Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Secondary school students’ views of nature of science in quantum physics

ABSTRACT Epistemological and philosophical issues have always been relevant for the foundations of physics, but usually do not find their way into secondary physics classrooms. As an exception to this, the strangeness of quantum physics (QP) naturally evokes philosophical questions, and learners might have to change their ideas about the nature of science (NOS). In this exploratory mixed-method study, we examined possible connections between upper secondary school students’ QP content knowledge and their ideas about relevant aspects of NOS in the context of QP. We administered a QP concept test to 240 Dutch secondary students (age 17–19) after they attended classes on QP without a focus on NOS. Next, we selected 24 students with a range of test scores for individual semi-structured interviews about their understanding of wave-particle duality and their views on five aspects of NOS. Contrary to NOS studies in other contexts, the interviews showed that all 24 students had well-informed NOS views in the context of QP. We contend that NOS in QP might be more easily accessible than in many other contexts. Our results suggest that QP can have an additional role in the physics curriculum by enhancing students’ understanding of NOS.
Structural constraints on Lower Carboniferous shale gas exploration in the Craven Basin, NW England

Detailed interpretation of a 3D seismic data volume reveals the detrimental effect that post-depositional tectonic deformation has had on buried Lower Carboniferous (Dinantian–Namurian) shales and its consequences for shale gas exploration in the SW part (Fylde area) of the Craven Basin in NW England. The structural styles primarily result from Devono-Carboniferous (syn-sedimentary) extension, post-rift subsidence and Variscan inversion, a renewed phase of Permo-Triassic extension, and Cenozoic uplift and basin exhumation. In contrast to the shallow dips and bedding continuity that characterizes productive shale gas plays in other basins (e.g. in the USA and Argentina), our mapping shows that the area is affected by deformation that results in the Bowland Shale Formation targets being folded and dissected into fault-bound compartments defined by SW–NE striking (Lower Carboniferous and Variscan) reverse faults and SSW–NNE to N–S striking (Permo-Triassic) normal faults. The fault networks and the misalignment between the elongate compartments they contain and the present-day minimum horizontal stress orientation limit the length over which long lateral boreholes can remain in a productive horizon, placing an important constraint on optimal well positioning, reducing the size of the shale gas resource and affecting well productivity. Our subsurface mapping using this high-fidelity dataset provides an accurate picture of the Upper Palaeozoic structure and demonstrates that faulting is denser and more complex than apparent from geological mapping of the surface outcrop. That structural complexity has direct and significant consequences for: the location of well pads; the lateral continuity of target shale gas horizons; the evaluation of the risk of inducing seismicity on seismically resolvable (large displacement) fault planes prior to drilling; and the likelihood of faults with small throws (below seismic resolution) being present.
Implementing a peer support program for improving university student wellbeing: The experience of program facilitators

Peer support programs offer a promising approach to addressing the high levels of stress and psychological distress reported by university students. However, few studies have considered the impact of implemented programs on the wellbeing and skill development of student facilitators. This study examines the experiences of student facilitators of a guided peer support program for reducing and preventing stress and low mood in student participants. Benefits to student facilitators, anticipated and actual, include the development of skills and experience in group facilitation, and a greater sense of community and belonging. While challenges exist in establishing initiatives, peer support and mentoring programs can offer valuable benefits by increasing wellbeing and fostering skill development for both participants and student facilitators. It is important that university-based peer support programs consider the student facilitator experience in both program development and evaluation and ensure training addresses facilitator concerns, prepares students adequately for the role, and considers the benefits for individual professional development.
Surprisingly malleable public preferences for climate adaptation in forests

Researchers and policy-makers often assume that public preferences for climate change adaptation are positive and stable compared to those of mitigation. However, public judgments about adaptation in natural resource sectors (like forestry) require that people make difficult, value-laden and uncertain trade-offs across complex social-ecological systems. The deliberative methods (e.g. focus groups and in-depth interviews) that are typically used to explore the malleability of these judgments may underestimate the level of preference malleability in broader publics by encouraging participants to rationalize their choices in relation to their own knowledge, values and beliefs, as well as those of others. Here, we use a public survey (N = 1926) from British Columbia, Canada—where forestry is economically, environmentally and culturally vital—to investigate the malleability of public preferences for genomics-based assisted migration (AM) for climate change adaptation in forests. Following an initial judgment, respondents are given new information about AM’s potential implementation and impacts—simple messages similar to those that they might encounter through traditional and social media. The results show that respondents’ initial judgments are surprisingly malleable, and prone to large bi-directional shifts across all message types. The magnitude of this malleability is related to the degree of the proposed intervention, the type of message, and individuals’ demographic and psychographic characteristics. These results suggest that high levels of initial public support may be illusory, and that more attention should be paid to the potential for malleability, controversy and contradiction as adaptation policies are developed and implemented. Process-based arguments related to transparent, evidence-based and adaptive governance may be more influential than risk-based arguments related to climate change and economic impacts.
Non-Exclusive Dealing with Retailer Differentiation and Market Penetration

