Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maternal Viral Infection in Early Pregnancy and Risk of Congenital Heart Disease in Offspring: A Prospective Cohort Study in Central China

Purpose To examine the associations of maternal virus infection in early pregnancy with risk of offspring congenital heart disease (CHD) and its seven common subtypes including atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, atrioventricular septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus, Tetralogy of Tallot, pulmonary stenosis, and transposition of the great arteries. Patients and Methods A prospective cohort study was conducted in Central China. A total of 44,048 pregnant women with singleton pregnancies at 8–14 gestational weeks were finally included and followed to 3 months postpartum. Serum was tested for virus infection including hepatitis B virus (HBV), coxsackievirus-B, human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), herpes simplex virus (HSV), and rubella virus. Multivariable modified Poisson regression models were used to estimate the relative risks (RRs) of all CHDs as well as seven common subtypes of CHD in offspring of pregnant women with different types of virus infection in early pregnancy, adjusting for confounders identified by directed acyclic graphs. Results At the end of follow-up, 564 births were diagnosed with CHD. Multivariable analyses showed that the presence of maternal viral infection in early pregnancy was independently associated with increased risks of CHD in offspring, with an adjusted relative risk of 2.21 (95% CI: 1.66–2.95) for HBV infection, 2.21 (95% CI: 1.63–3.00) for coxsackievirus-B infection, 3.12 (95% CI: 2.44–3.98) for HCMV infection, and 2.62 (95% CI: 1.95–3.51) for rubella virus infection. More specifically, the offspring of pregnant women with HCMV infection had the highest increased risk of patent ductus arteriosus (RR=10.50, 95% CI: 6.24–17.66). These findings persisted in analyses that were further adjusted for the other virus of interest in this study. Conclusion Our study proposed evidence that maternal virus infection in early pregnancy, including HBV, coxsackievirus-B, HCMV, and rubella virus, was implicated in CHD, although more studies remain needed to verify the results, especially associations in specific CHD phenotypes.
Multiple One-Way Edge Modes in Sonic Crystals With Large Chern Numbers

The quantum Hall effect (QHE) associated with Chern insulators reveals the non-trivial topological properties of two-dimensional electronic systems subject to strong magnetic field, which features finite Chern number C and chiral edge states. The latter promise robust electron transport and have received tremendous attention in both the condensed matter physics and classical systems including photonics and acoustics. In acoustics, circulating air flow has been introduced to create an effective gauge magnetic field, which breaks the time-reversal symmetry and leads to chiral edge states for acoustic waves. While the robust edge states may offer possible routes towards acoustic devices yielding unidirectional sound propagation, e.g., acoustic diodes, the mode density at the interfaces is limited by small Chern numbers of ± 1 . Here, we realize acoustic Chern insulators with large Chern numbers, i.e., | C | ≥ 1 ( | C | = 1, 2, 3, 4). The system is based on circulating air flow in a sonic crystal (SC) with fourfold rotational symmetry. The large Chern numbers are obtained by breaking multiple accidental degeneracies at (non-)high-symmetric points. Based on these Chern insulators, acoustic diodes are realized by joining structures of different Chern numbers. Up to eight propagation modes are supported on the interfaces, greatly improving the mode density and hence the propagation efficiency. Our design offers possible routes towards high-efficient and topologically robust acoustic diodes, which may further inspire acoustic non-reciprocal devices based on topological Chern insulators. Experimentally, our proposals can be realized based on angular-momentum-biased resonator arrays.
A Method Of Automatic Measurement For Liquid Level In Standard Metal Tank

Liquid level detection is a key step in Standard Metal Tank automatic calibration. In this work, liquid level was extracted by using image processing techniques and herein we propose SVM classifier to train and classify LBP feature vectors of scale digital images. Finally, automatic measurement for liquid level is completed in standard metal tank. The test results reveal that this method is efficient and reliable, with digital recognition rate being above 98% and scale accuracy within ± 0.2 mm.
Development and Fundamental Characteristic of One-Shaft Type ER Clutch

