Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
All the Lead in China

Lead contamination in China has been extensively documented by scientists in China and elsewhere over the past two decades, as summarized in this review of articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Sources of that contamination include (a) deposits from previous emissions of leaded gasoline, which was finally eliminated in the past decade; (b) previous and continuing emissions from fossil fuel combustion, which are increasing markedly with the rapid industrialization of China; (c) previous and continuing emissions from other industrial activities, including mining, smelting and municipal waste incineration; and (d) previous and continuing additions of contaminated fertilizers, sewage, and untreated wastewater to agricultural fields. Lead concentrations of some Chinese agricultural produce are also elevated by acid rain and acidic fertilizers, which increase the solubility and bioavailability of both natural and contaminant lead in soil. In addition, some Chinese products are contaminated with lead during their production, processing, packaging, and transport. As a consequence of the long-range transport of industrial lead emissions from China and the global market for its products, the problem of lead pollution in China is a global problem.
Our Collective Tensions: Paradox Research Community’s Response to COVID-19

In this commentary on three articles from dozens of paradox theory scholars on paradox approaches to examining the COVID-19 pandemic and how the COVID-19 pandemic informs paradox theory, the authors involved in coordinating the collection of three papers discuss the process of bringing together scholars from around the world to discuss the pandemic. Four other preeminent paradox theorists offer additional commentaries on the papers in this Collection.
Testing, Identifying, and Serving Gifted Children With and Without Disabilities: A Multi-State Parental Perspective

Early identification of gifted children, including those twice-exceptional, allows schools and parents to support these children’s needs, but little is known about this early identification process and the role parents and teachers play. Parents of gifted children completed a survey which looked at what age their child was tested and identified, whether or not the parent suspected that the child was gifted, who referred the child for testing, and whether or not their child was twice-exceptional. Schools tested, identified, and started services for gifted children in the early elementary grades, usually between 5 and 6 years of age. Most parents identified giftedness in their children by age 2. Parents were also the most frequent person to refer their child for testing, although teachers also placed a strong role. Twice-exceptional children did not differ significantly from gifted children on any of these measures. Implication for further study are included.
Human-carnivore coexistence: factors influencing stakeholder attitudes towards large carnivores and conservation in Zimbabwe

Summary Promoting human-carnivore coexistence is a main component of carnivore conservation. Coexistence programmes are usually informed by attitudinal studies that evaluate intended behaviour towards carnivores. This questionnaire survey assesses attitudes of governmental and non-governmental conservation stakeholders in Zimbabwe towards living with carnivores, large carnivore species and the conservation of wildlife, and determines whether being part of coexistence programmes (CAMPFIRE, TFCAs) positively affects attitudes. Stakeholder attitudes were most positive when employment was directly related to wildlife and stakeholders had knowledge about and exposure to carnivores. Stakeholders who depend on livestock and/or had little knowledge about and less exposure to carnivores were most negative, this included governmental stakeholders responsible for natural resource management. Positive attitudes were largely based on the aesthetic and economic value of carnivores, while negative attitudes were based on the fear of livestock loss and perceived danger to humans. Subsistence farmers were the most negative stakeholders, as such, the focus on this group to promote coexistence seems justified. However, although some stakeholders were more positive in CAMPFIRE areas or TFCAs, CAMPFIRE and TFCAs failed to improve attitudes of subsistence farmers, which highlights a need to evaluate and adapt these programmes.
Interpretable machine learning model to detect chemically adulterated urine samples analyzed by high resolution mass spectrometry

