Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How Government Size Expansion Can Affect Green Innovation—An Empirical Analysis of Data on Cross-Country Green Patent Filings

The expansion of government size will have dual effects on a country’s green innovation. An appropriately sized government size increases marginal productivity and stimulates the development of green innovation by increasing government expenditure. On the contrary, an excessively sized government creates a huge administrative agency, which not only increases the tax burden but also damages social welfare by excessive intervention. Therefore, the effect of government size on green innovation is not linear. In order to prove this proposition, this study examines the impact of government size on green innovation in 166 countries between 1995 and 2018, using a two-way fixed effects model. The results reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between government size and the level of green innovation, indicating that optimal government size may maximize a country’s green innovation output. The results further suggest that this inverted U-shaped relationship is mainly influenced by environmental regulations and financial support. Finally, our heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the inverted U-shaped relationship is more pronounced for countries with high organizational inertia and more R&D expenditure than for those with low organizational inertia and less R&D expenditure. This finding makes up for the research gap between government size and green innovation and provides a reference for countries to formulate the optimal government size to improve the level of green innovation.
Functional resistance training with gait phase-dependent control using a robotic walker: a pilot study

Strength training can contribute to the improvement of the lower limb muscles, which does not always transfer to the improvement of walking ability. It results from the lack of training for the muscles which are responsible to generate propulsion force during walking, such as plantar flexors and hip extensors. This study aims to examine and evaluate the effects of a gait phase-dependent control strategy on the kinematics and muscular activation of users and to assess whether it can contribute to enhancing the strength of lower limb muscles in a task-specific manner, especially for plantar flexors. Eight healthy, young, male subjects participated in our experiment. We recorded EMG data from the muscles of the lower and upper limbs during walking with a robotic walker under different conditions, as well as participants’ lower limb joint angles, to investigate the effects of the gait phase-dependent control. We found that gait phase-dependent control can lead to a high activation level of plantar flexors and a high angular velocity during the pre-swing phase and that the activity in triceps brachii is lower than that with constant resistance. Furthermore, an experiment with 9 elderly subjects verified the training effects of gait-phase dependent control on the plantar flexors. Therefore, we conclude that the gait phase estimation method can train plantar flexors with high effectiveness and efficiency. The long-term effects of gait phase-dependent control on improving the walking ability of elderly people will be investigated in the future.
Viscoelastic rheological models for guided acoustic waves: Single mode at high frequency and second harmonic generation of Lamb and SH modes

The previous published work by Othmani et al. invites a further useful discussion on how the viscoelastic rheological model affects the second harmonic and single modes of guided waves. However, this paper has two main objectives. The first objective is to establish a simple relationship between the Rayleigh waves velocity (VR), fundamental Lamb modes (A0 and S0), and the shear wave velocity (VS) in unidirectional viscoelastic carbon–epoxy at high frequency. The second objective is to study the second harmonic Lamb modes. Numerical codes based on Legendre polynomial and Newton–Raphson methods are developed and implemented to predict dispersion and attenuation curves. The second harmonic generation was investigated with the hysteretic and Kelvin–Voigt viscoelastic models. Results showed that rheological models have a much larger effect on the attenuation curves than the ones on the dispersion trajectories. Additionally, the optimal angles of Lamb and SH modes in unidirectional carbon–epoxy under Snell‐Descartes law was investigated. The present numerical results may render as a useful message for the rheological community.
The growing cyber threat

This headline is becoming increasingly common as the scale and scope of what is possible in the cyber world becomes more widely known. Indeed, credible reports have emerged from the United States in early February that President Obama decided not to wage a cyber campaign against Syria for fear of the consequences. Apparently the US had the ability to ground the Syrian air force and do other unspecified damage, but chose not to do so out of concern that such an action could set a precedent and lead to the US being subjected to something similar.
Intensified Likelihood of Concurrent Warm and Dry Months Attributed to Anthropogenic Climate Change

Detection and attribution studies generally examine individual climate variables such as temperature and precipitation. Thus, we lack a strong understanding of climate change impacts on correlated climate extremes and compound events, which have become more common in recent years. Here we present a monthly‐scale compound warm and dry attribution study, examining CMIP6 climate models with and without the influence of anthropogenic forcing. We show that most regions have experienced large increases in concurrent warm and dry months in historical simulations with human emissions, while no coherent change has occurred in historical natural‐only simulations without human emissions. At the global scale, the likelihood of compound warm‐dry months has increased 2.7 times due to anthropogenic emissions. With this multivariate perspective, we highlight that anthropogenic emissions have not only impacted individual extremes but also compound extremes. Due to amplified risks from multivariate extremes, our results can provide important insights on the risks of associated climate impacts.
Recognition of partial discharge of XLPE cable based on ResNets

