Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Invasive Species as Rivals: Invasive Potential and Distribution Pattern of Xanthium strumarium L.

Xanthium strumarium L. is a globally successful invasive herb that has had significant negative ecological, economic and social impacts in many world regions. The present study was therefore conducted to evaluate the invasive potential and spatial distribution patterns of X. strumarium in heavily invaded plant communities of the semiarid regions of northern Pakistan. Investigations were based on data from 20 plants grown in the Herbarium at the University of Malakand, and from observations in 450 plots distributed across 45 stands representing habitats across Northern Province including open fields, hillocks and abandoned areas in both urban and rural areas. Multivariate analysis identified elevation, organic matter and organic carbon as the environmental variables most associated with communities invaded by X. strumarium. Increased soil silt was positively associated and available water was negatively associated with X. strumarium–invaded communities. These key environmental characteristics allowed us to identify four main associations: Group I: X. strumarium-C. sativa, Group II: X. strumarium-P. hysterophorus, Group III: X. strumarium-A. aspera and Group IV: X. strumarium-C. sativa. Other invasive species were observed, either exotic, such as P. hysterophorus, or indigenous, such as C. sativa and D. inoxia, often co-occurring and responding similarly to these factors. The results suggest that high temperature with drought stress could be a determinant of increasing population at lower elevations, whereas colder climates with adequate moisture are related to reduced populations at higher elevations, near the species’ upper range limits. It is recommend that the inclusion of appropriate, additional soil and climatic variables in species distribution models be implemented in order to better explain species’ ecological niches and help guide conservation and protection plans for native plant communities.
Mapping of the Subglacial Topography of Folgefonna Ice Cap in Western Norway—Consequences for Ice Retreat Patterns and Hydrological Changes

Folgefonna consists of three ice caps which are rapidly retreating in response to warmer temperatures. The melting of Folgefonna has implications for meltwater drainage and hydropower production, as well as the potential for geohazards and impacts to tourism, the communities and infrastructures surrounding the glacier. To support future adaptation strategies, we need to know the subglacial topography of the ice caps to identify water divides and possible areas for geohazards. Therefore, we mapped the subglacial topography at Sørfonna, the largest of the Folgefonna ice caps, using an ice-penetrating radar (2.5 MHz antennas; 1,000 × 500 m grid). The results show a highly irregular subglacial landscape, with deep valleys and high mountain peaks. The maximum ice thickness is 570 m and the mean ice thickness is 190 m. We examined the retreat pattern of Sørfonna using the subglacial topography map in combination with a simple ice flow model and simulated the ice retreat 150 years into the future. We used two climate scenarios (one with a 1.5°C warming and a 3% increase in precipitation, and a second with a 3.5°C warming together with 15% increase in precipitation) and focused on how the glacial retreat will cause hydrological changes in the catchments surrounding the glacier. The main drainage pattern shifts during glacial retreat, with a larger proportion of southward drainage compared to the present day. The ice flow modelling also reveals that the southern part of Sørfonna is more durable during climate change whereas the thinner part of the ice cap, in the north, melts faster. We suggest that increased winter precipitation in a future warmer climate makes the southern part of Sørfonna more resilient than many other glaciers in southern Norway. The subglacial topography map and the retreat pattern also reveal areas that may accumulate water and could potentially generate a future glacial outburst flood. Sediments from distal glacier-fed lakes around Sørfonna have been used to constrain the thresholds identified on the subglacial topography map. Combining sedimentological evidence from distal glacier-fed lakes with the new subglacial topography map confirms that the retreat of specific outlet glaciers, such as Bondhusbreen, Buerbreen, and Møsevassbreen, will have a large impact on meltwater routing, as they are situated behind bedrock thresholds in the upper part of the glacier’s catchment area.
A Wideband E‐plane Pattern Reconfigurable Antenna with Enhanced Gain