Abstract Retailer differentiation exists in most industries and gives manufacturers an incentive to contract with different retailers to penetrate a market. This paper analyzes the impact of this penetration effect on vertical contract exclusivity in an oligopolistic model with differentiated retailers. In the model, manufacturers endogenously choose contract types and negotiate with retailers on wholesale prices. We show that, when the penetration effect is sufficiently strong, non-exclusive contracts lead to higher profits for the manufacturers and retailers. The model is applied to an example with logit demand, which shows that both manufacturers choosing the non-exclusive contracts is a dominant-strategy Nash equilibrium even though they may both be better off under exclusive contracts when the products have high quality or low costs.
A 1–160-GHz InP Distributed Amplifier Using 3-D Interdigital Capacitors

A wideband monolithic microwave/millimeter-wave integrated circuit (MMIC) distributed amplifier (DA) using a 3-D interdigital capacitor at the input of the gain cell is demonstrated in an indium phosphide (InP) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) process. The proposed DA using interdigital capacitors improves the input return loss at high frequencies compared with the one implemented with conventional metal–insulator–metal (MIM) capacitors. The fabricated amplifier achieves a measured average gain of 10.5 dB over a 3-dB bandwidth from 1 to 160 GHz. The maximum measured saturated power (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_{\mathrm {sat}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) is 17.8 dBm with the corresponding 1-dB compression power (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_{\mathrm {1\,dB}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) of 15 dBm at 55 GHz. The amplifier achieves a minimum <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_{\mathrm {sat}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of 14.6 dBm up to 110 GHz.
Role of Immunohistochemical Markers in Surgical Margins of Patients with Head and Neck Carcinoma – A Systematic Review

Objective(s): The aim and objective of this study was to systematically evaluate the prognostic role of immunohistochemical markers in surgical margins of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Materials and Methods: MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus and Cochrane library were searched for relative studies until December 2018. Retrospective and prospective original research studies published in English language assessing the prognostic value of immunohistochemical markers and disease-free survival in HNSCC and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) were included. Results: A total of eight studies were included comprising of 269 cases. The studies included here used eukaryotic initiation transcription factor 4E (eIF4E) in HNSCC patients; Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP), MMP2, MMP3, MMP9, Dentin SialoPhosphoprotein (DSPP), Bone Sialoprotein (BSP), Osteopontin (OPN), Beta-2-adrenergic receptors and E-cadherin in OSCC patients and p53 in HNSCC and OSCC. Among all the markers studied MMP9 had the highest accuracy at 80% followed by p53 (75%), DSPP (70%) and OPN (70%) while eIF4E (33.3%) had least accuracy. A study suggested that E-cadherin is the preferred marker over MMP9. Almost all the studies used Fisher’s exact and Fisher-Freeman-Halton significance test. Only one study was at low risk of bias, three studies were at moderate risk of bias, three studies had serious risk of bias and in one study bias could not be calculated due to inadequate information. Conclusions: The study shows that immunohistochemical markers can significantly contribute to the field of head and neck carcinomas. Future efforts should concentrate on improving the antibody selection and its performance in the patients.
Identification of miR-21-5p and miR-210-3p serum levels as biomarkers for patients with papillary renal cell carcinoma: a multicenter analysis

Background Expression of circulating serum microRNAs has not been studied in a cohort of patients with papillary renal cell carcinoma (pRCC) so far. We hypothesized that miRNA deregulation in malignant tissue is reflected in serum and could be used for non-invasive diagnosis of pRCC as well as differentiation between type 1 and type 2 pRCC. Methods We selected 11 differentially regulated miRNAs from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) pRCC data set as potential serum validation candidates. Serum miRNA expression was determined by qRT-PCR in a total of 34 pRCC type 1, 33 pRCC type 2 and 33 control subjects of three german high-volume medical centers. Results Heatmap and principal component analysis showed that miRNA expression did not cluster the samples into distinct sample groups and that miRNA levels did not significantly discriminate healthy individuals from patients with pRCC, nor between patients with type 1 and type 2 pRCC. However, miR-21-5p levels were significantly increased in patients with advanced pRCC (>pT3, and/or pN+ and/or pM+) in comparison to localized pRCC. Moreover, adding the expression of miR-210-3p, which was significantly down-regulated in localized pRCC sera in comparison to healthy sera, additionally increased diagnostic accuracy in our study cohort. Conclusions In our multicenter cohort, we were not able to identify a single miRNA serum marker for pRCC including its subclasses. However, our study revealed that miR-21-5p levels were elevated in advanced disease (with added diagnostic accuracy via addition of miR-210-3p expression), proposing these two miRs as potential biomarkers in pRCC.
Efficient linearisation technique for crosstalk and power amplifier non-linearity suitable for massive MIMO transmitters

