Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Combined Planar Endfire Circularly Polarized Antenna Using Unidirectional Dielectric Radiator and Thin Substrate Integrated Waveguide Feeder

This article proposes and presents a fully planar endfire circularly polarized (CP) antenna with mingled three-layer substrates. It consists of a unidirectional dielectric radiator (UDR) and an antipodal linearly tapered slot antenna (ALTSA) surrounded by a UDR. The ALTSA is fed by a substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) on a thin substrate of $0.05\lambda _{0}$ , which can easily be integrated with RF subsystems. The UDR is fed by the ALTSA, which enables the UDR to enhance the original vertically polarized radiation rather than the horizontally polarized radiation from the ALTSA. Due to the polarization selectivity enhancement, an endfire CP antenna with a very thin substrate is created. An experimental prototype of the proposed antenna has been studied, designed, and measured. The measured impedance bandwidth of −10 dB covers a broadband of 29.7 GHz from 26.1 to 55.8 GHz, and the 3 dB AR bandwidth is 19.7 GHz ranging from 25.3 to 45 GHz. The measured gain is over 9 dBic from 27.8 GHz to over 32 GHz. A good performance with a small size of only $2.57\lambda _{0} \times 0.78\lambda _{0} \times 0.33\lambda _{0}$ , including the CPW-SIW transition, makes it an attractive option in the development of high gain planar endfire CP antennas and arrays for 5G and B5G applications.
Educational Challenges for Computational Thinking in K-12 Education: A Systematic Literature Review of "Scratch" as an Innovative Programming Tool

The use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) has emerged as an educational response amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, providing students the technological tools that enable them to acquire or strengthen the necessary digital skills to develop computational knowledge. The purpose of this study was to analyze Scratch, a programming language used to foster the teaching of computational thinking, particularly in K–12 education. A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted, identifying 30 articles on the topic of Scratch and computational thinking in the database ProQuest Central from January 2010 to May 2020. These articles were analyzed to identify the use of Scratch worldwide and the educational impact it has on computational thinking, specifically in K–12 education. The results highlight the following: (1) countries which incorporated Scratch into their teachers’ study plans (curricula); (2) the transformation of learning environments that Scratch promotes; and (3) the importance of incorporating tools like Scratch in the current curricula and, more importantly, developing the framework for innovative ICTs capable of transforming education.
Making Climate Data Accessible: Methods for Producing NEX-GDDP and LOCA Downscaled Climate Indicators

The change in climate, fueled by the increase in global greenhouse gas concentrations, will alter our relationship with the planet, impacting agriculture, infrastructure, disaster management, and human conflict, among others. It is critical to anticipate these new trends so we can understand and adapt to variations in crop productivity, energy demand, disaster risk, and water resource management. Climate models provide projections of how weather patterns are expected to shift over time. But climate data are difficult to access, process, and utilize, and the information that can be derived from them is largely underused. In this paper, we describe the process used to summarize global climate data into simple indicators and publish them as open datasets in common geospatial formats. We attempt to lower the barriers to using climate data so they can more easily be used to inform decisions on how to adapt to a changing climate. The climate data are visualized and available for download at PREPdata and Resourc Watch. Source code to produce these data is available on GitHub.
A Paradigm Shift in Tissue Engineering: From a Top–Down to a Bottom–Up Strategy

