Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gallium Metal−Organic Nanoparticles with Albumin-Stabilized and Loaded Graphene for Enhanced Delivery to HCT116 Cells

Background Gallium (III) metal-organic complexes have been shown to have the ability to inhibit tumor growth, but the poor water solubility of many of the complexes precludes further application. The use of materials with high biocompatibility as drug delivery carriers for metal-organic complexes to enhance the bioavailability of the drug is a feasible approach. Methods Here, we modified the ligands of gallium 8-hydroxyquinolinate complex with good clinical anticancer activity by replacing the 8-hydroxyquinoline ligands with 5-bromo-8-hydroxyquinoline (HBrQ), and the resulting Ga(III) + HBrQ complex had poor water solubility. Two biocompatible materials, bovine serum albumin (BSA) and graphene oxide (GO), were used to synthesize the corresponding Ga(III) + HBrQ complex nanoparticles (NPs) BSA/Ga/HBrQ NPs and GO/Ga/HBrQ NPs in different ways to enhance the drug delivery of the metal complex. Results Both of BSA/Ga/HBrQ NPs and GO/Ga/HBrQ NPs can maintain stable existence in different solution states. In vitro cytotoxicity test showed that two nanomedicines had excellent anti-proliferation effect on HCT116 cells, which shown higher level of intracellular ROS and apoptosis ratio than that of cisplatin and oxaliplatin. In addition, the superior emissive properties of BSA/Ga/HBrQ NPs and GO/Ga/HBrQ NPs allow their use for in vivo imaging showing highly effective therapy in HCT116 tumor-bearing mouse models. Conclusion The use of biocompatible materials for the preparation of NPs against poorly biocompatible metal-organic complexes to construct drug delivery systems is a promising strategy that can further improve drug delivery and therapeutic efficacy.
Crises, Covid-19, and Entrepreneurship

This virtual special issue includes research on the effects of crises, in particular the COVID-19 pandemic, on entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial responses to deal with consequences of crises. This issue highlights how crises affect entrepreneurs’ well-being and reinforce the importance of agency of entrepreneurs and other citizens. The special issue also highlights the need for resilience; the ability of entrepreneurs, organizations, and economies to absorb and adapt to shocks; and how it can be strengthened. We discuss the importance of data in times of crisis and the greater need for engaged scholarship.
ROSAT PSPC observations of the early-type galaxies NGC 507 and NGC 499: Central cooling and mass determination

We present the results of a deep observation of NGC 507 and NGC 499 with the ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC). The X-ray emission of NGC 507 is extended at least out to 1000 sec (458 kpc at a distance of 94.5 Mpc). The radial profile of X-ray surface brightness goes as Sigma(sub x) is approximately r(exp -1.8) outside the core region. The radial profile is a function of energy such that the softer X-rays have a smaller core radius and a flatter slope. Spectral analysis reveals that the emission temperature, with an average of 1 keV, peaks at an intermediate radius of 2-3 min and falls toward the center (possibly decreases outward as well). The absorption column density is consistent with the Galactic line-of-sight value. The X-ray emission of NGC 499 is extended to 300 sec and suggests a similarly cooler core. The cooler cores of NGC 507 and NGC 499 are strong evidence of the presence of cooling flows in these galaxies. Assuming hydrostatic equilibrium outside the cooling radius, the estimated mass-to-light ratio of NGC 507 is 97 +/- 16 within 458 kpc, indicative of the presence of a heavy halo. Similarly, the mass-to-light ratio of NGC 499 is 89 +/- 14 within 137 kpc. Near the edge of the X-ray-emitting region of NGC 507 we detect 19 soft, unresolved sources. These sources do not have optical counterparts and are significantly in excess of the expected number of background serendipitous sources. We speculate that they may represent cooling clumps in the halo of NGC 507. If there are many undetected cooling clumps distributed at large radii, then the radial profile of the X-ray surface brightness does not directly reflect the potential, adding uncertainty to the measurement of the binding mass; the gas mass could also be overestimated.
A phenomenological enquiry into the effect of meditation on therapeutic practice