Electro-rheological (ER) fluid is a member of the family of intelligent fluids, and it has the character that the apparent viscosity can be controlled according to strength of an applied electric field. Various applications using ER fluid have been developed. Recently, the research on whether ER fluid can be applied to the area of the motion control of robotics has been performed. For example, we see that robots in factory applications have two links. For the sake of safety, it is necessary to create an enclosure around the robot, since it is not possible for humans to approach large-capacity robots. Thus, we considered that the robot arm would not injure a human if it was possible for the robot arm to bend softly when making human contact, with the force applied at the arm tip skillfully controlled at the joint. In order to realize this motion, we will develop an actuator build into the joint, and we examined the control method (impedance control) of the robot arm. In this paper, we developed a one-shaft type ER clutch to be installed at the joint division of a robot arm. The developed ER clutch is stronger than the conventional ER clutch in terms of radial motion. Further, we examined the fundamental characteristics of the developed ER clutch in order to apply impedance control to it. The results of our experiment show that the coefficient of viscosity is directly proportional to the applied electrical field. Therefore, it is concluded that the clutch is able to be controlled by impedance control.
Multivariate Correlation-aware Spatio-temporal Graph Convolutional Networks for Multi-scale Traffic Prediction

Traffic flow prediction based on vehicle trajectories collected from the installed GPS devices is critically important to Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). One limitation of existing traffic prediction models is that they mostly focus on predicting road-segment level traffic conditions, which can be considered as a fine-grained prediction. In many scenarios, however, a coarse-grained prediction, such as predicting the traffic flows among different urban areas covering multiple road links, is also required to help government have a better understanding on traffic conditions from the macroscopic point of view. This is especially useful in the applications of urban planning and public transportation planning. Another limitation is that the correlations among different types of traffic-related features are largely ignored. For example, the traffic flow and traffic speed are usually negatively correlated. Existing works regard these traffic-related features as independent features without considering their correlations. In this article, we for the first time study the novel problem of multivariate correlation-aware multi-scale traffic flow predicting, and we propose a feature correlation-aware spatio-temporal graph convolutional networks named MC-STGCN to effectively address it. Specifically, given a road graph, we first construct a coarse-grained road graph based on both the topology closeness and the traffic flow similarity among the nodes (road links). Then a cross-scale spatial-temporal feature learning and fusion technique is proposed for dealing with both the fine- and coarse-grained traffic data. In the spatial domain, a cross-scale GCN is proposed to learn the multi-scale spatial features jointly and fuse them together. In the temporal domain, a cross-scale temporal network that is composed of a hierarchical attention is designed for effectively capturing intra- and inter-scale temporal correlations. To effectively capture the feature correlations, a feature correlation learning component is also designed. Finally, a structural constraint is introduced to make the predictions on the two scale traffic data consistent. We conduct extensive evaluations over two real traffic datasets, and the results demonstrate the superior performance of the proposal on both fine- and coarse-grained traffic predictions.
School-Based Physical Activity Intervention: A Qualitative Process Evaluation of a Feasibility Trial in Yangzhou, China

