Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of a generalised creep-recovery test and a back-calculation method for determining the permanent deformation of asphalt mixtures in the time domain

The measured strain during a creep-recovery (CR) test comprises both reversible and irreversible strains; therefore, adequate treatment is required to accurately separate them. In this paper, a generalised version of the CR test was proposed to investigate the permanent deformation behaviour of asphalt mixtures exerted by a variety of loading patterns in the time domain. The companion back-calculation algorithm was also proposed to separate with improved accuracy and repeatability the pure viscoelastic (VE) and viscoplastic (VP) strains. First, the creep compliance (CC) was back-calculated based only on the recovery data by using an approximate analytical creep compliance function of the Huet-Sayegh model as the solution function in the optimisation process. Then, the pure VE and VP strains were determined. The results show that the proposed method attains a good level of reliability although relatively short durations of the recovery period have been used.
Dietary Fiber Intake Influences Changes in Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Status

The objectives of this study were to characterize dietary fiber (DF) intake in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), to assess whether DF intake affects disease activity in AS, and to investigate the effect of DF intake on disease activity in AS in the context of functional bowel disease (FBD) symptoms. We recruited 165 patients with AS and divided them into two groups according to whether they had a high DF intake > 25 g/d to investigate the characteristics of people with high DF intake. Some 72 of the 165 AS patients (43%) met the criteria for high DF intake, which was more common in patients with negative FBD symptoms (68%). Data analysis revealed that DF intake was negatively associated with AS disease activity and did not differ statistically significantly from FBD symptoms. Multivariate adjusted models were used to explore the effect of DF intake on AS disease activity. ASDAS-CRP and BASDAI were stable and negatively correlated across models in both groups with and without FBD symptoms. Thus, DF intake positively affected disease activity in patients with AS. ASDAS-CRP and BASDAI were negatively correlated with DF intake.
Promising Perspectives of the Antiproliferative GPER Inverse Agonist ERα17p in Breast Cancer

The estrogen receptor α (ERα) corresponds to a large platform in charge of the recruitment of a panel of molecules, including steroids and related heterocyclic derivatives, oligonucleotides, peptides and proteins. Its 295–311 region is particularly targeted by post-translational modifications, suggesting that it could be crucial for the control of transcription. In addition to anionic phospholipids, the ERα 295–311 fragment interacts with Ca2+-calmodulin, the heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70), ERα and possibly importins. More recently, we have demonstrated that it is prone to interacting with the G-protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER). In light of these observations, the pharmacological profile of the corresponding peptide, namely ERα17p, has been explored in breast cancer cells. Remarkably, it exerts apoptosis through GPER and induces a significant decrease (more than 50%) of the size of triple-negative breast tumor xenografts in mice. Herein, we highlight not only the promising therapeutic perspectives in the use of the first peptidic GPER modulator ERα17p, but also the opportunity to modulate GPER for clinical purposes.
Neurobehavioral Effects of Low-Dose Chronic Exposure to Insecticides: A Review

The modes of action of insecticides frequently involve a neurotoxic effect; therefore, the study of neurotoxic effects caused by long-term and low-dose insecticide exposure is of particular interest. This study looks at whether or not new studies conducted after 2009 and up to 2021 have provided new evidence for a better understanding of the actual neurobehavioral risk associated with long-term insecticide exposure. We selected and reviewed studies carried out on the neurobehavioral effects of neurotoxic insecticides (organophosphates and/or carbamates, pyrethroids, multiple or undefined insecticides, and organochlorines) considering occupational and non-occupational exposures. The articles were also scored and ranked based on seven parameters. Eighty-six studies were chosen for a final review process from among the 950 scientific papers identified. Twenty-six addressed occupational exposure and six environmental exposure. Among the latter group of studies, 17 focused on rural residents, to be assumed exposed because of living in rural areas, and 43 on the general population. Pending doubts have not been resolved in the last ten years due to the presence of contradictory and hardly comparable results and the fact that in most of the studies showing an evident neurobehavioral impairment the frequent presence of a previous episode of poisoning and hospitalization, with severe brain hypoxia, impaired the possibility of confirming the presence of a causal association with insecticide exposure. Interestingly, the most severely exposed groups, such as applicators who did not wear personal protective equipment, performed worse on neurobehavioral tests. As for residential exposure, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that prenatal OP exposure may increase the risk of ADHD in children.
OPTIMIZED QUANTUM DEFECT METHOD IN RELATIVISTIC THEORY OF SPECTRA OF LI-LIKE MULTICHARGED IONS