Abstract Objectives Urine sample manipulation including substitution, dilution, and chemical adulteration is a continuing challenge for workplace drug testing, abstinence control, and doping control laboratories. The simultaneous detection of sample manipulation and prohibited drugs within one single analytical measurement would be highly advantageous. Machine learning algorithms are able to learn from existing datasets and predict outcomes of new data, which are unknown to the model. Methods Authentic human urine samples were treated with pyridinium chlorochromate, potassium nitrite, hydrogen peroxide, iodine, sodium hypochlorite, and water as control. In total, 702 samples, measured with liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry, were used. After retention time alignment within Progenesis QI, an artificial neural network was trained with 500 samples, each featuring 33,448 values. The feature importance was analyzed with the local interpretable model-agnostic explanations approach. Results Following 10-fold cross-validation, the mean sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value was 88.9, 92.0, 91.9, and 89.2%, respectively. A diverse test set (n=202) containing treated and untreated urine samples could be correctly classified with an accuracy of 95.4%. In addition, 14 important features and four potential biomarkers were extracted. Conclusions With interpretable retention time aligned liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry data, a reliable machine learning model could be established that rapidly uncovers chemical urine manipulation. The incorporation of our model into routine clinical or forensic analysis allows simultaneous LC-MS analysis and sample integrity testing in one run, thus revolutionizing this field of drug testing.
Age Categories Differences in Subjective Quality of Life of Women with Physical Disabilities

Abstract Objective The objective of the study was to analyse and compare the subjective quality of life (S-QoL) of women with physical disabilities (PDs) through satisfaction with the quality of life domains and the overall quality of life assessment. Methods The sample comprised of women with PDs (n=137), divided into 4 age categories: 19-29 yrs. (n=53); 30-44 yrs. (n=25); 45-59 yrs. (n=24) and over 60 yrs. (n=35). The Subjective Quality of Life Analyses questionnaire and the WHO User Manual were used as a primary research method. The Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was used to assess the differences between QoLDs, Kruskal Wallis test to assess differences in S-QoL among four independent groups and Mann Whitney U-test between two age categories. Results The highest satisfaction in all age categories of women was found in the social relations domain, and in the 19-29 yr-old women equally in the social relations and physical health domains. The highest dissatisfaction was reported with the psychological health and environment domains. The key finding is that the main differences are between the youngest category (aged 19-29 yrs) and the three older categories with regard to physical health, environment and overall QoL. Conclusions It is necessary to continue this line of research with a greater focus on exploring the ways in which the psychological health domain can be improved as an integral part of S-QoL, and to also focus on the QoL indicators that make up the environment domain and search for ways to enhance these.
An Examination of Retailers’ Compliance with the Minimum Legal Drinking (purchasing) Age Law in Slovenia: A Quasi-experimental Intervention Study

Abstract Introduction Alcohol consumption among young people is strongly related to alcohol availability. The minimum legal drinking (purchasing) age (MLDA) is a legal measure that regulates alcohol availability to minors in Slovenia. This study examines (1) retailers’ compliance with the MLDA law in Slovenia and (2) the effectiveness of two interventions directed at cashiers in off-premise stores. Methods The study uses a non-randomized quasi-experimental design to evaluate the effectiveness of (1) a communication intervention directed at off-premise store managers, and (2) an intervention by the Slovene Market Inspectorate. The first intervention focused on informing cashiers about MLDA’s importance and their role as gatekeepers of young people’s health, while the second involved law enforcement. Using the mystery shopping protocol, we conducted two waves of purchase attempts with decoy underage shoppers pre- and post-intervention in 97 off-premise stores. We collected data on the shopping process at the point of sale and conducted 40 semistructured interviews with cashiers to evaluate the barriers and incentives regarding MLDA compliance. Results Retailers’ initial noncompliance rate with MLDA in off-premise stores was high, but improved significantly after the law enforcement intervention. We identified a significant correlation between the cashiers’ ID requests and the refusal of alcohol sales, but cashiers’ ID requests remained low. Qualitative findings reveal that cashiers experience several issues when handling MLDA in practice. Conclusion Noncompliance with MLDA persisted even after the law enforcement intervention, revealing the need for policy makers to introduce new strategies for MLDA enforcement, such as revocable alcohol licenses for off-premise stores.
An evaluation of biochar pre-conditioned with urea ammonium nitrate on maize (Zea mays L.) production and soil biochemical characteristics