A novel method of steering antenna beam in its E‐plane is introduced and a design of wideband pattern reconfigurable antenna with enhanced gain is proposed in this paper. A bowtie antenna is used as the driven radiator, and two parasitic bowtie‐shaped microstrip stubs with two diodes are loaded beside each arm of the driven radiator. With the introducing of a low profile artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) beneath the bowtie radiator, unidirectional radiation pattern can be obtained. By altering the working states of the diodes, the main beam of the antenna can be switched in its E‐plane. The biasing circuit of the antenna is simple and easy to be implemented. The prototype of the antenna is fabricated, and good agreement can be observed between the simulated and measured results. Compared to other pattern reconfigurable antennas, the proposed antenna has advantages of a wide operating band, ability of beam switching in E‐plane, and high gain. These advantages makes it a good candidate for the wireless communication systems.
Shotgun Proteomics Revealed Preferential Degradation of Misfolded In Vivo Obligate GroE Substrates by Lon Protease in Escherichia coli

The Escherichia coli chaperonin GroEL/ES (GroE) is one of the most extensively studied molecular chaperones. So far, ~80 proteins in E. coli are identified as GroE substrates that obligately require GroE for folding in vivo. In GroE-depleted cells, these substrates, when overexpressed, tend to form aggregates, whereas the GroE substrates expressed at low or endogenous levels are degraded, probably due to misfolded states. However, the protease(s) involved in the degradation process has not been identified. We conducted a mass-spectrometry-based proteomics approach to investigate the effects of three ATP-dependent proteases, Lon, ClpXP, and HslUV, on the E. coli proteomes under GroE-depleted conditions. A label-free quantitative proteomic method revealed that Lon protease is the dominant protease that degrades the obligate GroE substrates in the GroE-depleted cells. The deletion of DnaK/DnaJ, the other major E. coli chaperones, in the ∆lon strain did not cause major alterations in the expression or folding of the obligate GroE substrates, supporting the idea that the folding of these substrates is predominantly dependent on GroE.
Development of a dynamically scaled wind turbine

Experimental analyses of modal parameters on operating wind turbines are associated with great technical expense, standstill times and therefore with high costs. This makes experimental research on operating wind turbines, for example testing innovative measurement strategies, uneconomical. Thus it is desirable to conduct portions of experimental research on laboratory test structures. In this paper the development of a scaled laboratory test rig is presented. It is designed in such a manner that the lower natural frequencies of a reference wind turbine are approximately reproduced. To find feasible physical parameters for the test rig, preliminary analyses based on an analytical model of a vertical cantilever beam with a top body were combined with experiments based on Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) and multibody simulations.
Visual Evaluation of Ultrafast MRI in the Assessment of Residual Breast Cancer after Neoadjuvant Systemic Therapy: A Preliminary Study Association with Subtype

The purpose of this study was to investigate the diagnostic performance of ultrafast DCE (UF-DCE) MRI after the completion of neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NST) in breast cancer. In this study, MR examinations of 55 post-NST breast cancers were retrospectively analyzed. Residual tumor sizes were measured in the 20th phase of UF-DCE MRI, early and delayed phases of conventional DCE MRI, and high spatial-resolution CE MRI (UF, early, delayed, and HR, respectively). The diagnostic performance for the detection of residual invasive cancer was calculated by ROC analysis. The size difference between MRI and pathological findings was analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test with the Bonferroni correction. The overall AUC was highest for UF (0.86 and 0.88 for readers 1 and 2, respectively). The difference in imaging and pathological sizes for UF (5.7 ± 8.2 mm) was significantly smaller than those for early, delayed, and HR (p < 0.01). For luminal subtype breast cancer, the size difference was significantly smaller for UF and early than for delayed (p < 0.01). UF-DCE MRI demonstrated higher AUC and specificity for the more accurate detection of residual cancer and the visualization of tumor extent than conventional DCE MRI.
Adaptive Partition of ECG Diagnosis Between Cloud and Wearable Sensor Net Using Open-Loop and Closed-Loop Switch Mode