Tissue engineering (TE) was initially designed to tackle clinical organ shortage problems. Although some engineered tissues have been successfully used for non-clinical applications, very few (e.g., reconstructed human skin) have been used for clinical purposes. As the current TE approach has not achieved much success regarding more broad and general clinical applications, organ shortage still remains a challenging issue. This very limited clinical application of TE can be attributed to the constraints in manufacturing fully functional tissues via the traditional top–down approach, where very limited cell types are seeded and cultured in scaffolds with equivalent sizes and morphologies as the target tissues. The newly proposed developmental engineering (DE) strategy towards the manufacture of fully functional tissues utilises a bottom–up approach to mimic developmental biology processes by implementing gradual tissue assembly alongside the growth of multiple cell types in modular scaffolds. This approach may overcome the constraints of the traditional top–down strategy as it can imitate in vivo-like tissue development processes. However, several essential issues must be considered, and more mechanistic insights of the fundamental, underpinning biological processes, such as cell–cell and cell–material interactions, are necessary. The aim of this review is to firstly introduce and compare the number of cell types, the size and morphology of the scaffolds, and the generic tissue reconstruction procedures utilised in the top–down and the bottom–up strategies; then, it will analyse their advantages, disadvantages, and challenges; and finally, it will briefly discuss the possible technologies that may overcome some of the inherent limitations of the bottom–up strategy.
Evaluating Instream Restoration Effectiveness in Reducing Nitrogen Export from an Urban Catchment with a Data‐Model Approach

Urbanization increases stormwater runoff into streams, resulting in channel erosion, and increases in sediment and nutrient delivery to receiving water bodies. Stream restoration is widely used as a Best Management Practice to stabilize banks and reduce sediment and nutrient loads. While most instream nutrient retention measurements are often limited to low flow conditions, most of the nutrient load is mobilized at high stream flows in urban settings. We, therefore, use a process‐based stream ecosystem model in conjunction with measurements at low flows and focus on estimation of stream nitrogen retention over the full streamflow distribution. The model provides a theoretical framework to evaluate the geomorphic, hydrologic, and ecological factors that are manipulated by stream restoration, and drive nitrogen retention. We set a model for a pool‐riffle sequence restored stream (190 m) in Baltimore County, Maryland and calibrated the model to the in situ measured primary production (Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient [NSE] NSE = 0.89), respiration (NSE = 0.74), and nitrate uptake lengths (R2 = 0.88). At the daily scale, simulations showed low nitrogen retention during high flows due to high transport rates, mobilization of stored hyporheic nitrogen, and scouring of periphyton biomass. This result underscores the need to reduce contributing watershed runoff flashiness to promote aquatic nutrient cycling and retention. At monthly and yearly time scale, model predicted a higher percent reduction in summer than in winter and estimated 5.7%–9.5% of annual nitrate reductions. While the model was tested in a pool‐riffle sequence restoration design, the approach can be adapted to evaluate a range of channel restoration design characteristics, and the effects of upland watershed restoration to mitigate stormwater loading through both restored and unrestored streams.
Development of Soft Skills While Teaching English to Master’s Students

Besides the knowledge and skills directly related to the profession, the so-called soft or transferable skills are essential for future specialists in all areas. Soft skills involve communication, problem-solving, decision-making, computer, leadership, teamwork, critical and creative thinking, presentation, reflection and other skills, which help people to be employed and develop a successful career. To develop these skills while teaching English at University the following activities are useful: projects, presentations, discussions, debates, keeping portfolios, writing reflective diaries, role play and business games. Mixed paradigm was applied: a quantitative research (self-assessment questionnaire survey) with 60 MA/MS students and, for triangulation, a focus group interview (a qualitative approach) with 6 of those respondents who volunteered to take part in it. The goal of the research was to find out whether activities supporting the development of soft skills were applied in MA/MS English classrooms and whether the respondent students realized their usefulness for their future career. Two corresponding research questions were asked. The research held applied a researcher-made Likert-scale questionnaire and a focus group interview. The questionnaire was validated and piloted. The interview asked the same questions, trying to get students’ insight on the issue. A conclusion was made that presentations, discussions and debates, as well as role play were often applied in their classes, while portfolios, diaries and business games were more or less applied and projects were almost not used. However, the students realized the importance of these activities for their future career.
Diversity and Distribution of Sabellida (Annelida) under Protection Regimes