Dil, M. , Oelbermann, M. and Xue, W. 2014. An evaluation of biochar pre-conditioned with urea ammonium nitrate on maize (Zea mays L.) production and soil biochemical characteristics. Can. J. Soil Sci. 94: 551–562. Biochar can enhance soil fertility, plant nutrient uptake and crop production. Using a potted study, we quantified the effects of adding biochar at 1 t ha−1 (Char), biochar pre-conditioned with urea ammonium nitrate [UAN (Char+)], or UAN only to a control (Contr) with no amendments on maize (Zea mays L.) biomass production, tissue carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) concentrations, N uptake (NU), N utilization efficiency (NUtE), and soil chemistry and biology in coarse-, medium- and fine-textured soils over 6 wk. Soil pH decreased (P<0.05) in Char+ and UAN treatments for all soil textures. Soil organic carbon (SOC) increased (P<0.05) in the coarse and medium textured soil in Char and Char+ treatments. Soil ammonium and soil nitrate were different (P<0.05) among treatments; increasing or decreasing depend.
ICCD microscopic imaging of a single micro-discharge in surface coplanar DBD geometry: determination of the luminous diameter of N2 and Ar streamers

Time-resolved images of a single-surface dielectric barrier micro-discharge were obtained by employing ICCD microscopy with high spatial and time resolution. The micro-discharge was repetitively produced using amplitude-modulated ac high voltage waveforms applied to the coplanar electrode geometry in a reactor, fed either with high-purity Ar or N2 at atmospheric pressure. The driving high-voltage amplitude was set to initiate just one single micro-discharge per one ac half-cycle. Images recorded within the two successive ac cycles provided evidence that the track left by the first micro-discharge influenced the propagation trajectory of consecutive streamers. Images of individual micro-discharges allowed evaluation of the luminous streamer channel diameter and its evolution along the streamer's propagation trajectory. Minimum luminous streamer channel diameters of 30 ± 6 µm and 50 ± 10 µm were fixed in Ar and N2, respectively. Furthermore, direct comparison between a single micro-discharge image and an image integrating many micro-discharges allowed the estimation of potential errors associated with methods based on accumulating optical emission produced by many micro-discharge events.
A study of zinc soap aggregates in a late 19th century painting by R.G. Rivers at the Queensland Art Gallery

Abstract Metal soap formation in paintings has been implicated in a serious deterioration phenomenon. The present study documents zinc soap aggregates observed in a late 19th century painting by R. Godfrey Rivers. Optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis of paint cross-sections are used to describe the appearance and elemental composition of affected paint layers. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) is used to confirm the presence of zinc carboxylates and static secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) results are given for one sample. Scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive X-ray (SEMEDX) maps and spot analyses are used to examine aggregates in detail. In addition to zinc, carbon and oxygen, magnesium is frequently present. Paint composition and environment are discussed in terms of their potential to influence soap formation.
Simulation of water clusters in vapour, alkanes and polyethylenes

The Gibbs Ensemble Monte Carlo (GEMC) technique has been used to study the clustering of water in vapour, alkanes and polyethylene, where the water clusters are in equilibrium with liquid phase water. The effect of an external electric field and ionic impurities on the clustering of water in the hydrocarbons (alkanes and polyethylene) has also been studied. The simulations of water clustering in polyethylene were made more efficient by using a connectivity altering osmotic Gibbs ensemble method. It was found that trends in the size distribution of water clusters in the hydrocarbons are similar to those found in the pure vapour, but that fewer and smaller clusters are formed as the length of the hydrocarbon chain increased. Also, large external electric fields decrease the solubility of water in hydrocarbons, whereas the presence of ionic species dramatically increases the solubility.
Development of metal-organic cluster based negative tone resist: pre-screened through the helium-ion beam prelude to extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) applications

