is shown that a zonally elongated precipitation band in the Pacific Ocean warm pool is important for the TEJ to extend eastwards into this region.
Application of Blended Learning to Veterinary Gross Anatomy Practical Sessions: Students’ Perceptions of Their Learning Experience and Academic Outcomes

Simple Summary Blended learning strategies are becoming more popular in health sciences teaching, including veterinary medicine. However, the use of these methods in practical classes is less commonly described. This paper outlines a blended learning approach using flipped classrooms, collaborative learning, and gamification in gross anatomy practicals for first-year veterinary students. The practicals were restructured to include video pre-viewing, quizzes, collaborative group work, and a card game. Results showed a small but significant improvement in practical anatomy exam scores for the locomotor apparatus, with no significant difference in organic systems exams. Student satisfaction was high, with positive feedback regarding motivation, stimulation, and learning with peers. This study demonstrates that blended learning in anatomy practicals, including a flipped classroom and gamification, can enhance the student learning experience and optimize the limited time available for practicals. Abstract The use of blended learning strategies is increasingly common in health sciences, including veterinary medicine; however, there are very few descriptions of these methods being applied to practicals. We describe here the application of blended learning based on the implementation of flipped classrooms with collaborative learning and gamification to the 2020–2021 veterinary medicine gross anatomy practicals at CEU Cardenal Herrera University (Spain). Students prepared for the sessions by pre-viewing videos and taking a quiz before the start. The sessions were conducted in small groups where students learned through collaborative work and reviewed their learning with a card game. A small but significant increase was observed when comparing the scores of practical exams of the locomotor apparatus with those of 2018–2019 (6.79 ± 2.22 vs. 6.38 ± 2.24, p < 0.05), while the scores were similar (7.76 ± 1.99 vs. 7.64 ± 1.92) for the organ system exams. Students’ responses in a satisfaction survey were mostly positive (>80%) regarding the motivating and learning-facilitating effect of this educational method. Our work shows that the application of blended learning in anatomy practicals based on a flipped classroom and with elements of gamification and collaborative work can be an effective way to improve the learning experience of students.
Bayesian Manifold Learning: Locally Linear Latent Variable Model (LL-LVM): poster

We introduce the Locally Linear Latent Variable Model (LL-LVM), a probabilistic model for non-linear manifold discovery that describes a joint distribution over observations, their manifold coordinates and locally linear maps conditioned on a set of neighbourhood relationships. The model allows straightforward variational optimisation of the posterior distribution on coordinates and locally linear maps from the latent space to the observation space given the data. Thus, the LL-LVM encapsulates the local-geometry preserving intuitions that underlie non-probabilistic methods such as locally linear embedding (LLE). Its probabilistic semantics make it easy to evaluate the quality of hypothesised neighbourhood relationships, select the intrinsic dimensionality of the manifold, construct out-of-sample extensions and to combine the manifold model with additional probabilistic models that capture the structure of coordinates within the manifold.
Gamma Radiation Synthesis of Ag/P25 Nanocomposites for Efficient Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Contaminant

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has garnered significant attention among various photocatalysts, whereas its photocatalytic activity is limited by its wide bandgap and inefficient charge separation, making the exploration of new strategies to improve its photocatalytic performance increasingly important. Here, we report the synthesis of Ag/P25 nanocomposites through a one-step gamma-ray radiation method using AgNO3 and commercial TiO2 (Degussa P25). The resulting products were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, UV-Vis diffused reflectance spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The effect of free radical scavengers, feed ratios of Ag/P25, and dose rates on the photocatalytic activity of the Ag/P25 nanocomposites were systematically investigated using rhodamine B under Xenon light irradiation. The results showed that the Ag/P25 photocatalyst synthesized with a feed ratio of 2.5 wt% and isopropyl alcohol as the free radical scavenger at a dose rate of 130 Gy/min exhibited outstanding photocatalytic activity, with a reaction rate constant of 0.0674 min−1, much higher than that of P25. Additionally, we found that the particle size of Ag could be effectively controlled by changing the dose rate, and the Ag/P25 nanocomposites doped with smaller size of Ag nanoparticles performed higher photocatalytic activities. The synthesis strategy presented in this study offers new insight into the future development of highly efficient photocatalysts using radiation techniques.
Bioactive Components and Their Activities from Different Parts of Citrus aurantifolia (Christm.) Swingle for Food Development