Background: There is an urgent need for children in China to increase their physical activity levels. We first developed a 16-week school-based behavior change intervention based on the Behavior Change Wheel and Theoretical Domains Framework. We then conducted a cluster feasibility non-randomized controlled trial (RCT) among children in Yangzhou, China. Aim: This qualitative process evaluation was embedded within the cluster feasibility non-RCT and aimed to: (1) explore the experiences and perceptions of participants and providers in the intervention and trial; and (2) generate recommendations to inform a future intervention and full-scale cluster RCT. Methods: A qualitative study, using semi-structured interviews with trial participants (n = 20 children: 10 intervention, 10 control), parents (n = 20), and health education providers (n = 2), was conducted in two public schools in Yangzhou, China. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and translated verbatim from Mandarin to English. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Findings believed to reflect experiences and perceptions of participants in the intervention and the trial are presented as eight major themes: (1) perceived high efficacy of the intervention components to help children become more active, (2) appreciation of the intervention features, (3) factors that facilitated or impeded intervention attendance and delivery, (4) positive experiences and feelings gained through the data collection process, (5) satisfaction regarding the organization and implementation of the trial, (6) influences of personal beliefs and emotional responses to the trial, (7) social influences on participatory decision-making, and (8) key barriers to consider regarding the recruitment of participants. Conclusions: The intervention and trial methods were acceptable to children, parents, and health education providers. School-based behavior change intervention was perceived to be a useful approach to increase physical activity in children aged 10–12 years in China. However, there were barriers to intervention delivery and engagement that should be considered when designing a future cluster RCT to assess the intervention efficacy.
Function and transcriptional regulation of CsKCS20 in the elongation of very-long-chain fatty acids and wax biosynthesis in Citrus sinensis flavedo

Abstract Cuticular wax on plant aerial surfaces plays a vital role in the defense against various stresses, and the genes related to wax metabolism have been well documented in several model plants. However, there is very limited research on the key enzymes and transcription factors (TFs) associated with carbon chain distribution and wax biosynthesis in citrus fruit. In this study, an analysis of wax metabolites indicated that even carbon-chain (C24-C28) metabolites are the dominant wax components in citrus fruit, and a 3-ketoacyl-CoA synthase (KCS) family gene (CsKCS20) plays an important role in the carbon chain distribution during wax biosynthesis in a wax-deficient mutant (MT). Expression of CsKCS20 in yeast indicated that CsKCS20 can catalyze the biosynthesis of C22 and C24 very-long-chain fatty acids (VLCFAs). In addition, transcriptome and sequence analysis indicated that the differential expression of CsKCS20 between the wild-type (WT) and MT fruit can be partly attributed to the regulation of CsMYB96, which was further confirmed by yeast one-hybrid (Y1H) assays, electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs) and dual luciferase assays. The functions of CsMYB96 and CsKCS20 in wax biosynthesis were further validated by heterologous expression in Arabidopsis. In summary, this study elucidates the important roles of CsKCS20 and CsMYB96 in regulating VLCFA elongation and cuticular wax biosynthesis, which provides new directions for the improvement of citrus fruit wax quality in genetic breeding programs.
Dark Triad Personalities, Self-control, and Antisocial/Criminal Outcomes in Youth

ABSTRACT The Dark Triad composed of psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism, and also self-control are consistently related to antisocial and criminal externalizing outcomes. In the present study, we examined whether self-control mediates the relationships between the Dark Triad and delinquency, conduct disorder, and crime seriousness outcomes. The sample consisted of 567 adolescents (M = 15.91 years, SD = 0.99 years, range = 14–18 years) from Portugal. Self-control mediated the association between psychopathy and Machiavellianism (but not narcissism) and self-reported juvenile delinquency, conduct disorder symptoms, and crime seriousness. One reason antisocial/criminal behaviors are common in those characterized by psychopathy and Machiavellianism relates to their deficits in self-control as suggested by general theories. Within the nomological network of dark traits, narcissism appears to have enduring and unmediated associations with externalizing features and conduct problems. Our findings add to the literature modeling the Dark Triad along with self-control to elucidate its contributions to antisocial/criminal outcomes in youth.
Curcumin and Silver Doping Enhance the Spinnability and Antibacterial Activity of Melt-Electrospun Polybutylene Succinate Fibers

