Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Audio source separation with multiple microphones on time-frequency representations

This paper presents various source separation methods that utilize multiple microphones. We classify them into two classes. Methods that fall into the first class apply independent component analysis (ICA) or Gaussian mixture model (GMM) to frequency bin-wise observations, and then solve the permutation problem to reconstruct separated signals. The second type of method extends non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) to a multimicrophone situation, in which NMF bases are clustered according to their spatial properties. We have a unified understanding that all methods analyze a time-frequency representation with an additional microphone axis.
Comparative Analysis of Alternative Splicing Events in Foliar Transcriptomes of Potato Plants Inoculated with Phytophthora Infestans

Alternative splicing (AS) is a common process during gene expression of plants in coping various biotic or abiotic stresses. The work reports identification and analysis of AS events in foliar samples of two potato lines, including a wild type line and a pathogen resistant transgenic line (+RB), inoculated with Phytophthora infestans . After combining all RNA-seq data collected from 36 samples, a total of 10,246 AS events were identified, including 1,563 exon skipping, 1,368 alternative donor sites, 3,091 alternative acceptor sites, 884 intron retention, and 3,340 complex events, which consisted of more than one basic event. These AS events were generated from 45,874 isoform transcripts expressed from 13,704 genes. It was estimated 30.2% of genes undergoing AS in this analysis. Furthermore, we identified 406 specific AS events, which were generated from 281 genes, and 766 differentially expressed transcripts (DETs) in the sample collected 24 hours after inoculation of P. infestans in +RB lines. These DETs were expressed from 763 genes, and among them, 338 genes were alternatively spliced. These results indicate that both AS and differential gene expression may contribute to the resistance against P. infestans in +RB line of potato plants.
Measuring Urban Quality of Life Using Multivariate Geostatistical Models

Urban quality of life (QOL) is usually measured through an index de ned as the estimated value of a set of urban amenities. However there is an increasing awareness that omitted variables might seriously undermine the method's ability to accurately estimate QOL. Here we extend the hedonic approach using a multivariate geostatistical model to address the omitted variable bias by identifying the latent common factors responsible for the spatial distribution of the amenities. A new QOL index is then de ned as a function of the latent factors whose implicit prices are estimated through hedonic regressions. Our methodology is shown on a data set of individual-level property transactions from the city of Vicenza. As a result we obtain the spatial distribution of QOL calculated according to the new index.
An Entomopalynological Analysis of Larval Provisions of Xylocopa iris (Christ, 1791) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Turkey

ABSTRACT Bees are indispensable living components of ecosystems because of the pollination services they offer. In this respect, it is important to determine the extent of host plant specialization by evaluating their pollen diet, information that can easily be gathered by analyzing the pollen content of their nests. Here we examined two Xylocopa (Copoxyla) iris (Christ, 1791) nests from different provinces in Turkey to identify the relationship between the surrounding vegetation and the possible pollinator or forager X. iris, a species for which there is limited available pollen preference data. We investigated the larval provisions and pollen content of these nests and compared pollen content with the pollen of the surrounding vegetation. In addition, we inspected the nest architecture and nesting biology and reviewed extant information about the distribution of this species in Turkey. Our investigation found that both nests were unbranched with 7-8 cells, each containing seven individuals at different stages of development. Pollen analysis revealed that plants of the families Fabaceae and Lamiaceae were most preferred by X. iris. These findings suggest that even though the nectar and pollen foraging behavior of this species is known to be polylectic, their larval diet choices might be much more specialized.
The vortices of two-dimensional turbulence

A solution of decaying two-dimensional turbulence at large Reynolds number is analysed by means of an automated vortex census. The census identifies the flow structures which approximately conform to the idealized shape of an isolated, coherent vortex. It also determines vortex characteristics, such as amplitude, size, radial profile, and deformation from the ideal axisymmetric shape. The distributions of these characteristics within the vortex population are examined, as are their time evolutions. Interpretation of these distributions is made with reference to both the random initial conditions for the solution and the dynamical processes of vortex emergence, survival, and interaction.
Tumors of the Nose and Paranasal Sinuses: Promoting Factors and Molecular Mechanisms—A Systematic Review