Sabellida are widespread, diverse and abundant in marine benthic habitats. Their distribution patterns on hard-bottom substrates are poorly studied so far. Little is known about the factors influencing their distribution, including the protection regimes that are known to affect assemblage diversity. We analyzed hard-bottom Sabellida at 1.5 and 5 m depths at the Torre Guaceto Marine Protected Area (MPA) (SE Italy) to describe diversity and distribution patterns, and to identify potential factors influencing their distribution. The Sabellida diversity varied significantly among stations and was higher at 5 m depth. No relation with the protection regime was found. Among environmental variables, only sedimentation appeared related, suggesting that local trophic features might have influenced the observed pattern. Among habitat formers, only the macroalga Halimeda tuna significantly explained part of the observed variation, probably due to its role as a basibiont for some Sabellida taxa. Other predictor variables of Sabellida distribution were the abundances of some invertebrate taxa, especially Syllidae and some filter feeders such as Sabellariida and Cirripedia, probably due to shared ecological requirements, rather than a direct effect on Sabellida distribution. The relation with the Syllidae remains obscure so far, albeit some kind of interaction (including predator/prey interactions) between these two taxa cannot be excluded. Sabellida should be taken into account when analyzing patterns of biodiversity of hard-bottom environments.
Ultrafast all-optical diffraction switching using semiconductor metasurfaces

Ultrafast all-optical switching using Mie resonant metasurfaces requires both on-demand tunability of the wavefront of the light and ultrafast time response. However, devising a switching mechanism that has a high contrast between its “on” and “off” states without compromising speed is challenging. Here, we report the design of a tunable Mie resonant metasurface that achieves this behavior. Our approach utilizes a diffractive array of semiconductor resonators that support both dipolar and quadrupolar Mie resonances. By balancing the strengths of the dipole and quadrupole resonances, we can suppress radiation into the first diffraction order, thus creating a clearly delineated “off”-state at the operating wavelength. Then, we use optical injection of free- carriers to spectrally shift the multipoles and rebalance the multipole strengths, thereby enabling radiation into the diffraction order—all on an ultrafast timescale. We demonstrate ultrafast off-to-on switching with Ion/Ioff ≈ 5 modulation of the diffracted intensity and ultrafast on-to-off switching with Ion/Ioff ≈ 9 modulation. Both switches exhibit a fast τtr ≈ 2.7 ps relaxation time at 215 μJ cm−2 pump fluence. Further, we show that for higher fluences, the temporal response of the metasurface is governed by thermo-optic effects. This combination of multipole engineering with lattice diffraction opens design pathways for tunable metasurface-based integrated devices.
Dual Resource Constrained Flexible Job Shop Scheduling Based on Improved Quantum Genetic Algorithm

Aiming at solving the problem of dual resource constrained flexible job shop scheduling problem (DRCFJSP) with differences in operating time between operators, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based DRCFJSP optimization model is developed in this paper. This model introduces the differences between the loading and unloading operation time of workers before and after the process. Subsequently, the quantum genetic algorithm (QGA) is used as the carrier; the process is coded through quantum coding; and the niche technology is used to initialize the population, adaptive rotation angle, and quantum mutation strategy to improve the efficiency of the QGA and avoid premature convergence. Lastly, through the Kacem standard calculation example and the reliability analysis of the factory workshop processing process example, performance evaluation is conducted to show that the improved QGA has good convergence and does not fall into premature ability, the improved QGA can solve the problem of reasonable deployment of machines and personnel in the workshop, and the proposed method is more effective for the DRCFJSP than some existing methods. The findings can provide a good theoretical basis for actual production and application.
Impact of calcitriol and an AKT inhibitor, AT7867, on survival of rat C6 glioma cells

