Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of Sidewall Damage Induced by Reactive Ion-Beam Etching

The sidewall damage induced by reactive ion-beam etching (RIBE) with Cl2 has been studied. The sidewall damage depth was estimated from the ion-beam-angle dependence, and the photoluminescence (PL) emitted from the etched sidewall of a GaInAsP/InP DH wafer was directly measured. The sidewall damage depth of an InP substrate was estimated as less than a few hundred angstroms at an extraction voltage of 400 V. The PL intensity from the sidewall of a GaInAsP/InP DH wafer decreased considerably after RIBE, compared with that of a cleaved facet. The deteriorated PL intensity was recovered remarkably through passivation with (NH4)2Sx.
Comparison of the Portuguese Version of the Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire (PPAQ) with Accelerometry for Classifying Physical Activity among Pregnant Women with Obesity

In recent years, the number of pregnant women with obesity has increased exponentially; thus, it is important to evaluate and characterize the physical activity levels of this specific group. The aim of this study is to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Portuguese version of the Physical Activity and Pregnancy Questionnaire and Pregnancy Questionnaire in pregnant women with obesity and to classify physical activity using the Physical Activity and Pregnancy Questionnaire and accelerometry. An analytical observational study was carried out between May and August of 2019 at the University Hospital Center of São João, with a sample of 31 pregnant women with obesity (30.9 ± 4.6 years 36.5 ± 4.6 kg/m2 of BMI and 21.5 ± 9 gestational weeks). The physical activity of participants was evaluated using an accelerometer and Physical Activity and Pregnancy Questionnaire at two time points (the first visit at the moment of consultation and the second seven days after, with accelerometer retest), the interclass correlation coefficient was used to test reliability between the Physical Activity and Pregnancy Questionnaire filled out at visit1 and the Physical Activity and Pregnancy Questionnaire filled out at visit2, and Pearson’s correlation was used to determine validity between the Physical Activity and Pregnancy Questionnaire and accelerometry. The interclass correlation coefficient values for total activity were 0.95, 0.97 for moderate and 0.58 for vigorous intensities. It ranged from 0.74 for sports/exercise to 0.96 for domestic activities. The Pearson’s correlations showed that the Physical Activity and Pregnancy Questionnaire is moderately valid for moderate intensity (r = 0.435). A total of 67.7% of the pregnant women complied with international physical activity recommendations.
Intrinsic electrostatic resonances of heterostructures with negative permittivity from finite-element calculations: Application to core-shell inclusions

Herein, we report finite-element calculations of the effective (relative) permittivity of composite materials consisting of inclusions and inclusion arrays with a core-shell structure embedded in a surrounding host. The material making up the core of the two-dimensional structures, or cross sections of infinite three-dimensional objects (parallel, infinitely long, and identical cylinders) where the properties and characteristics are invariant along the perpendicular cross sectional plane, is assumed to have a negative real part of the permittivity, while the coating material (annular shell) is considered to be lossless. While strictly valid only in a dc situation, our analysis can be extended to treat electric fields that oscillate with time, provided that the wavelengths and attenuation lengths associated with the fields are much larger than the microstructure dimension in order that the homogeneous (effective-medium) representation of the composite structure makes sense. While one may identify features of the electrostatic resonance (ER) which are common to core-shell structures characterized by permittivities with real parts of opposite signs, it appears that the predicted ER positions are sensitive to the shell thickness and can be tuned through varying this geometric parameter. For example, we observe that the ER is broadened and shifted as the loss and the shell thickness are increased, respectively. We also argue that such core shell may also be valuable in controlling ER characteristics via polarization in an external electric field. In addition, by considering calculations of the electric field distribution, we find that the ER results in very strong and local-field enhancements into small parts of the shell perimeter. Our findings open up possibilities for the development of hybrid structures that could exploit the ER features for a particular application.
Parthenolide Attenuates Sepsis-Induced Acute Kidney Injury in Rats by Reducing Inflammation