The focus of this paper is on the phenomenological enquiry of the impact of the therapist’s practice of meditation upon his or her therapeutic practice. While there are many findings, I focus on two main findings. The first and most fundamental is that meditation is experienced as ‘being with what is’. The second and equally important finding is that with the practice of meditation co-researchers experience a transformational change in all aspects of their life including in their interaction with their clients. The shift co-researchers experience is relational.
Spin squeezing of atoms by the dipole interaction in virtually excited Rydberg states

We show that the interaction between Rydberg atomic states can provide continuous spin squeezing of atoms with two ground states. The interaction prevents the simultaneous excitation of more than a single atom in the sample to the Rydberg state, and we propose to utilize this blockade effect to realize an effective collective spin Hamiltonian J 2 x -J 2 y . With this Hamiltonian the quantum-mechanical uncertainty of the spin variable J x -J y can be significantly reduced.
The Efficiency of Hard Wood Industry in Ondo State, Nigeria

Wood furniture industry is an important manufacturing sector in Nigeria for its significant contributions to the growth of national economy and industrialization as well as livelihood of the furniture makers. Therefore, evaluating efficiency of hard wood industry is important to provide useful information about the business to the furniture makers and to assist the policy makers to design appropriate policies in supporting furniture production in Nigeria. The specific objectives of this research were to describe socio-economic characteristics of furniture makers, estimate efficiency of furniture makers, determine the profitability of furniture production, identify factors influencing efficiency of furniture making and examine the problems associated with furniture makings in the study area. The study adopted a multistage sampling procedure. Data were collected from seventy furniture makers through a well-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, budgetary analysis, Cobb Douglas stochastic frontier production function, inefficiency model and relative importance index were used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that 75.7% of the respondents obtained some levels of formal education; 4.3% of the furniture makers were single; 71.4% had no access to credit facility; and 7.1% exported their products beyond the boundary of Nigeria. The estimated gross margin and net profit of #7,041,255.09 (US $16,959.52) and #4,261,542.89 (US $10,264.33) respectively revealed that furniture production is profitable. The efficiency results showed that 27% of furniture makers were most technically efficient; 5.7% of them were most allocative efficient; and 10% of them were most economically efficient. Stochastic frontier production function analysis showed that firm size, labour and fixed assets had a positively significant influence on furniture production. The only identified socio-economic characteristics of furniture makers that had significant influence on efficiency of furniture production were educational level, operating experience and reinforcement training in the study area. The two critical constraints facing furniture making in the ranking scale were fluctuation of wood price and inadequacy of funds.
The perceptual changes in life experience of at-risk adolescent girls following an integrated coaching and positive psychology intervention group programme: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Objectives:The research sought to analyse the perceptual life changes and perceived quality of life (PQoL) subsequent to participating in an integrated coaching and PPI programme.Design:A qualitative approach was employed and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was utilised to analyse the data.Method:Three girls from an inner-city London school were selected to participate. Semi-structured interviews were used.Results:Three key themes emerged: the ability to control emotions/reactions; increased experience of positive emotions/thoughts; and the identification of purpose and meaning to life.Conclusion:The participants reported that participating in the programme brought the benefit of an improved perception of quality of life.
Frictional Heating in Global Climate Models

Abstract A new finite-difference formulation of the frictional heating associated with atmospheric vertical momentum diffusion is proposed. It is derived from the requirement that, according to the no-slip condition, the sum of internal and kinetic energy of a fluid column is not changed by surface friction. The present form is designed to be implemented along with the hybrid-coordinate differencing scheme of Simmons and Burridge. The effects of incorporating frictional heating in general circulation models (GCMs) of the atmosphere are assessed by analyzing representative long-term January simulations performed with an idealized GCM. The model employs the proposed discretization of vertical terms as well as recently derived horizontal diffusion and dissipation forms. For the conventional definition of a GCM with no frictional heating, the climatological global energy budget yields a spurious thermal forcing of about 2 W m–2. In the equivalent new model definition, this shortcoming is reduced by two orders.
Neuron‐restrictive silencer factor/repressor element 1‐silencing transcription factor (NRSF/REST) controls spatial K+ buffering in primary cortical astrocytes