Remote electrocardiogram (ECG) diagnosis with continuous real-time or near-real-time performance via a wireless wearable computing system would have significant value since it will enable on-time alerts and interventions, leading to life-saving outcomes. In this paper, a novel integration of open-loop and closed-loop switch modes is proposed, where the entire ECG diagnosis process is accomplished in three steps. First, the R-peak detection algorithm for initial diagnosis in local devices is executed, and 100% of the transmission energy is saved when no abnormality is detected. Second, in the case of an abnormality being detected, the edge device performs two-dimensional convolution neural network (2D-CNN) classification on the ECG signals, leading to either open-loop or closed-loop mode transmission based on the seriousness of the ECG signals. Third, in the cloud server, the received ECG signals may be further analyzed with a more sophisticated classification algorithm. The ECG classification accuracy ranges from 92.7 % to 99.1% depending on whether the analysis is executed locally (with reduced communication costs) or remotely (with increased computing resources). Overall, the ECG diagnosis process is partitioned into three components, including 1) irregular heartbeat detection, 2) 2-D CNN classification in the edge device, and 3) further classification in the cloud. The simulation results of such partition of ECG diagnosis in these layers supervised by the open-loop and closed-loop switch modes have demonstrated that the proposed system architecture can achieve efficient ECG diagnosis via wearable technologies with both reliable accuracies and reduced communication energy.
Bromatological Analysis and Characterization of Phenolics in Snow Mountain Garlic

The remarkable properties of garlic A. sativum L. have been described, but little is known about Snow mountain garlic. Understanding general aspects of this garlic composition, including the presence of phenolics, will establish its possible use for health or infer which compounds can contribute to improving it. This study aimed to determine the ash content, lipid profile, and characterization of phenolics in Snow mountain garlic. The organic content was obtained by common techniques (oven drying, calcination, Kjeldahl method, etc.). The quantitative analysis of the ashes was made by Inductively Coupled Plasma Emission Spectrometry. The fatty acid profile was determined by Gas Chromatography. The presence of phenolics was determined by foam, Libermann–Burchard, Dragendorff, Salkowski, ferric chloride, vanillin, catechin, Constantinescu, and Shinoda reactions. The total phenolic content was determined via the Folin–Ciocalteu method, and antioxidant activity was determined using the DPPH radical method. The bromatological analysis showed a 51.1% humidity, and the main organic compounds were carbohydrates (46.7%). Ash analysis showed 287.46 g/kg of potassium. The fatty acid profile showed 75.61% of polyunsaturated fatty acid. Phenolics like saponins, alkaloids, triterpenes, tannins, and flavonoids were present. Antioxidant activity was found by radical DPPH of 25.64 (±0.78) µmol TE/1 g dw. Snow mountain garlic shares a composition similar to those found in other garlic.
Robotic Presence: The Effects of Anthropomorphism and Robot State on Task Performance and Emotion

Robots are becoming more ubiquitous in our daily lives including in our offices and homes. As such, it is necessary to understand whether and how robotic presence affects us both emotionally and cognitively. In this letter, we investigate the effects of anthropomorphism and robot state of robotic presence on task performance and user emotion. In an online study, 113 participants completed three tasks within a virtual 3D environment in the presence of robots with varying anthropomorphism (non-anthropomorphic vs. anthropomorphic) and robot state (active vs. idle) in addition to alone and with a human. The study findings suggest that having an active moving robot can expedite the task performance especially for easy difficulty levels albeit with some decrease in accuracy, while anthropomorphism affects the dominance axis of affect and has interaction effects with the robot state. The robot state also had as much influence on the perceived anthropomorphism and animacy as the anthropomorphism of the robot. These results provide initial insights on the effects of robotic presence and the impact of the robot state and anthropomorphism.
Finite element modeling and experimental analysis of bladder volume body surface monitoring method

Bladder dysfunction seriously affects people's quality of life. The accumulation of urine volume in the bladder changes the bladder volume, which changes the impedance of the hypogastrium. This paper constructs a finite element model of the hypogastrium and bladder, and the impedance of the hypogastrium at different volumes of the bladder is obtained by simulation. It also explains the causes of bladder impedance changes based on the current density distribution and designs the impedance acquisition circuit to carry out experimental data measurements on the subjects. The results show that changes in bladder volume affect the amplitude and phase of impedance in the hypogastrium. The model proposed in this paper can provide a theoretical basis for bladder urine volume body surface monitoring.
Circuit design and application for weak signal detection based on Duffing oscillator