The relativistic theory of radiative transitions using the general relativistic quantum defect approximation (GDA) was also used to study the wavelengths and oscillator strengths for the 1s22s (2S1/2) → 1s23p (2P1/2) transitions in Li-like multicharged ions with a nuclear charge Z= 14-70. and. The obtained results were compared with available theoretical and experimental (summarized) data. An important point is related to the accurate accounting of the complex contributions of the exchange-correlation (polarization) effect and the use of an efficient single-quasi-particle representation based on the general relativistic approximation of the quantum defect, which significantly ensures a physically reasonable agreement between the theory and the experiment.
Periodic ordering of random surface nanostructures induced by femtosecond laser pulses on metals

In this paper, we performed a detailed study of the formation of femtosecond laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSSs) on platinum and gold at near-damage threshold fluences. We find a unique type of LIPSS entirely covered with nanostructures. A distinctive feature of the nanostructure-covered LIPSS is that its period is appreciably less than that of the regular LIPSS. We show that the reduced period is caused by an increase of the real part of the effective refractive index of the air-metal interface when nanostructures develop and affect the propagation of surface plasmons.
High Rayleigh number convection in a porous medium containing a thin low-permeability layer

Abstract Porous geological formations are commonly interspersed with thin, roughly horizontal, low-permeability layers. Statistically steady convection at high Rayleigh number $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}\mathit{Ra}$ is investigated numerically in a two-dimensional porous medium that is heated at the lower boundary and cooled at the upper, and contains a thin, horizontal, low-permeability interior layer. In the limit that both the dimensionless thickness $h$ and permeability $\Pi $ of the low-permeability layer are small, the flow is described solely by the impedance of the layer $\Omega = h/\Pi $ and by $\mathit{Ra}$ . In the limit $\Omega \to 0$ (i.e. $h \to 0$ ), the system reduces to a homogeneous Rayleigh–Darcy (porous Rayleigh–Bénard) cell. Two notable features are observed as $\Omega $ is increased: the dominant horizontal length scale of the flow increases; and the heat flux, as measured by the Nusselt number $\mathit{Nu}$ , can increase. For larger values of $\Omega $ , $\mathit{Nu}$ always decreases. The dependence of the flow on $\mathit{Ra}$ is explored, over the range $2500 \leqslant \mathit{Ra} \leqslant 2\times 10^4$ . Simple one-dimensional models are developed to describe some of the observed features of the relationship $\mathit{Nu}(\Omega )$ .
Utilizing Variants Identified with Multiple Genome-Wide Association Study Methods Optimizes Genomic Selection for Growth Traits in Pigs

Simple Summary The accurate prediction of growth traits in genomic selection (GS) is essential for pig breeding. Here, we performed GS using variants identified with three genome-wide association study methods on four growth-related traits in Yorkshire and Landrace pigs. A total of 1485 loci related to these traits and 24 candidate genes were mapped. Compared with using 60K SNP-chip data, GS with the pre-selected variants significantly improved prediction accuracies by 4 to 46% in genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) models, and 5 to 27% in a two-kernel based GBLUP model for the four traits. Abstract Improving the prediction accuracies of economically important traits in genomic selection (GS) is a main objective for researchers and breeders in the livestock industry. This study aims at utilizing potentially functional SNPs and QTLs identified with various genome-wide association study (GWAS) models in GS of pig growth traits. We used three well-established GWAS methods, including the mixed linear model, Bayesian model and meta-analysis, as well as 60K SNP-chip and whole genome sequence (WGS) data from 1734 Yorkshire and 1123 Landrace pigs to detect SNPs related to four growth traits: average daily gain, backfat thickness, body weight and birth weight. A total of 1485 significant loci and 24 candidate genes which are involved in skeletal muscle development, fatty deposition, lipid metabolism and insulin resistance were identified. Compared with using all SNP-chip data, GS with the pre-selected functional SNPs in the standard genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP), and a two-kernel based GBLUP model yielded average gains in accuracy by 4 to 46% (from 0.19 ± 0.07 to 0.56 ± 0.07) and 5 to 27% (from 0.16 ± 0.06 to 0.57 ± 0.05) for the four traits, respectively, suggesting that the prioritization of preselected functional markers in GS models had the potential to improve prediction accuracies for certain traits in livestock breeding.
Extremely Low Activity of Serum Alanine Aminotransferase Is Associated with Long-Term Overall-Cause Mortality in the Elderly Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention after Acute Coronary Syndrome