Background Sepsis is a common complication of severe trauma, burns, infection, or major surgery. This disease-related end-organ dysfunction results from systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). Acute kidney damage (AKI), also known as acute renal failure, is one of the most frequent and serious sequelae of sepsis. Nuclear transcription factor-κB (NF-κB) regulates the transcription of inflammation-related genes and operates as a mediator in the immune system. While parthenolide (PTL) has been reported to prevent harmful inflammatory reactions, its effects on sepsis-associated AKI are unknown. The current study investigates the effects of PTL in sepsis-associated AKI using cell and cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) models. Methods Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated rat glomerular mesangial cells were treated with 10 μM PTL. Inflammatory mediators, including TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β, in the culture supernatants were measured by ELISA, and NF-κB levels were assessed by qPCR. After the generation of the septic CLP model, rats were intraperitoneally injected with 500 g/kg PTL and were euthanized after 72 h. Serum and kidney samples were analyzed. Results TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 levels were elevated after LPS treatment of rat glomerular mesangial cells (p=0.004, p=0.002, and p=0.004, respectively) but were significantly reduced in the PTL treatment group (p ≤ 0.001, p=0.01, and p ≤ 0.001). NF-κB p65 levels were also increased after LPS treatment in this group and were reduced in the PTL treatment group. PTL treatment also reduced kidney damage after CLP induction, as shown by histological analysis and reductions in the levels of BUN, Cre, KIM-1, and NAGL. CLP-induced kidney inflammation together with increased levels of proinflammatory cytokines and inflammatory-related proteins. The elevated levels of renal TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β were downregulated after PTL treatment. The PTL treatment also reduced the CLP-induced activation of NF-κB p65 in the damaged kidneys. Conclusion PTL reduced inflammation induced by CLP-induced AKI in rat models and LPS-induced damage to glomerular mesangial cells by suppressing NF-κB signaling.
A comparative study of the scalability of alternative metamodelling techniques

Metamodels, also known as surrogate models, can be used in place of computationally expensive simulation models to increase computational efficiency for the purposes of design optimization or design space exploration. The accuracy of these metamodels varies with the scale and complexity of the underlying model. In this article, three metamodelling methods are evaluated with respect to their capabilities for modelling high-dimensional, nonlinear, multimodal functions. Methods analyzed include kriging, radial basis functions, and support vector regression. Each metamodelling technique is used to model a set of single output functions with dimensionality ranging from fifteen to fifty independent variables and modality ranging from one to ten local maxima. The number of points used to train the models is increased until a predetermined error threshold is met. Results show that kriging metamodels perform most consistently across a variety of functions, although radial basis functions and support vector regression are very competitive for highly multimodal functions and functions with large local gradients, respectively. Support vector regression metamodels consistently offer the shortest build and prediction times when applied to large scale multimodal problems.
Development of North Atlantic Tropical Disturbances near Upper-Level Potential Vorticity Streamers

AbstractTropical cyclone (TC) development near upper-level potential vorticity (PV) streamers in the North Atlantic is studied from synoptic climatology, composite, and case study perspectives. Midlatitude anticyclonic wave breaking is instrumental in driving PV streamers into subtropical and tropical latitudes, in particular near the time-mean midocean trough identified previously as the tropical upper-tropospheric trough. Twelve TCs developed within one Rossby radius of PV streamers in the North Atlantic from June through November 2004–08. This study uses composite analysis in the disturbance-relative framework to compare the structural and thermodynamic evolution for developing and nondeveloping cases.The results show that incipient tropical disturbances are embedded in an environment characterized by 850–200-hPa westerly vertical wind shear and mid- and upper-level quasigeostrophic ascent associated with the PV streamer, with minor differences between developing and nondeveloping cases. The key differ.
The binary pulsar: physical processes, possible companions, and evolutionary histories.

A study of some aspects of the binary pulsar, PSR 1913+16, is presented in the light of recently reported observational results. If the companion to the pulsar gives a Newtonian contribution to the observed apsidal motion (a helium star or a rotating white dwarf), then it will probably be observable: the former either optically or through the dispersive effects of a stellar wind, and the latter through a secular change in the observed inclination of the orbit. If alternatively the companion behaves dynamically as a point mass (apsidal motion caused solely by general relativity), observations of the O (.nu./c)/sup 2/ frequency shift will furnish a measurement of the masses of the components. In addition, with a tenfold improvement in timing accuracy, the post-Newtonian corrections to the Keplerian ellipse and the effects of aberration could in principle be measured. This would then provide a determination of the orientation of the pulsar spin axis and allow the observation of geodetic spin precession to become a test of general relativity. We also examine the test based on the detection of orbital period changes due to gravitational radiation.Possible evolutionary histories are discussed. The most probable present system consists of two neutron stars, the endmore » result of an X-ray binary phase followed by a double core star phase. In this scenario the long timing age and short period of PSR 1913+16 are shown to be interrelated if the pulsar was the first neutron star formed. To show that other companions are not ruled out on evolutionary grounds, we construct alternate histories leading to either He star, white dwarf, or black hole companions. (AIP)« less
The Polysaccharidic Nature of the Skeleton of Marennine as Determined by NMR Spectroscopy