Neuron‐restrictive silencer factor/repressor element 1 (RE1)‐silencing transcription factor (NRSF/REST) is a transcriptional repressor of a large cluster of neural genes containing RE1 motifs in their promoter region. NRSF/REST is ubiquitously expressed in non‐neuronal cells, including astrocytes, while it is down‐regulated during neuronal differentiation. While neuronal NRSF/REST homeostatically regulates intrinsic excitability and synaptic transmission, the role of the high NRSF/REST expression levels in the homeostatic functions of astrocytes is poorly understood. Here, we investigated the functional consequences of NRSF/REST deletion in primary cortical astrocytes derived from NRSF/REST conditional knockout mice (KO). We found that NRSF/REST KO astrocyte displayed a markedly reduced activity of inward rectifying K+ channels subtype 4.1 (Kir4.1) underlying spatial K+ buffering that was associated with a decreased expression and activity of the glutamate transporter‐1 (GLT‐1) responsible for glutamate uptake by astrocytes. The effects of the impaired astrocyte homeostatic functions on neuronal activity were investigated by co‐culturing wild‐type hippocampal neurons with NRSF/REST KO astrocytes. Interestingly, neurons experienced increased neuronal excitability at high firing rates associated with decrease after hyperpolarization and increased amplitude of excitatory postsynaptic currents. The data indicate that astrocytic NRSF/REST directly participates in neural circuit homeostasis by regulating intrinsic excitability and excitatory transmission and that dysfunctions of NRSF/REST expression in astrocytes may contribute to the pathogenesis of neurological disorders.
Optimizing the multiple quantum well thickness of an InGaN blue light emitting diode

InGaN/GaN blue light emitting diodes with varied quantum well thickness from 2.4 nm to 3.6 nm are fabricated and characterized by atmosphere pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (AP-MOCVD). Experimental results show that the exciton localization effect is enhanced from 21.76 to 23.48 by increasing the quantum well thickness from 2.4 nm to 2.7 nm. However, with the further increase of quantum well thickness, the exciton localization effect becomes weaker. Meanwhile, the peak wavelength of electroluminescence redshift with the increase of well thickness due to the larger quantum confined Stark effect (QCSE). In addition, the efficiency droop can be improved by increasing the well thickness.
Sweet-Potato-Vine-Based High-Performance Porous Carbon for Methylene Blue Adsorption

In this study, sweet-potato-vine-based porous carbon (SPVPC) was prepared using zinc chloride as an activating and pore-forming agent. The optimised SPVPC exhibited abundant porous structures with a high specific surface area of 1397.8 m2 g−1. Moreover, SPVPC exhibited excellent adsorption characteristics for removing methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solutions. The maximum adsorption capacity for MB reached 653.6 mg g−1, and the reusability was satisfactory. The adsorption kinetics and isotherm were in good agreement with the pseudo-second-order kinetics and Langmuir models, respectively. The adsorption mechanism was summarised as the synergistic effects of the hierarchically porous structures in SPVPC and various interactions between SPVPC and MB. Considering its low cost and excellent adsorption performance, the prepared porous carbon is a promising adsorbent candidate for dye wastewater treatment.
Lithium in the Stellar Open Cluster M67

In this work we present atmospheric parameters and Li abundances, obtained from a detailed spectroscopic analysis, for a large sample of stars with different evolutionary stages (turn-off, subgiant and giant stars) in the open cluster M67. The observations were carried out with high resolution (R ~ 47,000) and high S/N using the UVES+FLAMES at VLT/UT2. From available photometry and computed synthetic spectra for the region around the lithium line at 6707.75 A, we derive atmospheric parameters (Teff, log g, [Fe/H], v sin i) and Li abundances for each star, in order to better understand the level of mixing and convective dilution of evolved stars in M67.
A three-dimensional structure with osteoconductive function made of O-carboxymethyl chitosan using aspirin as a cross-linker