Abstract Glioma is the most prevalent and lethal type of primary tumor of central nervous system. The regulatory role of calcitriol, the active form of vitamin D3, has been determined in various cellular processes including cell survival and apoptosis. To study the impact of AKT-pathway inhibition with or without calcitriol combination on glioma cell viability, the effects of AT7867 (AKT-pathway inhibitor) and calcitriol on cell viability and apoptosis were investigated in glioma C6 cell-line. Optimal doses of calcitriol and AT7867 were determined by MTT- and xCELLigence-assays. Both agents (alone/in combination) effectively suppressed the proliferation of C6 cells. While AT7867 inhibited glioma cell viability more effectively than calcitriol, this inhibitory action of AT7867 was not significantly increased by calcitriol combination. The expression levels of vitamin D receptor(VDR)-triggered molecules, AKT-pathway components and apoptosis factors were compared between calcitriol-, AT7867- and calcitriol + AT7867-treated and non-treated cells. CYP24A1 gene was upregulated and DBP, CYP1A1, CYP27B1, EGFRvIII, AKT-pathway (AKT1, MTOR, CREB, PTEN), apoptosis (BAD, CYC-C, CASP3, APAF-1, BCL2) and MMP3 genes were downregulated by calcitriol treatment.AT7867 treatment induced CYP27B1 upregulation, reduced VDR and AKT-pathway (PI3K, MTOR, CREB, PTEN) gene expression levels but showed a relatively less pronounced effect on apoptosis-related gene levels. The combination of calcitriol and AT7867 treatment generated an effect that was similar to that induced by calcitriol alone. Our results demonstrate that calcitriol and AT7867 have differing actions on AKT- and apoptotic-pathways of C6 glioma cell-line. Calcitriol has a lesser viability reducing impact than AT7867 putatively due to its apoptosis inhibiting action. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13102818.2021. 1912641 .
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACADEMIC SELF-EFFICACY AND COGNITIVE LOAD FOR STUDENTS IN DISTANCE LEARNING

The COVID-19 global pandemic has forced the education process worldwide to change its form to distance learning. This empirical study contributes to recently limited knowledge about the remote learning process. The study aimed to determine how academic self-efficacy is related to subjective cognitive load to predict achievement results in different forms of distance learning. The research method used was a quasi-experimental pilot study. The research questions were: (1) What is the relationship between academic self-efficacy, subjective cognitive load, and achievement results in teacher-directed distance learning? (2) What is the relationship between academic self-efficacy, subjective cognitive load, and achievement in student-directed distance learning? (3) What is the difference between teacher-directed and student self-directed distance learning settings regarding relationships between academic self-efficacy, subjective cognitive load, and achievement results? The measurement of academic self-efficacy and subjective cognitive load in the context of task assessment results were compared in different distance learning settings in two independent groups of 9th graders. The results suggest a significant relationship between subjective cognitive load and achievement results in student self-directed but non-significant between all variables in teacher-directed distance learning settings. In contrast, settings themselves demonstrated no influence on any measured factors.
Effectiveness of Comprehension Strategies Mobile App (COSMA) on Reading Comprehension Performances of Students With Learning Disabilities

The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the Comprehension Strategies Mobile App (COSMA) on the reading comprehension performance of students with learning disabilities. Four students with learning disabilities (three boys, one girl) participated in the study. The experimental process of the study was carried out according to the multiple baseline across participants model of single-subject experimental designs. Reading comprehension performance of students was assessed with multiple-choice tests and retells. Students’ use of strategies was evaluated with on-task metacognitive interviews. Findings showed that COSMA has a positive impact on students’ reading comprehension performances. It was determined that the students’ motivation to use the mobile app was high, the opinions of families and teachers of the software were positive and they observed an increase in students’ reading skills. Findings are discussed further.
Perceptions of Cultural Ecosystem Services: spatial differences in urban and rural areas of Kokemäenjoki, Finland

ABSTRACT This study aims to identify and evaluate the spatial distribution of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) benefits perceived by people in both urban and rural areas. A public participation GIS (PPGIS) approach was applied with local people who responded to an online survey and mapped their important places related to CES benefits in the Kokemäenjoki area. We explore the perceived ecosystem services of the community using different infrastructure types (green, grey, yellow and blue) based on the Corine Land Cover (CLC) classes. We identified spatial patterns of mapped important places using kernel dens ity estimation and related CES benefit associations with the infrastructures using chi-square residuals. We found that CES in urban areas are provided more often when there is more than one type of infrastructure (e.g., grey and green; grey and blue), but grey infrastructures are preferred in urban areas, while blue infrastructures produce more CES benefits in rural areas.
A De Novo Mosaic PHEX Variant Causing Sporadic X-Linked Hypophosphatemic Rickets in a 2-Year-Old Girl