Sinonasal neoplasms are uncommon diseases, characterized by heterogeneous biological behavior, which frequently results in challenges in differential diagnosis and treatment choice. The aim of this review was to examine the pathogenesis and molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of tumor initiation and growth, in order to better define diagnostic and therapeutic strategies as well as the prognostic impact of these rare neoplasms. A systematic review according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis criteria was conducted between September and November 2022. The authors considered the three main histological patterns of sinonasal tumors, namely Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Intestinal-Type Adenocarcinoma, and Olfactory Neuroblastoma. In total, 246 articles were eventually included in the analysis. The genetic and epigenetic changes underlying the oncogenic process were discussed, through a qualitative synthesis of the included studies. The identification of a comprehensive model of carcinogenesis for each sinonasal cancer subtype is needed, in order to pave the way toward tailored treatment approaches and improve survival for this rare and challenging group of cancers.
The O-Type Binary 15 Monocerotis Nears Periastron

We present new radial velocity measurements for the massive binary 15 Monocerotis which indicate that the system is now very close to periastron (1996.9) in its 24 yr orbit. The velocity separation in the coming year may be large enough to permit an accurate estimate of mass ratio. We also present our first astrometric measurement of 15 Mon made with the Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS). The FGS transfer functions are consistent with an advanced orbital position close to periastron, and we present preliminary orbital elements for the combined spectroscopic and astrometric orbit.
Association between biochemical parameters and ultrasonographic measurement for the assessment of hepatic lipidosis in dairy cows

Abstract Hepatic lipidosis (HL) is a serious metabolic disorder that affects transient high-producing dairy cows. However, there are many laboratory methods could help in the assessment of HL in dairy cows, the definite diagnosis of the disease under field conditions remains a challenge because of the non-specificity of clinical parameters. The aim of the study was to investigate the utility of serum biomarkers, and ultrasonography (US) measurement to diagnose HL in dairy cows. Forty Holstein dairy cows underwent physical examination and were divided into three groups: non-HL, mild HL, and severe HL groups based on US findings, and the concentrations of beta-hydroxybutyric acid (BHBA) and nonesterified fatty acids (NEFAs). Ultrasound images showed hyperechoic lesions and increased pixel intensity (PI) values of liver echotexture in the HL groups. A significant increase was observed in mild and severe HL groups in the activity of serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), BHBA, NEFAs, malondialdehyde (MDA), and nitric oxide (NO) while the concentrations of triglyceride (TG), glutathione (GSH), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) were significantly decreased. The classification accuracy was in the interest of NEFAs (cut off 0.62 mmol/L, sensitivity 82.6%, specificity 91.7%, and an AUC of 0.913) and BHBA (cut off 1.35 mmol/L, sensitivity 91.31%, specificity of 86.4%, and an AUC 0.812) as important diagnostic parameters. This study offers new insights into the importance of serum biochemical parameters and oxidative stress biomarkers especially, AST, NEFAs, BHBA, and GSH with the digital values of US images for prompt use of minimally invasive techniques to diagnose HL under farm conditions. HIGHLIGHTS Serum metabolites and oxidative stress indices could diagnose hepatic lipidosis in dairy cows NEFA and BHBA concentrations and ultrasound digital values can use as a non-invasive way to the classification of hepatic lipidosis degrees in cows under farm condition. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Thrust Ripple Suppression Based on Negative Current Control for Short-Primary Low-Speed Large LIM Under Transient Operation