The most effective method for the defect detection of XLPE cable is to perform partial discharge detection. However, it is difficult to identify partial discharges induced by different types of faults in XLPE cables, especially for certain types of cable insulation faults with high similarity. In view of the common insulation faults and partial discharge characteristics of XLPE cables, four different models are designed and an experimental platform is built to collect partial discharge signals. Taking the partial discharge pulse waveform as a sample, a defect recognition method for XLPE cables based on an improved ResNets is designed. The experiment compares the recognition effect of the ResNets and the classification method based on timefrequency features and analyzes the applicability of the recognition method to various faults and the influence of the training sample size on the recognition model. The experimental results show that the recognition method based on the improved ResNets can deeply dig the effective features of the partial discharge pulse and the recognition accuracy is higher than that based on the time-frequency feature of the SVM and the BPNN neural network classification method and it is also higher than that based on the convolutional neural network. The recognition method has a good recognition effect for all four types of faults and the recognition accuracy and recognition efficiency are greatly improved with the increase of the training sample size.
The Pleistocene Glacial Cycles and Millennial-Scale Climate Variability

ABSTRACT The Pleistocene glacial cycles are the most prominent climate variations over the past three million years. They are the climatic response to variations in the incoming solar radiation, insolation, due to the deviations of the Earth's orbital configuration from the perfect Keplerian orbit is caused by the influence of the other planets in the solar system. This climatic response to astronomical forcing is highly non-linear, which is most pronounced expressed in the changing duration of the glacial cycles through the Middle Pleistocene Transition around a million years ago, where the duration of glacial cycles changed from 40 kyr to approximately 100 kyr without any corresponding changes in the astronomical forcing. In the late Pleistocene glaciations, the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets have grown larger than before, causing an increased cooling through the ice-albedo feedback, which makes it harder with increased insolation to cause deglaciation. The cold climate with extended glaciations has also made the climate more unstable, where strong millennial-scale oscillations related to changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation are observed in the paleoclimatic records.
Exogenous Melatonin in the Culture Medium Does Not Affect the Development of In Vivo-Derived Pig Embryos but Substantially Improves the Quality of In Vitro-Produced Embryos

Cloned and transgenic pigs are relevant human disease models and serve as potential donors for regenerative medicine and xenotransplantation. These technologies demand oocytes and embryos of good quality. However, the current protocols for in vitro production (IVP) of pig embryos give reduced blastocyst efficiency and embryo quality compared to in vivo controls. This is likely due to culture conditions jeopardizing embryonic homeostasis including the effect of reactive oxygen species (ROS) influence. In this study, the antioxidant melatonin (1 nM) in the maturation medium, fertilization medium, or both media was ineffective in enhancing fertilization or embryonic development parameters of in vitro fertilized oocytes. Supplementation of melatonin in the fertilization medium also had no effect on sperm function. In contrast, the addition of melatonin to the embryo culture medium accelerated the timing of embryonic development and increased the percentages of cleaved embryos and presumed zygotes that developed to the blastocyst stage. Furthermore, it increased the number of inner mass cells and the inner mass cell/total cell number ratio per blastocyst while increasing intracellular glutathione and reducing ROS and DNA damage levels in embryos. Contrarily, the addition of melatonin to the embryo culture medium had no evident effect on in vivo-derived embryos, including the developmental capacity and the quality of in vivo-derived 4-cell embryos or the percentage of genome-edited in vivo-derived zygotes achieving the blastocyst stage. In conclusion, exogenous melatonin in the embryo culture medium enhances the development and quality of in vitro-derived embryos but not in in vivo-derived embryos. Exogenous melatonin is thus recommended during embryo culture of oocytes matured and fertilized in vitro for improving porcine IVP efficiency.
Exploring the Involvement of the Amyloid Precursor Protein A673T Mutation against Amyloid Pathology and Alzheimer’s Disease in Relation to Therapeutic Editing Tools