Abstract Pathogenic variants in the PHEX gene are causative of X-linked hypophosphatemic rickets (XLH). We present a case of a 2-year-old girl with hypophosphatemic rickets with genu varum and short stature without any family history of XLH. Next generation sequencing of the PHEX gene identified a splice donor variant, NM_000444. 6:c.1173 + 5G > A in intron 10. This variant had a mosaic pattern with only 22% of the sequence reads showing the variant allele and was not present in the girl's parents, both of whom had a normal phenotype. This is a sporadic case of a de novo mosaic splice-site variant in the PHEX gene.
Identification of a major QTL for root thickness in diploid wild sweetpotato (Ipomoea trifida) using QTL-seq

ABSTRACT Ipomoea trifida, the closest relative of sweetpotato, does not generally form storage roots, but some lines develop thick roots similar to the storage roots of the sweetpotato. Revealing the molecular mechanism of thick root development in I. trifida would help us understand the evolution of storage roots in the sweetpotato. In this study, we conducted a mapping method for quantitative trait loci (QTLs) known as QTL-seq, which is a kind of next-generation sequencing-based bulk segregant analysis. We performed QTL-seq using a backcross population (BC1F1) derived from two I. trifida lines: Mx23Hm, which does not show root-thickening; and 0431-1, which produces thick roots. The aim was to identify the QTL region involved in thick root development. As a result, a major QTL for root thickness (qRT1) was detected in the 2.94–8.71 Mb region of chr06 of Itr_r2. 2, in both pot and field experiments. Six DNA markers were designed for qRT1 using InDels on chr06. Genotyping each BC1F1 individual based on these DNA markers agreed well with the SNP-Index of QTL-seq. Moreover, most individuals with 0431-1-type alleles of qRT1 developed thicker roots than individuals without 0431-1-type alleles of qRT1 in the BC2F2 population. The results of this study implied that qRT1 was an important QTL for regulating root thickness in I. trifida. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Parameter calibration of stochastic volatility Heston’s model: constrained optimization vs. differential evolution

This paper calibrates through loss functions the parameters of Heston’s stochastic volatility model by using two different methods: minimizing a nonlinear objective function (a loss function) with constraints on the values of the parameter and using a differential evolution algorithm. Both methods are applied to implied volatilities on the Mexican Stock Exchange Index with four maturities and twenty-eight strike prices. The selection criterion for the parameters is minimizing the value of the mean square error of the implied volatility. The first method has a better performance with less error and time. However, empirical results show that for both methods the adjustment of implied volatilities is better for options with long-term maturities than for short-term maturities.
Experimental and Modeling Studies on Ignition Delay Times of Methyl Hexanoate/n-Butanol Blend Fuels at Elevated Pressures

Ignition delay times for n-butanol/methyl hexanoate blend fuels under an O2/N2 atmosphere were measured in a rapid compression machine at compressed pressures of 11, 15, and 20 bar with a compressed temperature between 660 and 830 K. A kinetic model for n-butanol/methyl hexanoate fuel blends was built to predict the ignition delay and simulate the combustion process. The main reaction pathways involved in the oxidation process of fuel blends under low–medium-temperature ranges were recognized. Over the conditions researched in this study, ignition delay of fuel blends showed three-stage oxidation, namely, cool flame, negative temperature coefficient range, and high-temperature oxidation. It is found that the ignition delay times of fuel blends decrease with the increase of the pressure at top dead center and the proportion of n-butanol in blend fuel. Both methyl hexanoate and n-butanol show two-stage heat release in a low compressed temperature range and single-stage heat release in a high-temperature ran.