Melt electrospinning is a polymer processing technology for the manufacture of microfibers and nanofibers. Additives are required to reduce the melt viscosity and increase its conductivity in order to minimize the fiber diameter, and can also impart additional beneficial properties. We investigated the preparation of polybutylene succinate (PBS) microfibers incorporating different weight percentages of two multifunctional additives (the organic dye curcumin and inorganic silver nanoparticles) using a single-nozzle laboratory-scale device. We determined the influence of these additives on the polymer melt viscosity, electrical conductivity, degradation profile, thermal behavior, fiber diameter, and antibacterial activity. The formation of a Taylor cone followed by continuous fiber deposition was observed for compounds containing up to 3% (w/w) silver nanoparticles and up to 10% (w/w) curcumin, the latter achieving the minimum average fiber diameter of 12.57 µm. Both additives reduced the viscosity and increased the electrical conductivity of the PBS melt, and also retained their specific antibacterial properties when compounded and spun into fibers. This is the first report describing the effect of curcumin and silver nanoparticles on the properties of PBS fibers manufactured using a single-nozzle melt-electrospinning device. Our results provide the basis to develop environmentally benign antibacterial melt-electrospun PBS fibers for biomedical applications.
Maximizing Leaves, Inflorescences, and Chemical Composition Production of Moringa oleifera Trees under Calcareous Soil Conditions

One of the main issues limiting plant productivity is a lack of soil nutrient resources, especially in calcareous soil, which covers more than one third of the world’s land surface area. On the other hand, despite rising demand for all parts of the Moringa oleifera tree, several studies have focused on its leaf production as an herbaceous plant, rather than as a tree, and no extensive research has been carried out on leaf and inflorescence production in the mature tree. As a result, the influence of vermicompost and NPK (minerals and nanoparticles), as well as their combination, under calcareous soil conditions, was investigated in this study. The experiment was set up as a split plot in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replicates. In both seasons considered in this study, it was discovered that increasing the quantity of vermicompost and employing NPK fertilization, as well as their combination treatments, greatly enhanced all parameters and yield of distinct Moringa oleifera tree parts. Furthermore, the combination treatment T21 yielded the highest mean values of growth, leaves, and chemical composition parameters, as well as the highest yield from the Moringa oleifera tree. In both seasons, the highest number of inflorescences per tree, as well as the yield of fresh and dry inflorescences, was measured using combination treatment T18. In both seasons, however, increasing the level of vermicompost, NPK, and their combination treatments significantly reduced the total phenolic and flavonoid content and antioxidant activity of dry Moringa oleifera leaves.
The Application of Lean Construction Tools in United Kingdom Construction Organisations: Findings From a Qualitative Inquiry

1. School of Technology, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, WV1 1LY, United Kingdom. Email: abubakar.bashir2@wlv.ac. uk 2. School of Technology, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, WV1 1LY, United Kingdom. Email: s.subashini@wlv.ac. uk 3. School of Technology, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, WV1 1LY, United Kingdom. Email: d.a. oloke@wlv.ac. uk 4. Faculty of Environment and Technology, University of the West of England, Bristol, BS16 1QY, United Kingdom. Email: david.proverbs@uwe.ac. uk 5. School of the Built Environment, University of Salford, Greater Manchester, M5 4WT, United Kingdom. Email: r.gameson@salford.ac. uk
Control-oriented model for operation of HCCI engines.

A mathematical engine model is developed in this thesis to study the operation process in Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engines. Ethanol, an alternative fuel, is chosen for testing in this model. Two-step reaction mechanisms are implemented to model combustion process for which Arrhenius reaction rates are used. The simulation results are then compared with experimental data from a modified heavy-duty diesel engine. Results from this model show good correlation with experiment with respect to combustion phasing, pressure rise and peak pressure. Based on this model, a controller could be synthesized to keep HCCI ignition at a minimum advance for best torque value under static and dynamic conditions, unaffected under process noise such as varying temperature, pressure, etc. R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. iv
Compact Millimeter-Wave On-Chip Dual-Band Bandpass Filter in 0.15-μm GaAs Technology

A compact on-chip dual-band bandpass filter (BPF) at millimeter-wave frequencies is proposed in 0.15-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mu }\text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> GaAs technology. To understand the working mechanism of the BPF, an LC equivalent circuit model is presented and analyzed for position estimation of the transmission zeros and poles. For demonstration, an on-chip BPF example is fabricated and tested, whose simulation and measurement are in good agreement. There are two frequency bands at 60.2 and 79.7 GHz with bandwidths of 9% and 6.8%, respectively. The chip, excluding the feedings, is only 0.304 mm <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times0.464$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm.
Effects of Apple Vinegar Addition on Aerobic Deterioration of Fermented High Moisture Maize Using Infrared Thermography as an Indicator