Abstract Hydrogels have a structure similar to the extracellular matrix and have wide applications in tissue engineering. Most hydrogels need to be composited with different substances to enhance mechanical and cell compatibility. In this study, aspirin (ASP) as a cross-linker improved the three-dimensional synthesis of chitosan-based hydrogels. Porous hydrogels in different concentrations of O-carboxymethyl chitosan (O-CMC) with aspirin were prepared by freeze drying. The reaction between (–COOH) of aspirin with (–NH2) of chitosan created the formation of crosslinks in O-CMC/ASP hydrogels. The SEM images showed these hydrogels have great morphological characteristics with high porosity and favorable pore size. The O-CMC/ASP scaffold showed appropriate swelling ability. Cell culture experiments demonstrated that using human adipose mesenchyme stem cells (hADMSC) improved cell viability, alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP), and bone-specific genes on the O-CMC/ASP scaffold compared to the O-CMC scaffold. As a result, the O-CMC/ASP scaffold has high osteogenesis induction and can be used as a biocompatible implant in bone tissue engineering. Graphical Abstract
The effect of AlN interlayer thicknesses on scattering processes in lattice-matched AlInN/GaN two-dimensional electron gas heterostructures

The scattering mechanisms governing the transport properties of high mobility AlInN/AlN/GaN two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) heterostructures with various AIN spacer layer thicknesses from zero to 2 nm were presented. The major scattering processes including acoustic and optical phonons, ionized impurity, interface roughness, dislocation and alloy disorder were applied to the temperature-dependent mobility data. It was found that scattering due mainly to alloy disorder limits the electron mobility for samples having spacer layer thicknesses up to 0.3 nm. On the other hand, alloy scattering is greatly reduced as the AlN spacer layer thickness increases further, and hence the combination of acoustic, optical and interface roughness become operative with different degrees of effectiveness over different temperature ranges. The room-temperature electron mobility was observed to increase gradually as the AlN spacer layer increases. A peak electron mobility of 1630 cm2 V−1 s−1 was realized for the sample consisting of a 1 nm AlN spacer layer. Then, the electron mobility decreased for the sample with 2 nm AlN. Moreover, the measured 2DEG densities were also compared with the theoretical predictions, which include both piezoelectric and spontaneous polarization components existing at AlN/GaN interfaces. The experimental sheet carrier densities for all AlInN/AlN/GaN HEMT structures were found to be in excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions when the parasitic (unintentional) GaN layer deposited between AlN and AlInN was taken into account. From these analyses, 1 nm AlN spacer layer thickness is found to be the optimum thickness required for high electron mobility and hence low sheet resistance once the sheet carrier density is increased to the theoretically expected value for the sample without unintentional GaN layer.
Digital Twin of Atmospheric Environment: Sensory Data Fusion for High-Resolution PM2.5 Estimation and Action Policies Recommendation

Particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) is one of the main pollutants that has considerable detrimental effects on human health. Estimating its concentration levels with ground monitors is inefficient for several reasons. In this study, we build a digital twin (DT) of an atmospheric environment by fusing remote sensing and observational data. An integral part of the DT pipeline is the presence of feedback that can influence future input data. Estimated values of PM2.5 obtained from an ensemble of Random Forest and Gradient Boosting are used to provide recommendations for decreasing the agglomeration levels. We formulate a simple optimization problem for suggesting the recommendations and identify possible action policies, such as cloud seeding, scheduling of air filtering, and SMS notifications. The PM2.5 estimation part of the proposed DT pipeline has achieved RMSE and R2 of 38.94 and 0.728 (95%, CI 0.717-0.740). In addition, we investigate different approaches for quantitatively examining the contribution of each independent variable.
AMGA2: improving the performance of the archive-based micro-genetic algorithm for multi-objective optimization