Background and Objectives: Recent studies revealed that the extremely low activity of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) is associated with frailty and contributes to increased mortality after acute physical stress. We aimed to investigate whether the extremely low activity of serum ALT (<10 U/L) at the time of diagnosis can be used to predict overall-cause mortality in elderly patients that underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) after acute coronary syndrome (ACS) diagnosis. Materials and Methods: A retrospective medical record review was performed on 1597 patients diagnosed with ACS who underwent PCI at a single university hospital from February 2014 to March 2020. The associations between the extremely low activity of serum ALT and mortality were assessed using a stepwise Cox regression (forward: conditional). Results: A total of 210 elderly patients were analyzed in this study. The number of deaths was 64 (30.5%), the mean survival time was 25.0 ± 18.9 months, and the mean age was 76.9 ± 7.6 years. The mean door-to-PCI time was 74.0 ± 20.9 min. The results of stepwise Cox regression analysis showed that the extremely low activity of serum ALT (adjusted hazard ratio: 5.157, 95% confidence interval: 3.001–8.862, p < 0.001) was the independent risk factor for long-term overall-cause mortality in the elderly who underwent PCI after ACS diagnosis. Conclusions: The extremely low activity of serum ALT at ACS diagnosis is a significant risk factor for increased long-term overall-cause mortality in the elderly who underwent PCI after ACS diagnosis. It is noteworthy that a simple laboratory test at the time of diagnosis was found to be a significant risk factor for mortality.
EFFECT OF A SHIFT IN THE TREND FUNCTION ON DICKEY–FULLER UNIT ROOT TESTS

This article analyzes the asymptotic behavior of the Dickey–Fuller unit root tests when the variable is generated under the breaking trend hypothesis. Our results show that the asymptotic behavior of these statistics allows for the rejection of the unit root hypothesis. This asymptotic finding contrasts with the results that can be found in the literature devoted to the analysis of the integration order of a variable in the presence of a structural break. However, some Monte Carlo exercises show that the argument of Perron (1989, Econometrica 57, 1361–1401) that the tests are biased in favor of nonrejection of the unit root hypothesis remains valid for sample sizes of practical interest.
CdCl2 treatment, S diffusion, and recombination in polycrystalline CdTe

Time-resolved photoluminescence measurements on glass∕SnO2∕CdTe and glass∕SnO2∕CdTe∕CdS structures indicate that the CdCl2 process, without any S present, significantly reduces recombination. However, S diffusion is required for lifetimes comparable to those observed in high-efficiency solar cells. Low-temperature photoluminescence, cathodoluminescence, and scanning electron images indicate how defect chemistry, grain-boundary passivation, and morphology are affected by S diffusion and the CdCl2 treatment.
Attitudes and Feelings towards the Work of Teachers Who Had a School Nurse in Their Educational Center during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The objective of this study was to analyze the influence of the availability of a health professional on the beliefs, attitudes, and work feelings of teaching staff when facing the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a two-phase study: In the first one, the Delphi technique was used to update an instrument used by the authors in a previous investigation in 2020. The second phase was a cross-sectional, descriptive, and comparative study, carried out through an electronic questionnaire distributed among the teaching staff of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands (Spain), during the first two months of the 2021/22 academic year, in the midst of the fifth wave of COVID-19. Data were analyzed using Pearson’s chi-squared test and the linear trend test. The reasons for advantages were analyzed and the dimensions of the questionnaire were compared between the groups studied (with or without a healthcare professional in the center). Out of 640 teachers in the study, 14.7% (n = 94) stated that they had a reference professional with health training in their educational center (a school nurse) for the management of possible cases of COVID-19. Significant differences were found in five of the nine dimensions studied between the groups of teachers analyzed. Teachers who had a health professional, specifically a nurse, during the pandemic indicated that they felt safer in their educational center, as they perceived that they had more personal protective equipment (OR = 2.03, [95% CI: 1.23–3.35]; p = 0.006). They were also more committed (OR = 1.89, [95% CI: 1.04–3.46]; p = 0.038) with their educational work and assumed more obligations (OR = 1.87, [95% CI: 1.01–3.44]; p = 0.045) and risks (OR = 2.82, [95% CI: 1.13–7.07]; p = 0.027). In addition, they presented fewer feelings of burnout (OR = 0.63, [95% CI: 0.41–0.98]; p = 0.041). These results indicate that having nurses in educational centers improves teachers’ ability to cope with a pandemic situation.
Modeling nongray gas-phase and soot radiation in luminous turbulent nonpremixed jet flames

Much progress has been made in radiative heat transfer modeling with respect to treatment of nongray radiation from both gas-phase species and soot particles, while radiation modeling in turbulent flame simulations is still in its infancy. Aiming at reducing this gap, this paper introduces state-of-the-art models of gas-phase and soot radiation to turbulent flame simulations. The full-spectrum k-distribution method (Modest, M.F., 2003, Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer, 76, 69–83) is implemented into a three-dimensional unstructured CFD code for nongray radiation modeling. The mixture full-spectrum k-distributions including nongray absorbing soot particles are constructed from a narrow-band k-distribution database created for individual gas-phase species, and an efficient scheme is employed for their construction in CFD simulations. A detailed reaction mechanism including NO x and soot kinetics is used to predict flame structure, and a detailed soot model using a method of moments is employed to determine soot particle size distributions. A spherical-harmonic P1 approximation is invoked to solve the radiative transfer equation. An oxygen-enriched, turbulent, nonpremixed jet flame is simulated, which features large concentrations of gas-phase radiating species and soot particles. Nongray soot modeling is shown to be of greater importance than nongray gas modeling in sooty flame simulations, with gray soot models producing large errors. The nongray treatment of soot strongly influences flame temperatures in the upstream and the flame-tip region and is essential for accurate predictions of NO. The nongray treatment of gases, however, weakly influences upstream flame temperatures and, therefore, has only a small effect on NO predictions. The effect of nongray soot radiation on flame temperature is also substantial in downstream regions where the soot concentration is small. Limitations of the P1 approximation are discussed for the jet flame configuration; the P1 approximation yields large errors in the spatial distribution of the computed radiative heat flux for highly anisotropic radiation fields such as those in flames with localized, near-opaque soot regions.
Fundamental Movement Skills Proficiency and Their Relationship with Measures of Functional Movement and Health-Related Physical Fitness in Welsh Adolescents