This study was carried out to determine the effects of apple vinegar and sodium diacetate addition on the aerobic stability of fermented high moisture maize grain (HMM) silage after opening. In the study, the effect of three different levels (0%, 0.5% and 1%) of apple vinegar (AV) and sodium diacetate (SDA) supplementation to fermented HMM at two different storage conditions (27–29 °C, 48% Humidity; 35–37 °C, 26% Humidity) were investigated. The material of the study was fermented rolled maize grain with 62% moisture content stored for about 120 days. Silage samples were subjected to aerobic stability test with three replicates for each treatment group. Wendee and microbiological analyses were made at 0, 2, 4, 7, and 12 days. Meanwhile, samples were displayed in the T200 IR brand thermal camera. According to the thermogram results, 1% SDA addition positively affected HMM silages at the second and fourth days of aerobic stability at both storage conditions (p < 0.05). Aerobic stability and infrared thermography analysis indicated that 1% AV, 0.5%, and 1% SDA additions to HMM silages had promising effects. Due to our results, we concluded that thermal camera images might be used as an alternative quality indicator for silages in laboratory conditions.
New Insights into the (A)Synchronicity of Diels-Alder Reactions: A Theoretical Study Based on the Reaction Force Analysis and Atomic Resolution of Energy Derivatives

In the present manuscript, we report new insights into the concept of (a)synchronicity in Diels-Alder (DA) reactions in the framework of the reaction force analysis, in conjunction with natural population calculations and atomic resolution of energy derivatives along the intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC) path. Our findings suggest that the DA reaction transitions between a preferentially concerted mechanism to a stepwise one in a 0.10 Å window of synchronicity indices, ranging from 0.90 to 1.00 Å. We have also shown that the relative position of the global minimum of the reaction force constant with respect to the TS is an alternative and quantifiable indicator of the (a)synchronicity in DA reactions. Moreover, the atomic resolution of energy derivatives reveals that the mechanism of the DA reaction involves two inner elementary processes associated with the formation of each of the two C-C bonds. This resolution goes on to indicate that, in asynchronous reactions, the driving and retarding components of the reaction force are mostly due the fast and slow-forming C-C bonds (elementary process) respectively, while in synchronous ones both elementary processes retard and drive the process concomitantly and equivalently.
Optimal Resource Allocation in Fog Computing for Healthcare Applications

: In recent years, the significant growth in the Internet of Things (IoT) technology has brought a lot of attention to information and communication industry. Various IoT paradigms like the Internet of Vehicle Things (IoVT) and the Internet of Health Things (IoHT) create massive volumes of data every day which consume a lot of bandwidth and storage. However, to process such large volumes of data, the existing cloud computing platforms offer limited resources due to their distance from IoT devices. Consequently, cloud-computing systems produce intolerable latency problems for latency-sensitive real-time applications. Therefore, a new paradigm called fog computing makes use of computing nodes in the form of mobile devices, which utilize and process the real-time IoT devices data in orders of milliseconds. This paper proposes workload-aware efficient resource allocation and load balancing in the fog-computing environment for the IoHT. The proposed algorithmic framework consists of the following components: task sequencing, dynamic resource allocation, and load balancing. We consider electrocardiography (ECG) sensors for patient’s critical tasks to achieve maximum load balancing among fog nodes and to measure the performance of end-to-end delay, energy, network consumption and average throughput. The proposed algorithm has been evaluated using the iFogSim tool, and results with the existing approach have been conducted. The experimental results exhibit that the proposed technique achieves a 45% decrease in delay, 37% reduction in energy consumption, and 25% decrease in network bandwidth consumption compared to the existing studies.