In this article, an improved Archive-based Micro Genetic Algorithm (referred to as AMGA2) for constrained multi-objective optimization is proposed. AMGA2 is designed to obtain fast and reliable convergence on a wide variety of optimization problems. AMGA2 benefits from the existing literature in that it borrows and improves upon several concepts from existing multi-objective optimization algorithms. Improvements and modifications to the existing diversity assessment techniques and genetic variation operators are also proposed. AMGA2 employs a new kind of selection strategy that attempts to reduce the probability of exploring less desirable search regions. The proposed AMGA2 is a steady-state genetic algorithm that maintains an external archive of best and diverse solutions and a very small working population. AMGA2 has been designed to facilitate the decoupling of the working population, the external archive, and the number of solutions desired as the outcome of the optimization process. Comprehensive benchmarking and comparison of AMGA2 with the current state-of-the-art multi-objective optimization algorithms demonstrate its improved search capability.
Coherent structures in swirling flows and their role in acoustic combustion control

Interaction between flow instabilities and acoustic resonant modes and their effect on heat release were investigated and controlled in an experimental low-emission swirl stabilized combustor. Acoustic boundary conditions of the combustor were modified to excite combustion instability at various axisymmetric and helical unstable modes in a fully premixed combustion. The combustion unstable modes were related to flow instabilities in the recirculating wakelike region on the combustor axis and the separating shear layer at the sudden expansion (dump plane). Flow field measurements were performed in a water tunnel using a simulated combustor configuration. The water tunnel tests demonstrated the existence of several modes of flow instabilities in a highly swirling flow, modes which were shown to affect the combustion process. Mean and turbulent characteristics of the internal and external swirling shear layers were measured and unstable flow modes were identified. Instability modes during combustion were vis.
Single-Session Therapy: Planned success or unplanned failure?

Single-Session Therapy (SST) is of growing interest to many therapists and clinics. While a limited body of evidence has provided some interesting qualitative material to further understand the necessary qualities of the therapist and the possible factors that enable successful treatment, there is still discrepancy as to what defines single sessions as a distinct therapy. The available literature provides no conclusive evidence that SST is better than long-term therapy or that it is preferable to other more mainstream paradigms. However, the frequency and success of this type of therapy may be underestimated. These issues were considered in light of 17 articles and chapters published since Bloom’s (1981) review.
Numerical predictions of short-pulsed laser transport in absorbing and scattering media. I—A time-based approach with flux limiters

A one-dimensional transient radiative transfer problem in the Cartesian coordinate system involving an absorbing and scattering medium illuminated by a short laser pulse has computationally been solved by use of a finite volume method (FVM). Previous works have shown that first order spatial interpolation schemes cannot represent the physics of the problem adequately as transmitted fluxes emerge before the minimal physical time required to leave the medium. In this paper, the Van Leer and Superbee flux limiters, combined with the second order Lax–Wendroff scheme, are used in an attempt to prevent this. Results presented in this work show that, despite significant improvement, flux limiters fail to completely eliminate the physically unrealistic behaviour. Therefore, a numerical approach into which temporal variables are transformed into frequency-dependent variables is presented in the companion paper to this work.
On the drivers of sustainable development: empirical evidence from developed and emerging markets

ABSTRACT Why do firms’ sustainability disclosure performance differ so much between firms and across countries? Which factors drive firm’s awareness of sustainable development and do these factors have different driving mechanisms between developed and emerging countries? We answer these questions using a panel data regression model on around 1500 companies from 20 developed countries and 20 emerging countries during the period from 2009 to 2019. Our empirical results reveal that both firm-level and country-level variables are important predictors for sustainable disclosure performance. In developed countries, most firm-level indicators show a significant and positive effect on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosure scores. In emerging countries, only operating performance, measured by total revenues, and firm size have a positive impact on ESG disclosure, while high level of profitability is associated with low ESG score. On the country level, we find a significant relationship between all drivers and ESG scores in developed countries. However, in emerging markets, only economic, cultural (excepting uncertainty avoidance index) and technological factors are shown to impact significantly sustainable development.