Massive multi-input–multi-output (MIMO) is expected to be an eminent technique to meet the demands of high system capacity and data rates of wireless networks in 5G wireless communication. However due to inherent imperfections of the transmitter such as power-amplifier (PA) non-linearity and crosstalk, practically, the signal quality suffers and does not reap sufficient benefits from the various MIMO techniques. Digital predistortion (DPD) is a popular technique for single-input–single-output transmission to enhance signal quality. This study examines the issue of high DPD's complexity in mitigating imperfections in MIMO transmitters. This work proposes a less complex, novel DPD model for linearising large-scale MIMO transmitters along with its characterisation procedure. The proof-of-concept is provided with the measurement setup containing 4 × 1 MIMO transmitters in the presence of non-linear crosstalk, linear crosstalk, and strong PA non-linearity. The proposed model performs comparably to the state-of-art DPD models like parallel Hammerstein and dual-input crosstalk mismatch with lower number of floating-point operations (flops). The proposed model improves adjacent channel power ratio up to − 54.13 dBc and error vector magnitude up to 1.08% for LTE signal of 40 MHz bandwidth.
Including Stakeholders When Implementing New Technologies

OBJECTIVE Technologies such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) offer many benefits to health care providers and may raise stakeholder concerns. This study reviews a new technology from another industry, summarizes previous research on medical applications of RFID, and analyses survey responses on RFID applications. The goal is to develop recommendations for evaluating and implementing new technologies. DESIGN Marketing and stakeholder theories were used to develop lessons from the case study and prior research. A survey was mailed to adults in four Midwestern states in the US. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Respondent support ratings for two medical and two nonmedical applications of RFID were analysed using principal component analysis and binary logistic regressions. Profiles of those supporting the applications were developed. RESULTS The case study highlighted the importance of considering the needs and concerns of all stakeholders. Previous studies suggested that many hospital administrators who examined RFID may not have included some stakeholders. This research found that support for RFID varied across respondents and applications. Anxiety about technology was negatively linked with RFID support. Religiosity also had negative coefficients for some applications. *Dr. Ronald Larson earned graduate degrees from the University of Minnesota, Stanford University, and Purdue University. He worked in the food industry for about 5 years and in academia for more than 20 years. He retired from academia in 2015. CONCLUSIONS Administrators considering new technologies need to consider patient privacy needs and stakeholder concerns. Surveying stakeholders and utilizing advisory boards could help administrators tailor their actions to the communities they serve. A few opponents of a technology can limit its adoption. Regular, two-way communications may help health care organizations improve technology decisions and enhance the odds of implementation success.
Developing a Cell-Free Extract Reaction (CFER) System in Clostridium thermocellum to Identify Metabolic Limitations to Ethanol Production

The cellulolytic bacterium Clostridium thermocellum is a promising candidate for lignocellulosic biofuel production; however, ethanol titer needs to be improved for commercialization. To understand the factors limiting ethanol titer in C. thermocellum, we developed a cell-free extract reaction (CFER) system. We demonstrated that 15 mM cellobiose could be converted, in vitro, to 25 mM ethanol and that this reaction functions both at thermophilic (55°C) and mesophilic (37°C) temperatures. Although the yield was similar to that produced by whole cells, the rate was much slower (~0.5 vs. 12 mM/h). In order to reliably quantify metabolites, rapid CFER quenching is necessary. Among the methods tested, filtration with a 3-kDa molecular weight cutoff filter proved to be the most effective. Metabolomic analysis revealed high levels of glucose-6-phosphate (G6P) and fructose-6-phosphate (F6P) in the CFER, identifying potential rate-limiting enzymes downstream of F6P. NADH was also found to accumulate in the CFER, suggesting that NADH recycling is rate-limiting. We used two complementary strategies to identify enzymes that limit metabolic flux, including feeding different substrates and supplementing with exogenous enzymes. In the enzyme addition experiment, the largest improvement was observed with the addition of yeast alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), indicating a limitation at that reaction. The development of a CFER system for C. thermocellum, combined with detailed measurements of intermediate metabolites, allowed us to directly observe the metabolism of this organism, and suggested several potential metabolic engineering interventions for increasing ethanol titer. This demonstrates a technique that may be of general use for metabolic engineering in non-model organisms.
Adding to the debate on once-a-week versus once-every-3-weeks cisplatin dosing in concurrent chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced head and neck squamous cell cancer