End effect of linear induction motor (LIM) leads to magnetic asymmetry and thrust ripple, which seriously restricts the performance and application of LIM. Existing methods for thrust ripple modeling and compensating have mostly focused on the steady state, which suffer from poor transient performance. Moreover, the influence of asymmetric currents on output thrust is not considered. In this paper, the thrust ripple characteristics and impact factors of a low-speed large LIM with negligible dynamic longitudinal end effect are analyzed in details, firstly. Then, a data-driven extracting and modeling method for transient thrust ripple is proposed. The non-stationary time-varying thrust ripple signal is extracted through wavelet decomposition and reconstruction, the polynomial parameters of thrust ripple model are trained off-line by particle swarm optimization algorithm. Finally, an improved suppressing scheme for transient thrust ripple is proposed, considering the decoupling and feedback control of positive and negative currents, based on the dynamic model of six-phase LIM. Full-scale experimental results have fully demonstrated the accuracy of proposed data-driven transient thrust ripple model is more than 90%. During the high-thrust operating stage, the axial vibration acceleration level of LIM within 100 Hz is reduced by more than 12 dB, with the adoption of improved control scheme.
First principles based approach to modeling of microfluidic systems

A first principles based modeling approach for microfluidic systems is developed. The equations for conservation of mass, momentum and energy are developed for quasi 1D, incompressible fluid flow through MEMS fluid components. The equations are cast in terms of common flow variables, geometric and fluid properties. The results are validated against published data. Analyses and simulations are carried out to qualitatively and quantitatively characterize dynamic and steady-state component/subsystem/system properties that would affect the design and control of such systems.
Magnetotransport properties of a few-layer graphene-ferromagnetic metal junctions in vertical spin valve devices

Magnetotransport properties were studied for the vertical spin valve devices with two junctions of permalloy electrodes and a few-layer graphene interlayer. The graphene layer was directly grown on the bottom electrode by chemical vapor deposition. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed that the permalloy surface fully covered with a few-layer graphene is kept free from oxidation and contamination even after dispensing and removing photoresist. This enabled fabrication of the current perpendicular to plane spin valve devices with a well-defined interface between graphene and permalloy. Spin-dependent electron transport measurements revealed a distinct spin valve effect in the devices. The magnetotransport ratio was 0.8% at room temperature and increased to 1.75% at 50 K. Linear current-voltage characteristics and resistance increase with temperature indicated that ohmic contacts are realized at the relevant interfaces.
DISEÑO DE UN ASISTENTE VIRTUAL Y SUPERVISOR DEL DETERIORO COGNITIVO DEL ADULTO MAYOR

La Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) considera como adulta mayor a toda persona mayor de 60 años. La evolución de las Ciencias de la Salud y la Ingeniería han permitido aumentar la esperanza de vida de las personas en las últimas décadas en la mayor parte del mundo. La atención del adulto mayor ha mejorado, pero prolongar la vida no exime de situaciones de salud propias de la edad tales como, enfermedades metabólicas, degenerativas y cognitivas que pueden expresarse como incomunicación, afectación en la memoria y el desenvolvimiento motor cotidiano, como lo es el Alzheimer. Se ha intentado plantear soluciones que fusionen las Ciencias de la Salud con las tecnologías disruptivas para resolver problemas de atención permanente del adulto mayor. Se han desarrollado servicios y dispositivos con capacidad de interactuar con las personas y servir de compañía, tales como Alexa y Google Assistant. El objetivo de esta investigación es estudiar si las tecnologías disruptivas pueden mejorar o atenuar las patologías que afectan las condiciones físicas y mentales del adulto mayor, realizando un diagnóstico básico de la condición cognitiva del adulto mayor. Se seleccionó Alexa como parte de la infraestructura del asistente virtual. La investigación es de tipo documental y requiere la revisión bibliográfica, tanto clínica como de ingeniería y el diseño de un servicio de asistencia con Alexa. Esta es una investigación en desarrollo. Posteriormente se realizará una prueba en adultos mayores, conforme a los estándares éticos aplicables, para verificar su desempeño y potencialidades.
UltraMotion: High-Precision Ultrasonic Arm Tracking for Real-World Exercises