The water-soluble blue–green pigment marennine, produced and partly excreted by the diatom Haslea ostrearia, and known for a long time for its role in the greening of oysters, was isolated from the culture medium, purified, and analyzed by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) in order to gain insight into its chemical structure. The spectra show mainly carbohydrates of a complex composition, apparently highly branched, and with a mass in the order of 10 kDa. There are, in addition, some signals of aliphatic and, much weaker, aromatic groups that present aglycons. The latter might be responsible for the color. These carbohydrates are always associated with the blue–green color and cannot be separated from it by most treatments; they are interpreted as constituting the frame of the pigment. NMR after hydrolysis identifies the most abundant monosaccharides in marennine as galactose, xylose, mannose, rhamnose, and fucose.
Correlation and sequential path analysis of oil yield and related characteristics in camelina under seasonal variations

The objectives of the current study were to determine the usefulness of sequential path analysis in camelina to obtain information about the relationship between yield and yield components and to evaluate their relative importance in camelina oil yield under summer and winter cultivation. A split-plot design, with two varieties as the main plot and four sowing times as the subplot, was carried out over two growing seasons (2017–2019) in Samsun, Turkey. Sequential path analysis revealed that, as first-order predictors, grain yield and oil content displayed the most significant and positive direct effects on oil yield in both summer and winter cultivation. The sequential path analysis of second-order variables over the first-order variable revealed that seed number per pod and pod number explained approximately 90% of the variation of the grain yield in summer cultivation and branch number explained approximately 67% of the variation grain yield in winter cultivation. These results indicated that grain yield, as a main predictor of oil yield, had different pathways to affect oil yield in the summer and winter seasons. A higher magnitude of seed number per pod compared to pod number in this study indicated that selecting for higher grain yield can be done indirectly using plants with lower pod number and higher seed number per pod in the summer season. Moreover, branch number was the only trait that had a direct negative effect on grain yield in the winter season, indicating that plants with lower branch number should be selected for higher grain yield. Different environmental factors, including the seasonal cultivation of camelina in this study, were found to be a key factor in improving oil yield and, hence, should be considered as criteria indices in camelina breeding programs in the future.
Hydrogen motion in the Cu-H complex in ZnO

The Cu-H complex in ZnO consists of Cu on Zn site and a hydrogen atom bound to a nearby O atom, with the O\char21{}H bond oriented in the basal plane of the hexagonal lattice to the $c$ axis. The motion of hydrogen in the Cu-H complex is studied by the stress-induced dichroism. Stress applied at room temperature along $[1\overline{2}10]$ results in an alignment of the Cu-H bond. The reorientation process was found to be thermally activated with the activation energy of $0.52\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.04\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{eV}$. The connection of the hydrogen movement in the Cu-H complex with the hydrogen diffusion in ZnO is discussed, and consequences for the existence of interstitial hydrogen at room temperature are presented.
Creutzfeldt–Jakob Disease Misdiagnosed as Multiple System Atrophy

Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by various combinations of autonomic failure, parkinsonism, and cerebellar syndromes. Although consensus criteria have been widely used to diagnose MSA, accurate clinical diagnosis remains challenging. Other neurodegenerative disorders, such as Lewy body disease, can mimic MSA.
Mimicking the Perfect Electromagnetic Conducting Scattering Mechanisms with Suitable Bi-Isotropic Media

Abstract The perfect electromagnetic conducting boundary is an intriguing conception with multiple potential applications; however, the physical mechanisms that can simulate a similar behavior is not yet completely identified. This work considers an electrically small cylindrical perfect electromagnetic conducting boundary for which the scattering effect is mimicked by suitable bi-isotropic media. The derivation of their optimal parameters is based on the Taylor expansion of the omni-directional terms; nonetheless, a post-correction is required to obtain reliable results for any kind of excitation and for any spatial harmonic. However, the advantage of this optimal solution is its non-extremal magnitudes, which render the practical realization more feasible. The present study, which is valid only for a thin perfect electromagnetic conducting wire, could play the role of the unit cell when treating more sizable perfect electromagnetic conducting configurations of arbitrary shape and curvature.
Mastery, models, messengers, and mixed emotions: Examining the development of engineering self‐efficacy by gender

Engineering self‐efficacy, or the belief in one's own capabilities to complete engineering tasks, has been shown to predict greater motivation, academic performance, and retention of engineering students. Investigating the types of experiences that influence engineering students' self‐efficacy can reveal ways to support students in their undergraduate engineering programs.
Leveraging explainability for discussion forum classification: Using confusion detection as an example