EUV lithography (EUVL) is expected to offer a single-exposure solution down to 5 nm or below nodes. To successfully implement EUVL for sub-10 nm nodes on time, one major hurdle is the availability of compatible resists with sufficiently low line edge/width roughness (LER/LWR) and low exposure dose. Hence, the requirements of high-resolution patterning along with sub 10 nm feature size necessitates nanocluster size resist materials with high irradiation absorption coefficients, considerably high sensitivity, and permissible LER and LWR. To meet the aforementioned requirements, we formulated a negative tone metal-core (indium and copper) organic clusters resists such as In-MOCs and Cu-MOCs having a nanosize domain. In-MOCs is comprised of indium core as an inorganic metal building unit and methacrylic acid (MAA) as an organic ligand while the Cu-MOCs is comprised of copper metal core and trans 2,3 dimethylacrylic acid (DMA) organic ligand through the versatile sol-gel method. The incorporation of indium and copper metal provides the enhanced absorption of irradiation beams, while the MAA and DMA in the formulated resist showing radical polymerization could be easily crosslinked through the carbon-carbon bond with the minimal amount of exposure dose of He+ ions to form a negative tone resist. The designed resists exhibit a significantly higher sensitivity of ~12.76 μC/cm2 and ~14.93 μC/cm2 towards the helium ion beam for In-MOCs and Cu-DMA resists, respectively. The well-resolved half-pitch features of ~13 nm and the minimum line width of ~11 nm L/2S with the substantial helium-ion dose of ~30 μC/cm2 for In-MOCs resist, whereas, the well-resolved high resolution (HR) ~ 10 nm half-pitch (HP) and ~9 nm (L/2S) line patterns at a considerable He+ dose of ~35 μC/cm2 for Cu-DMA resist. The calculated LER and LWR for 13 nm half-pitch patterns are 2.56 ± 0.06 nm and 2.48 ± 0.08 nm, respectively for In-MOCs resist, while the computed line edge roughness (LER), line width roughness (LWR) for HR~10 nm (HP) line patterns are 2.24 ± 0.08 nm and 3.1 ± 0.09 nm, respectively for Cu-DMA resist.
Switching in polystyrene films: Transition from on to off state

Experiments on polystyrene films formed by a glow‐discharge technique shows a reproducible bistable switching. Various interpretations are briefly reviewed. It is shown that the resistance of the on state is strictly related to the energy needed by the on‐off transition. From the value of this energy it is concluded that the most probable explanation is that the on current takes place along a filamentary path constituted by carbon atoms. A quantitative analysis is made on the basis of the heat balance equation. Formation of carbonated chains is confirmed by a chromatography analysis in vapor phase which shows an hydrogen release.
Optical element fabrication for anti-sniper laser detection

In modern street battle, counter-sniper operations have become the main issue. However, due to the strong unidirectionality of laser beam, it is necessary to shape the laser beam to became useful. At the same time, in order to improve the detection efficiency, the energy of the laser beam is required to be as concentrated as possible, and the detection range is as wide as possible. Therefore, for meeting the requirements, comparing cylindrical with free-form surface prism on the shaping affection The result shows best shaping effect is achieved by using the free-form surface prism. In order to ensure that the laser energy loss is small, the manufracturing processing of freeform prism is analyzed. PSD(power spectral density) characteristics of the optical element surface and its influencing factors are discussed. So as to achieve the laser detection efficiency and detection distance requirements.
Sketch-based normal map generation with geometric sampling

Normal map is an important and efficient way to represent complex 3D models. A designer may benefit from the auto-generation of high quality and accurate normal maps from freehand sketches in 3d content creation. This paper proposes a deep generative model for generating normal maps from users’ sketch with geometric sampling. Our generative model is based on conditional generative adversarial network with the curvature-sensitive points sampling of conditional masks. This sampling process can help eliminate the ambiguity of generation results as network input. It is verified that the proposed framework can generate more accurate normal maps.
Theoretical Study of the Adsorption of RNA/DNA Bases on the External Surfaces of Na+-Montmorillonite