Home exercise and self-served gyms allow a larger population to exercise regularly without the cost of hiring private coaches. In absence of professional guidance, however, exercisers can suffer from injuries to muscles and joints. High-precision, affordable arm tracking with commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) wearable devices has become an urgent need to prevent workout injuries and improve exercise performance. Recent studies with inertial measurement units (IMUs) or audio signals are neither computationally feasible for real-time motion tracking with satisfactory accuracy using COTS devices nor practically usable due to the interference with noisy ambient environments. In this paper, we propose UltraMotion, a real-time, high-precision ultrasonic arm motion tracking system designed for practical use. UltraMotion performs point cloud queries based on hidden Markov models (HMMs), a novel ultrasonic acoustic ranging method, and an extended Kalman filter (EKF) to predict the locations of all three arm joints, making it the first system offering shoulder locations. Experimental results with only a smartphone and a smartwatch demonstrate the effectiveness of UltraMotion in tracking shoulder, elbow, and wrist locations with impressively small median errors of 6.4 cm, 7.1 cm, and 8.5 cm in real-world environments, outperforming all previous systems, making UltraMotion an ideal choice for daily exercise.
General conditions of polarization-independent transmissions in one-dimensional magnetic photonic crystals

Abstract Based on the transfer matrix theory, general conditions of polarization-independent transmissions in one-dimensional photonic crystals are derived. It is shown that the polarization-independent transmissions are obtained in photonic crystals consisting of two alternating layers with the same refraction index and optical thickness as well as the mutually reciprocal wave impedance. By using two different photonic crystals satisfying the above relation to constitute the light quantum-well structures, the structures have polarization-independent transmission properties. When a defective layer with wave impedance of 1 is introduced in the photonic crystals, the defective photonic crystals also have the polarization-independent transmission properties. In addition, polarization-independent low-pass spatial filters are achieved based on these photonic crystal structures.
Identification With Your Mind: A Hybrid BCI-Based Authentication Approach for Anti-Shoulder-Surfing Attacks Using EEG and Eye Movement Data

Biometric authentication has been applied in many domains due to the promoting awareness of privacy and security risks. Most of the previous work has shown the performance of single biometric, but a few studies explored the feasibility of hybrid biometrics. On this basis, we proposed a hybrid brain–computer interface (BCI) authentication approach that combined user’s electroencephalogram (EEG) and eye movement data features simultaneously. In anti-shoulder-surfing experiments, the proposed approach reached the average accuracy of 84.36% (the highest was 88.35%) to identify shoulder surfers and outperformed the only EEG and only eye movement data-based authentication approach. In additional experiments, the approach was proven to be useful in reducing the possibility of user misidentification. Our approach holds a great potential in providing references for implementing hybrid BCI authentication for anti-shoulder-surfing applications.
Highly efficient deep blue organic electroluminescent device based on 1-methyl-9,10-di(1-naphthyl)anthracene

The author have developed 2-methyl-9,10-di(1-naphthyl)anthracene (α,α-MADN) as an effective wide band gap host material for Forster energy transfer to the unsymmetrical mono(styryl)amine deep blue fluorescent dopant (BD-1). This guest/host emitting system, at the optimal doping concentration of 3%, can also increase the probability of carrier recombination near the hole-transport/emitting layer interface for the blue organic light emitting device which produces electroluminescence efficiencies of 3.3cd∕A and 1.3lm∕W and a deep blue CIEx,y color coordinates of (0.15, 0.13) that are 50% better than those of the traditional β,β-isomeric host (MADN) with the same dopant.
Power-Efficient Single-Stage Class-AB OTA Based on Non-Linear Nested Current Mirrors