One of the most popular debates in locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (LAHNSCC) is the optimal dose and schedule of cisplatin when combined with radical radiotherapy in the curative setting, both postoperatively and as definitive chemoradiotherapy (CRT). Hoping to settle this debate once and for all, we conducted a phase III randomized clinical trial to answer this question (1).
Disrupting the protein-protein recognition in cancer pathways by molecular modeling.

Cancer is the second disease leading cause of death in industrialized countries. Although early detection and more efficient drugs are responsible of the reduction of mortality, several cancers still present difficult treatments and low survival rates. Conventional drugs only exhibit moderate therapeutic index between cancer and normal tissues but recent advances are focused to improve lesstoxic treatments. Hence, new drugs must target specific signaling pathways involved in cell growth and proliferation. Concerning this aim, two mechanism involved in cancer disease, named apoptosis (or programmed cell death) and pentose phosphate pathway, have been selected in this work to search new inhibitors to target crucial proteins of both cell routes.Overexpression of antiapoptotic genes has been correlated with tumor growth and resistance tochemotherapy, thus many efforts have been done to block the activity of XIAP and Survivin, central proteins acting in apoptosis and studied in the present work. Moreover, the two most active proteins detected in both the oxidative and nonoxidative branches of the pentose phosphate pathway, Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase (G6PDH) and Transketolase (TKT), have been also selected in this thesis.Molecular Modeling methods, covering topics in protein and peptide recognition, molecular dynamics, pharmacophore generation, database searching, docking and scoring in virtual screening and binding free energy prediction, have been applied with success to discover new active molecules inhibitors of XIAP, Survivin, G6PDH and TKT proteins.
More around Cattaneo equation to describe heat transfer processes

We revisit Cattaneo's derivation of the equation describing heat transfer and bearing his name, finding a more elaborated model equation, that we will compare with the time‐lagged model. This equation does not comply with the second law of thermodynamics, as well as Cattaneo equation. The latter, however, is known to have provided meaningful results in certain experiments conducted in some liquids and solids at very low temperature. These experiments also match the results given by a nonlinear model proposed by A. Morro and T. Ruggeri in 1988, which instead does meet the laws of thermodynamics. A comparison is made with such a model too.
Who Is Bowling Alone? Quantile Treatment Effects of Unemployment on Social Participation

This article examines heterogeneity in the effect of unemployment on social participation. Whereas existing studies on this relationship essentially estimate mean effects, we use quantile regression methods to provide a broader and more complete picture. To ac-count for the potential endogeneity of job loss, we estimate quantile treatment effects (on the treated) based on entropy balancing and focus on unemployment due to plant closures. Using German panel data, we show that the effect of unemployment varies across the distribution of public social activities. It is large and negative for individuals in the middle and lower part of the distribution of public activities, whereas those participating a lot are not affected. By contrast, the effect of unemployment on private social participation is virtually zero for individuals at the lower part of the outcome distribution and weakly positive in the middle. Our ﬁndings suggest that active labor market policies should account for target-group speciﬁc elements, tailored to those individuals which are most adversely affected by unemployment.
Examining enrolment decisions and life challenges of adult learners in advanced technologies programs

ABSTRACT The majority of students in the United States completing advanced technologies coursework, certifications, and AS/AAS degree programs within two-year colleges are adults with complex lives. They have to balance an array of challenges including health, children, and work. These school-work-life challenges can be informed by a body of knowledge related to adult decision-making patterns. Based on a national study of students in advanced technologies, we found females were significantly more likely to participate based on personal reasons. African American/Black students were significantly more likely to participate based on personal, life circumstances, and program fit. Hispanic/Latino students were more likely to participate based on personal, life circumstances, and program fit factors. Thus, enrolment and recruitment strategies at the 2-year institutional and program levels should prioritise adults/working professionals, females, and ethnic and racial minority students as a critical component of their support system, and faculty need to be knowledgeable about adult life patterns and transitions to accommodate working adult learners in their courses and programs.