ABSTRACT The aims of this study were to determine the fundamental movement skill proficiency, functional movement competency and health-related physical fitness in a cohort of UK adolescents and to further examine if there were any relationships between these variables. In total, there were 178 participants aged between 11 and 13 years, 90 boys and 88 girls. Ordinal logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between FMS proficiency and functional movement competency and multi-factor ANOVA was used to explore the main effects of the FMS and the functional movements with health-related physical fitness responses. Overall, FMS proficiency and functional movement competency were classified as being low. In addition, positive relationships were found for several functional movements with specific FMS, and, for several functional movements and FMS with some measures of health-related physical fitness. In conclusion, further intervention of these variables is clearly warranted with this adolescent population in Wales (UK).
Factors Affecting Access to Public Healthcare Facilities in the City of Tshwane, South Africa

Access to healthcare services is largely determined by socioeconomic factors, with economically well-off individuals obtaining healthcare services more efficiently than those who are disadvantaged. This paper aims to assess the effects of socioeconomic and other related factors on access to healthcare facilities in the City of Tshwane, South Africa, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were sourced from the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) quality of life survey (2020/2021). Multivariate logistic regression was applied. Results showed that 66.3% of the respondents reported that they had access to public healthcare facilities within their area. Furthermore, results showed that those who lived in informal houses were significantly (OR = 0.55, 95% CI [0.37–0.80], p < 0.01) less likely to report that they had access to public healthcare facilities in their area compared to those who lived in formal houses. More efforts need to be undertaken to ensure that all citizens have access to public healthcare facilities, especially among those who are disadvantaged, such as informal dwellers. In addition, future research should encompass locality in relation to the factors that affect access to public healthcare facilities, especially during pandemics such as the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to have geographically targeted interventions.
Effects of abiotic heterogeneity on species densities and interaction strengths lead to different spatial biodiversity patterns

During community assembly, abiotic factors can influence species at multiple stages during their life history, for example by affecting early settlement or establishment probabilities and thus initial densities (route 1: abiotic effects on density), or later by affecting the strength of biotic interactions during subsequent life stages (route 2: abiotic effects on interaction strengths). Since real abiotic landscapes are multivariate and complex, how these two distinct routes of abiotic influence affect community patterns has not been quantified. Using an individual-based spatially explicit simulation model, we compared scenarios where abiotic conditions shaped initial densities, interaction strengths, or both, of plant species with unique abiotic niches. We then partitioned the effect of the abiotic landscape on community patterns into components arising from variable density, variable interaction strengths, and their interaction. Even when plants responded to identical landscapes, variable density and variable interaction strengths led to different community patterns, and their combined effects were non-additive. Variable density promoted more spatial structure, while variable interaction strengths promoted higher local species richness. We highlight important implications these findings have in applied plant community ecology.
Antioxidant Guided Fractionation of Blackberry Polyphenols Show Synergistic Role of Catechins and Ellagitannins

In the present study, blackberry extract was prepared using a previously optimized solid–liquid extraction method in 70% aqueous acetone aimed at the recovery of its principal phenolics. Subsequently, 0.5 g of freeze-dried extract was subjected to flash chromatography fractionation, which was conducted on a C18 column using a binary solvent system of water and methanol at 10 mL/min. The total phenolic content (TPC), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) activities of the obtained 42 flash fractions were determined, and a strong positive correlation (r ≥ 0.986) was exhibited among them. Furthermore, the graph of the antioxidant indices of the flash fractions resembled the flash chromatogram, suggesting a good correlation among the compounds within the chromatographic peaks and the antioxidant indices. LC-MS/MS identified as many 28 phenolics, including cinnamtannin A2 reported for the first time in blackberries. This study further established the role of dominant anthocyanins (cyanidin-3-O-glucoside and cyanidin-3-O-rutinoside), but uniquely those of ellagitannins and catechins on the antioxidant capacity of blackberries.