A novel approach to design low-power area-efficient rail-to-rail output single-stage class-AB operational transconductance amplifiers (OTAs) with enhanced large- and small-signal performance to drive large capacitive loads is presented. It is based on a non-linear nested current mirror at the active load of a splitted differential input pair biased in weak inversion that boosts dynamic currents beyond their quiescent value directly at the output branch. As a result, slew rate, DC gain, gain-bandwidth product, settling time and noise performance are improved without additional circuit elements or power consumption. An OTA prototype has been fabricated in a 180-nm CMOS process, consuming a quiescent power of $2.9~\mu \text{W}$ from a supply voltage of ±0.5 V and a silicon area of 0.001 mm2. Measurement results validate the advantages of the proposal, exhibiting positive and negative slew rates of 110 V/ms and −58 V/ms, respectively, and a gain-bandwidth product of 136 kHz with a phase margin of 90° for a capacitive load of 160 pF.
Promoted Catalytic Properties of Acetone over Cerium-Modified Mullite Catalyst YMn2O5

Mullite catalysts have become one of the most widely studied catalysts due to their highly stable structure and unique coordination with oxygen. In this work, Ce-modified mullite-type oxides Y 1-x Ce x Mn 2 O 5 have been prepared by sol-gel method to explore their Ce doping amount-dependent catalytic performance for acetone elimination. Experimental results confirm that Y 0.9 Ce 0.1 Mn 2 O 5 had optimum acetone oxidation activity, completely achieving 100% acetone conversion at 120 ° C under the reaction conditions of acetone concentration = 1000 ppm, 20 vol% O 2 /N 2 and WHSV = 36000 mL g –1 h –1 . This excellent catalytic activity comes from its larger specific surface area and higher Mn 4+ /Mn 3+ molar ratio. XRD and TEM results show that YMn 2 O 5 and CeO 2 phases form a multiphase oxide and interfacial structure. XPS results show that the content of doped CeO 2 mainly affects the surface adsorbed oxygen (Oads) and Mn 4+ content of the catalyst. Manganese species with higher chemical states are indeed more favorable for oxidation reactions on manganese-based catalysts. In addition, the reduction temperature of mixed oxides shifts to the lower temperature region, indicating that manganese and cerium oxides are more reducible, where the mobility of oxygen species is greatly enhanced. Y 0.9 Ce 0.1 Mn 2 O 5 also exhibits strong long-term stability and has good resistance to acetone elimination, showing excellent potential in eliminating acetone.
Hybrid VLC-RF Systems With Multi-Users for Achievable Rate and Energy Efficiency Maximization

With the explosive growth of the data traffic and the access number of intelligent devices, the wireless communication systems based on the radio frequency (RF) is suffering from the pressure of spectrum shortage and access congestion constantly, which can be alleviated with the help of visible light communication (VLC). However, due to the limitations of VLC such as finite coverage and inconvenient uplinks, it is imperative to form the hybrid systems and realize the complementary advantages of VLC and RF. In this paper, the hybrid VLC-RF system with multi-users is investigated, where the sum achievable rate and energy efficiency (EE) are maximized via the alternate optimization of transceiver association and power allocation. In addition, based on various types of multiple access points, EE is optimized under different QoS requirements for green communications. With the assistance of proper approximations, the overall problem is decomposed into several convex sub-problems, which can be solved analytically and avoid traversal permutation. The numerical simulations show the effectiveness and scalability of the proposed algorithm in the hybrid VLC-RF system, which can achieve superior performances than the conventional methods and single systems in multifarious scenarios.
The choice: violence or poverty

ABSTRACT How to reduce the incidence of domestic violence continues to challenge policymakers in Australia. This article draws upon a Keynote Address delivered at a University of Technology Sydney Symposium on gender equality, domestic violence and work. Through presenting ground-breaking data on domestic violence in Australia, I show the stark situation many women face in Australia – to stay with violent partners or leave a violent relationship and risk poverty. Domestic violence often has immediate and longer-term consequences for employment with as many as 50% of women facing lower incomes and cash flow problems. Existing government policy is inadequate, with a phenomenon of ‘policy-induced poverty’ arising for many women who leave violent relationships. Further research and policy development is required to not only understand the work and employment consequences for women experiencing domestic violence, but examine ways in which policy can be improved to support victims of violence.