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is biologically defined as a complex neurodegenerative condition with a multilayered nature that leads to a progressive decline in cognitive function and irreversible neuronal loss. It is one of the primary diseases among elderly individuals. With an increasing incidence and a high failure rate for pharmaceutical options that are merely symptom-targeting and supportive with many side effects, there is an urgent need for alternative strategies. Despite extensive knowledge on the molecular basis of AD, progress concerning effective disease-modifying therapies has proven to be a challenge. The ability of the CRISPR–Cas9 gene editing system to help identify target molecules or to generate new preclinical disease models could shed light on the pathogenesis of AD and provide promising therapeutic possibilities. Here, we sought to highlight the current understanding of the involvement of the A673T mutation in amyloid pathology, focusing on its roles in protective mechanisms against AD, in relation to the recent status of available therapeutic editing tools.
Correlation between childhood episodes of stress and long bone-ratios in samples of medieval skeletons - using linear enamel hypoplasia as proxy

Background: Linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) in the canines is used as an indicator of ill health in early childhood. LEH is assumed to be an indicator of catch-up growth in archeological material. Previous research indicated that certain body proportions were altered due to catch-up growth during childhood. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess whether catch-up growth during childhood affects the long bone ratios of the arms and legs of adults. Sample and Methods: Positive or negative scores for LEH in the four canines and anthropometric measurements of humerus, radius, femur, and tibia were obtained for 67 skeletons from two Danish medieval cemeteries in Nordby (Jutland) and Refshale (Lolland). Age and sex was estimated to see if any uneven distribution was present. The data was processed using the St. Nicolas house analysis, t-tests, univariate ANOVA and Kaplan-Meier survival analyses. Results: The St. Nicolas house analysis showed no correlation between hypoplasia score and anthropometric measurements. No statistically significant difference was found between the long bone ratios of the arms and legs in adults with and without LEH. Conclusion: Contrary to earlier research on body proportions in Medieval Denmark this study showed no significant difference in the long bone ratios of arms and legs associated with LEH. It did, however, find an alteration of femur and tibia length associated with hypoplasia. The findings indicate that males and females react differently to physiological stress in childhood.
Mini-Review: Gut-Microbiota and the Sex-Bias in Autoimmunity – Lessons Learnt From Animal Models

It is well appreciated that there is a female preponderance in the development of most autoimmune diseases. Thought to be due to a complex interplay between sex chromosome complement and sex-hormones, however, the exact mechanisms underlying this sex-bias remain unknown. In recent years, there has been a focus on understanding the central pathogenic role of the bacteria that live in the gut, or the gut-microbiota, in the development of autoimmunity. In this review, we discuss evidence from animal models demonstrating that the gut-microbiota is sexually dimorphic, that there is a bidirectional relationship between the production of sex-hormones and the gut-microbiota, and that this sexual dimorphism within the gut-microbiota may influence the sex-bias observed in autoimmune disease development. Collectively, these data underline the importance of considering sex as a variable when investigating biological pathways that contribute to autoimmune disease risk.
Concurrent Mental Illness and Financial Barriers to Mental Health Care Among a Nationally Representative Sample of Orthopaedic Trauma Survivors

Supplemental Digital Content is Available in the Text. Objectives: To understand prevalence and factors associated with concurrent mental illness and financial barriers to mental health care after orthopaedic trauma. Design: This is a retrospective, cross-sectional study. Setting: Interview-based survey was conducted across representative sample of 30,000 US households. Patients/Participants: The study included 2,309 survey respondents reporting a fracture over the past 3 months, between 2004 and 2017. Intervention: Screening for financial barriers to mental health care. Main Outcome Measurements: Prevalence and factors associated with concurrent mental illness and financial barriers to mental health care based on sociodemographic and injury characteristics were the main outcome measurements. Results: Of the 2309 orthopaedic trauma survivors included in our analysis, 203 patients [7.8%, 95% confidence interval (CI): 6.4%–9.2%] were determined to experience severe mental illness, of whom 54 (25.3%, 95% CI: 18.0%–32.6%) and 86 (40.9%, 95% CI: 31.5%–50.2%) reported financial barriers to counseling and pharmacotherapy, respectively. Factors associated with concurrent severe mental illness and cost barriers to care were 45 to 64 years of age [adjusted odds ratios (AOR) 5.1, 95% CI: 1.7–15, P = 0.004], income below 200% of the Federal Poverty Threshold (AOR 2.5, 95% CI: 1.2–5.3, P = 0.012), and unemployment at the time of injury (AOR 3.9, 95% CI: 1.4–11, P = 0.009). Conclusions: Approximately one half of orthopaedic trauma survivors with severe mental illness face financial barriers to some form of mental health services. Younger, minority, and low socioeconomic status patients are most affected. These data suggest the presence of postdiagnosis disparities in mental health access that may be improved through direct provision and subsidization of integrated mental health support services for high-risk populations. Level of Evidence: Prognostic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Electrical stresses simulation of DC cable in ±10 kV distribution system