Abstract Online discussion forums are highly valued by instructors due to their affordance for understanding class activities and learning. However, a discussion forum with a great number of posts requires a large amount of time to view, and help requests are easily overlooked. Various machine-learning–based tools have been developed to help instructors monitor or identify posts that require immediate responses. However, the black-box nature of deep learning cannot explain why and how decisions are achieved, raising trust and reliability issues. To address the gap, this work developed an explainable text classifier framework based on a model originally designed for legal services. We used the Stanford MOOCPost dataset to identify posts of confusion. Our results showed that the framework can not only identify discussion forum posts with confusion of different levels, but also provide explanation in terms of words from the identified posts.
MOLECULAR ORIENTATION OF LIQUID CRYSTAL MONOLAYERS ON POLYIMIDE FILMS EXPOSED TO LINEARLY POLARIZED UV LIGHT

By using optical second harmonic generation (SHG), we have investigated the molecular orientation of liquid crystal (LC) monolayers in contact with polyimide films exposed to linearly polarized ultraviolet light (LPUVL) at the wavelength of 266 nm. For different exposures at 3, 8, 20, and 80 J/cm2, the second harmonic (SH) signal from the LC monolayer was measured as a function of the rotation angle of the sample around the surface normal. The SH signal has no rotation angle dependence, independent of the energy density of exposure. On the other hand, uniform parallel (homogeneous) alignment of bulk LC was observed for a LC cell made with two polyimide-coated substrates exposed to LPUVL at 8 J/cm2. From these results we found that the in-plane anisotropy of the LC monolayer in contact with the polyimide film is very small, if any, even though the polyimide film can induce the homogeneous alignment of bulk LC. The average tilt angle of LC molecules in the monolayers in contact with the polyimide films was also determined. We found that the average tilt angle of LC molecules measured from the surface normal decreases with the increase of UV exposure.
Efficacy of Aromatherapy at Relieving the Work-Related Stress of Nursing Staff from Various Hospital Departments during COVID-19

This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of aromatherapy in relieving the stress of nursing staff working in different departments during COVID-19. A total of 26 nursing staff from Taiwan were recruited for this study. Bergamot essential oil was diffused for over a four-week period in four different hospital departments. We assessed heart rate variability indicators, Nurse Stress Checklist, and Copenhagen Burnout Inventory before and after the intervention. The results of the analysis showed that during a high workload period, aromatherapy had no significant effect on regulating physical stress. Subjective measurements showed a significant impact on work concern and personal fatigue. Moreover, there were large differences among the four departments; the aromatherapy treatment had a weak effect on those with a heavy workload, whereas those with a lighter workload showed a stronger effect. Finally, this study provides practical results about aromatherapy stress reduction applied during the pandemic on first-line medical staff.
Semi-nonparametric Maximum Likelihood Estimation

Often maximum likelihood is the method of choice for fitting an econometric model to data but cannot be used because the correct specific ation of (multivariate) density that defines the likelihood is unknown. In this situation, simply put the density equal to a Hermite series and apply standard finite dimensional maximum likelihood methods. Model parameters and nearly all aspects of the unknown density itself will be estimated consistently provided that the length of the series increases with sample size. The rule for increasing series length can be data dependent. The method is applied to nonlinear regression with sample selection. Copyright 1987 by The Econometric Society.
A Novel P@SiO2 Nano-Composite as Effective Adsorbent to Remove Methylene Blue Dye from Aqueous Media

This work aims to prepare a novel phosphate-embedded silica nanoparticles (P@SiO2) nanocomposite as an effective adsorbent through a hydrothermal route. Firstly, a mixed solution of sodium silicate and sodium phosphate was passed through a strong acidic resin to convert it into hydrogen form. After that, the resultant solution was hydrothermally treated to yield P@SiO2 nanocomposite. Using kinetic studies, methylene blue (MB) dye was selected to study the removal behavior of the P@SiO2 nanocomposite. The obtained composite was characterized using several advanced techniques. The experimental results showed rapid kinetic adsorption where the equilibrium was reached within 100 s, and the pseudo-second-order fitted well with experimental data. Moreover, according to Langmuir, one gram of P@SiO2 nanocomposite can remove 76.92 mg of the methylene blue dye. The thermodynamic studies showed that the adsorption process was spontaneous, exothermic, and ordered at the solid/solution interface. Finally, the results indicated that the presence of NaCl did not impact the adsorption behavior of MB dye. Due to the significant efficiency and promising properties of the prepared P@SiO2 nanocomposite, it could be used as an effective adsorbent material to remove various cationic forms of pollutants from aqueous solutions in future works.