This work analyzes the adsorption of RNA/DNA nucleobases on the external surfaces of Na + -montmorillonite by using periodic plane wave calculations based on the PBE functional. The adsorption energies were corrected by a posteriori added empirical term to account for purely dispersive interactions. Adsorption has been considered either on the side comprising the Na + counterion or on the opposite side, where only siloxane bonds are present. Different orientations of the nucleobases (parallel and orthogonal to the surface plane) have been considered. The results show that guanine and cytosine, for which the metal cation interacts with two basic centers (N and O), are the ones with larger adsorption energies (-27.6 kcal mol -1 for G O6N7 and - 27.0 kcal mol -1 for C O2N3 ). The remaining three bases present smaller adsorption energies (-21.7 for T π ( O4 ), - 21.2 for U π ( O4 ) and -20.2 kcal mol -1 for A N3 ). On the other hand, adsorption of the nucleobase on the surface free from Na + , either in a face-to-face or orthogonal orientation, was found to be sizable for all bases (from -3.7 to -11.3 kcal mol -1 ), due to the stabilizing effect of dispersion interactions.
Complementing Prostate SBRT VMAT With a Two-Beam Non-Coplanar IMRT Class Solution to Enhance Rectum and Bladder Sparing With Minimum Increase in Treatment Time

Purpose Enhance rectum and bladder sparing in prostate SBRT with minimum increase in treatment time by complementing dual-arc coplanar VMAT with a two-beam non-coplanar IMRT class solution (CS). Methods For twenty patients, an optimizer for automated multi-criterial planning with integrated beam angle optimization (BAO) was used to generate dual-arc VMAT plans, supplemented with five non-coplanar IMRT beams with individually optimized orientations (VMAT+5). In all plan generations, reduction of high rectum dose had the highest priority after obtaining adequate PTV coverage. A CS with two most preferred directions in VMAT+5 and largest rectum dose reductions compared to dual-arc VMAT was then selected to define VMAT+CS. VMAT+CS was compared with automatically generated i) dual-arc coplanar VMAT plans (VMAT), ii) VMAT+5 plans, and iii) IMRT plans with 30 patient-specific non-coplanar beam orientations (30-NCP). Plans were generated for a 4 x 9.5 Gy fractionation scheme. Differences in PTV doses, healthy tissue sparing, and computation and treatment delivery times were quantified. Results For equal PTV coverage, VMAT+CS, consisting of dual-arc VMAT supplemented with two fixed, non-coplanar IMRT beams with fixed Gantry/Couch angles of 65°/30° and 295°/-30°, significantly reduced OAR doses and the dose bath, compared to dual-arc VMAT. Mean relative differences in rectum Dmean, D1cc, V40GyEq and V60GyEq were 19.4 ± 10.6%, 4.2 ± 2.7%, 34.9 ± 20.3%, and 39.7 ± 23.2%, respectively (all p<0.001). There was no difference in bladder D1cc, while bladder Dmean reduced by 17.9 ± 11.0% (p<0.001). Also, the clinically evaluated urethra D5%, D10%, and D50% showed small, but statistically significant improvements. All patient VX with X = 2, 5, 10, 20, and 30 Gy were reduced with VMAT+CS, with a maximum relative reduction for V10Gy of 19.0 ± 7.3% (p<0.001). Total delivery times with VMAT+CS only increased by 1.9 ± 0.7 min compared to VMAT (9.1 ± 0.7 min). The dosimetric quality of VMAT+CS plans was equivalent to VMAT+5, while optimization times were reduced by a factor of 25 due to avoidance of individualized BAO. Compared to VMAT+CS, the 30-NCP plans were only favorable in terms of dose bath, at the cost of much enhanced optimization and delivery times. Conclusions The proposed two-beam non-coplanar class solution to complement coplanar dual-arc VMAT resulted in substantial plan quality improvements for OARs (especially rectum) and reduced irradiated patient volumes with minor increases in treatment delivery times.