With the rapid development and engineering application of voltage source converters (VSC) technology, high-voltage DC cable technology has developed rapidly in the past two decades, the voltage of extruded insulation DC cables based on cross-linked polyethylene ranges from 80kV to 640kV. Due to the engineering demand of a medium voltage distribution system, the research on medium voltage DC (MVDC) cables is not very advanced. At present, the DC distribution system is an important development direction in the energy transmission sector. In order to provide a reference for an MVDC cable design, it is necessary to carry out related research on the electrical stress on MVDC cables used in a medium voltage distribution system. Based on the simplified topological structure of the distribution system, in this paper a model of an MVDC distribution system is presented and used to simulate typical faults to preliminarily determine the switching impulse voltage and lighting impulse voltage of an MVDC cable in the MVDC distribution system.
Virtual Diagnostic Sensors Design for an Automated Guided Vehicle

In recent years, Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) have been playing an increasingly important role in producing industry and infrastructure and will soon arrive to other areas of human life such as the transportation of goods and people. However, several challenges still aggravate the operation of AGVs, which limit the amount of implementation. One major challenge is the realization of reliable sensors that can capture the different aspects of the state of an AGV as well as its surroundings. One promising approach towards more reliable sensors is the supplementary application of virtual sensors, which are able to generate virtual measurements by using other sources of information such as actuator states and already existing sensors together with appropriate mathematical models. The focus of the research described in this paper is the design of virtual sensors determining forces and torques acting on an AGV. The proposed novel approach is using a quadratic boundedness approach, which makes it possible to include bounded disturbances acting on the AGV. One major advantage of the presented approach is that the use of complex tire models can be avoided. Information from acceleration and yaw rate sensors is processed in order to realize reliable virtual force and torque sensors. The resulting force and torque information can be used for several diagnostic purposes such as fault detection or fault prevention. The presented approach is explained and verified on the basis of an innovative design of an AGV. This innovative design addresses another major challenge for AGVs, which is the limited maneuvering possibilities of many AGV designs. The innovative design allows nearly unlimited maneuvering possibilities but requires reliable sensor data. The application of the approach in the AGV resulted in the insight that the generated estimates are consistent with the longitudinal forces and torques obtained by a proven reference model.
Dispositivo mecánico para el transporte de frutas y verduras

En Panamá, el proceso de transportar, almacenar las frutas y verduras se hace de manera rudimentaria, y en la mayoría de los casos se afecta la salud ocupacional de los trabajadores. Por lo tanto, se hace imperativo la construcción de un dispositivo que permita transportar, almacenar y proteger frutas y verduras en el campo de forma segura, que a su vez considera la salud ocupacional de quien lo opera. Para la realización de esta investigación, se procedió a recolectar información mediante encuestas realizadas a personas que laboran en el área de la agricultura en la Península de Azuero. Las encuestas fueron sobre el proceso de transporte y almacenaje de frutas y verduras, así como la experiencia de los agricultores realizando esta difícil labor. El objetivo principal de esta investigación es presentar un diseño y prototipo de un dispositivo mecánico para el transporte y almacenaje y, que a su vez brinde seguridad tanto a los frutos y verduras como a los agricultores. Los resultados de las encuestas muestran que los productos sufren daños en el transporte y en el lugar de almacenaje, producto del cansancio físico de los trabajadores y de la carencia de un aparato que cumpla con las funciones que necesita el agricultor. Los resultados de esta investigación mostraron que un dispositivo con estas características importancia en nuestros campos de cultivo a nivel nacional. Se deja abierta la línea de investigación para la construcción de más prototipos a beneficio del transporte de frutas y verduras.
The impact of root exudates, volatile organic compounds, and common mycorrhizal networks on root system architecture in root-root interactions

ABSTRACT Plants constantly communicate with coexisting neighbors and adjust their physiological and morphological characteristics, including changes in root system architecture (RSA). Increased or decreased biomass accumulation, horizontal and vertical asymmetric distribution are the main behavioral performances. Some evidence has shown that these performances are associated with plant plasticity such as secretion of root exudates and release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and describe the role of common mycorrhizal networks (CMNs) as a communication pathway during belowground interplant interaction. Here, we highlight the direct role of root exudates as cues and signals and the indirect effects via regulating soil nutrients and soil microorganisms of these media in root-root interactions on RSA have been taken into consideration. At last, the existing knowledge gaps and potential research directions have been outlined for a better understanding of plant belowground interactions via RSA.