Citrus aurantifolia is part of the Rutaceae family and belongs to the genus Citrus. It is widely used in food, the chemical industry, and pharmaceuticals because it has a unique flavor and odor. It is nutrient-rich and is beneficial as an antibacterial, anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and insecticide. Secondary metabolites present in C. aurantifolia are what give rise to biological action. Flavonoids, terpenoids, phenolics, limonoids, alkaloids, and essential oils are among the secondary metabolites/phytochemicals discovered in C. aurantifolia. Every portion of the plant’s C. aurantifolia has a different composition of secondary metabolites. Environmental conditions such as light and temperature affect the oxidative stability of the secondary metabolites from C. aurantifolia. The oxidative stability has been increased by using microencapsulation. The advantages of microencapsulation are control of the release, solubilization, and protection of the bioactive component. Therefore, the chemical makeup and biological functions of the various plant components of C. aurantifolia must be investigated. The aim of this review is to discuss the bioactive components of C. aurantifolia such as essential oils, flavonoids, terpenoids, phenolic, limonoids, and alkaloids obtained from different parts of the plants and their biological activities such as being antibacterial, antioxidant, anticancer, an insecticide, and anti-inflammatory. In addition, various extraction techniques of the compounds out of different parts of the plant matrix as well as the microencapsulation of the bioactive components in food are also provided.
Juice Quality Evaluation with Multisensor Systems—A Review

E-nose and e-tongue are advanced technologies that allow for the fast and precise analysis of smells and flavours using special sensors. Both technologies are widely used, especially in the food industry, where they are implemented, e.g., for identifying ingredients and product quality, detecting contamination, and assessing their stability and shelf life. Therefore, the aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive review of the application of e-nose and e-tongue in various industries, focusing in particular on the use of these technologies in the fruit and vegetable juice industry. For this purpose, an analysis of research carried out worldwide over the last five years, concerning the possibility of using the considered multisensory systems to test the quality and taste and aroma profiles of juices is included. In addition, the review contains a brief characterization of these innovative devices through information such as their origin, mode of operation, types, advantages and disadvantages, challenges and perspectives, as well as the possibility of their applications in other industries besides the juice industry.
Arithmetic Asian Options with Continuous Sampling

This paper studies the pricing of Arithmetic Asian options with continuous sampling. We derive a new analytical approximate formula to price and hedge the Arithmetic Asian options. The correction to the analytical approximate formula can be evaluated by solving a Partial Differential Equation (PDE) numerically. Numerical experiments show that the error of our semi-analytical approach, i.e., analytical approximation with the correction, is at least of the order of $10^{-5}$, for the options with wide range of parameters tested in this paper. The accuracy can be easily pushed even higher by decreasing the grid size for the computation of the correction term. The CPU time taken for the numerical computation is one to two seconds. Our method is more accurate than any existing methods in the literature, and faster than other PDE methods. With the error well-controlled, our results can be used as a benchmark to justify the error computed by other approximation methods, including Monte Carlo simulation.
Recognition and localization of freshwater fish heads and tails based on lightweight neural networks

ABSTRACT The quality of fish pre-treatment processing directly affected the production competitiveness of the fish industry. The removal of heads and tails is one of the key technologies in the fish processing. This study proposed an identification method of fish head and tail, and the original YOLOV3 model was improved by replacing the backbone feature extraction network of the YOLOV3 model with the lightweight neural network MobileNetv3. Firstly, a freshwater fish image dataset was created and divided into the training, validation and test sets with the assigned ratio of 6:2:2. Next, the freshwater fish dataset was trained using the target detector YOLOV3. Finally, the average accuracy mAP (mean of Average Precision) and the average image detection time were used as the accuracy and speed indexes to evaluate the detection effect of the model. In addition, the SSD-MobileNetv3 and SSD-VGG16 were introduced into present study and they were compared with the improved algorithm. The experimental results showed that the detection speed of the YOLOV3 model with MobileNetV3 was significantly improved. The mAP of YOLOV3-MobileNetv3 model was 98.36%, the inference speed was 28.2 ms, which was 5.09%, 4.24% and 2.07% higher than the mAP of other three models (SSD-VGG16, SSD-MobileNetv3 and YOLOV3-Darknet-53), and the average detection time shortened by 86%, 9.99% and 29%, respectively. Therefore, this experimental method of head and tail of freshwater fish could achieve real-time detection and recognition of various kinds of freshwater fish, which had the great advantages of high detection accuracy and fast detection speed.
Amalgamating TSO and DSO Energy Markets Through Minimal Data Exchange-Based Framework

Integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) in the distribution system (DS) raises the need to have a trading platform for their energy products. The evolution of distribution system operators (DSOs) facilitates the participation of DERs in the energy market at DS level. To utilize the potential of DERs in DS at the transmission level, an iterative coordinated market operations (CMO) scheme for a day-ahead energy market is proposed in this paper. In the proposed scheme, coordination between the transmission system operator and DSOs is established with limited exchange of information to realize an efficient and economical market framework. The communication procedure and time interval for data exchange during various intermediate operations, and convergence criteria of the proposed iterative scheme are defined. The main goal is to accommodate CMO into the existing market clearing mechanism with minimal changes. Case studies on four test systems demonstrate the viability of proposed scheme and the improvement in overall economics in comparison to the conventional method of market clearing as practiced or proposed in literature.
Toxicity of Sargassum wightii to the Malaria Vector Anopheles stephensi Liston (Diptera: Culicidae)

Seaweed based pesticides exhibit mosquitocidal properties and are found to be effective, biodegradable and non-toxic to non-target organisms. Sargassum wightii Greville butanol and ethanol extracts were tested for its toxicity against the second and third instar larvae of Anopheles stephensi Liston in the present study. One hundred percent larval mortality was observed in the second instar of An. stephensi by the ethanol extract at the highest concentration of 500 mg/ l after 24 hours of exposure. The LC50 values of S. wightii butanol and ethanol extracts were 107.03 and 89.67 mg/ l, against the second instar of An. stephensi; and 132.56 and 92.00 mg/ l against the third instar of An. stephensi respectively. Phytochemical analysis of S. wightii extracts revealed presence of alkaloids, carbohydrates, fatty acids, flavonoids, phenols, proteins, tannins and terpenes. Larval mortality of second and third instars of An. stephensi can be attributed to the major compounds present in S. wightii revealed by GC-MS analysis, viz., ethyl salicylate, methyl salicylate, ethyl palmitate, palmitic acid, oleic acid, phytolin and diethyl phthalate. The present study accentuates S. wightii butanol and ethanol extracts to cause lethal effects to the second and third instar larvae of An. stephensi.
Morphology of the Ventral Process of the Sixth Cervical Vertebra in Extinct and Extant Equus: Functional Implications

Simple Summary The mammalian body plan is like a ‘blueprint’ that supports the survival and procreation of a species. This plan includes specialized bony structures for muscle attachment such as the ventral process of C6, a two-part bony projection divided into cranial and caudal ventral tubercles (CVT). In modern horses, muscles such as the longus colli attach to the ventral process of C6 and aid in the flexion, stabilization, fixation, and force redirection of cervical vertebrae. Recent studies identified an anomalous variation where the CVT was either unilaterally or bilaterally absent. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine if anomalous variations of the CVTs, as described in modern horses, is a post-domestication congenital abnormality or a normal presentation throughout evolution. For this purpose, the ventral processes of C6 in extinct and extant Equus specimens in museums and research/educational facilities were examined. The findings revealed the CVT of C6 was present in those extinct and extant specimens examined, and that its absence was only evident in modern horses. This implies that the absent CVT manifested post-domestication. Although the clinical significance is unknown, the relevance might be considered when reporting on diagnostic images of C6, and especially, for potential buyers in pre-purchase cases. Abstract In this study, we examined the ventral process of C6 in extinct and extant Equus (sister taxa to Equus ferus caballus only) with the purpose of describing normal morphology and identifying anomalous variations relevant to recent studies describing a congenital malformation in E. ferus caballus. Overall, 83 specimens from 9 museums and 3 research/educational facilities were examined, totalling 71 extinct specimens from 12 species and 12 extant specimens from 5 species. The lateral view revealed that a large convexity exists in the ventral process between the cranial ventral tubercle (CrVT) and the caudal ventral tubercle (CVT) in the earliest ancestor, Hyracotherium grangeri, from 55 mya, which receded throughout the millennia to become a smaller convexity in E. ferus caballus and the sister taxa. The CrVT is visibly shorter and narrower than the CVT, with a constricted section directly ventral to the transverse process, essentially demarcating the CrVT and CVT. No congenital malformations were evident. As the ventral process of C6 is an integral component for muscle attachment in supporting the head/neck during posture and locomotion, this would indicate that the caudal module in the cervical column might be compromised when a partial or complete absence of the CVT is detected via radiographs in modern E. ferus caballus.