A design scheme of Duffing Chaotic circuit module is proposed based on Multisimin study. The operational amplifier is used to construct integrating circuit. The Duffing chaotic circuit is also designed based on the integrating circuit. The results can be shown in a virtual oscilloscope by phase trajectory. The bifurcation results of Duffing oscillator solved by the circuit module are consistent with that obtained by Matlab. The Duffing equation in critical state is selected as Chaos Inspection System (CIS), which is used to identify weak signal with strong noise. Simulation examples show that the chaotic circuit designed in this study can successfully identify many kinds of weak signals, such as sine wave, triangle wave, and square wave etc. This work provides a theoretical basis for the hardware of CIS of weak signal with strong noise.
Prognosis of breast cancer patients and survival rate related with Ki-67 proliferation index: multicenter retrospective study

Breast cancer commonest cancer of urban Indian women and the second commonest in the rural women. It has different epidemio-clinical characteristics compared with European countries. The purpose of this study is to investigate prognosis and survival rate of breast cancer patients related with Ki-67 proliferation index in multicenter through retrospective study. We reviewed all patient’s data in registration center of Medical Oncology Departments, in the period 2016-2020. Data has been collected on 760 breast cancer patients. Our resulted data showed most prevalent comorbidities associated with breast cancer were cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and anemia. Ki-67 index >28% mostly associated with early age female, lymph node involvement (p=0.001), advanced tumor grade (p=0.00012) and risk of relapse (p=0.004). Survival rate was decreased in patients with (ER, PR, Her2 negative (triple negative breast cancer.
Advances in Multi-Target FOCO for Hyperthermia Treatment Planning: A Robustness Assessment

One of the main open challenges in hyperthermia treatment planning is the possibility of uniformly shaping the SAR deposition over a target area, while keeping it bounded in normal tissue. This task is even more challenging as dielectric tissues parameters are prone to uncertainties and targets can be large and irregularly shaped. In this respect, an innovative SAR shaping strategy aimed at addressing the above-mentioned needs, the so-called multi-target focusing via constrained power optimization, has been proposed. This approach has been tested using 3D clinical patient models, exploiting Sim4Life as a simulation platform, and the results show the gain attainable by exploiting the proposed strategy and its robustness in the presence of electromagnetic tissue parameter uncertainties.
Histopathologic patterns and etiologic diagnosis of porcine respiratory disease complex in Brazil

ABSTRACT Porcine respiratory disease complex is a major health concern for the porcine industry, causing significant economic loss. In this study, a total of 156 samples from pigs referred to a diagnostic laboratory in Brazil for 15 months were analyzed by histopathology, bacterial isolation, PCR, and immunohistochemistry. Multiple infections were common, so 42.3% of the pigs had more than one pathogen detected in the lungs. Swine influenza virus was detected in 25.0% of the cases. Porcine circovirus type 2 was detected in 7.1% of the pigs, which was often associated with Pasteurella multocida. In addition, one case of porcine circovirus type 3 infection associated with granulomatous pneumonia was diagnosed. Bacteria were isolated in 125 cases, namely Pasteurella multocida (34.0%), Glaesserella (Haemophilus) parasuis (35.2%), Streptococcus suis (13.5%), and Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (7.7%). Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae was identified in 7.0% of the cases, and 18.6% of pigs carried Salmonella sp. The most common patterns of pulmonary inflammation were broncopneumonia, bronchointerstitial pneumonia, and pleuritis, in that order. This study demonstrated that histopathology is an efficient tool along with other laboratorial diagnostic tests for establishing an etiologic diagnosis in cases of porcine respiratory disease complex.
Low-loss grating-coupled optical interfaces for large-volume fabrication with deep-ultraviolet optical lithography

Optical input/output interfaces between silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguides and optical fibers, allowing robust, costeffective and low-loss coupling of light, are fundamental functional elements in the library of silicon photonic devices. Surface grating couplers are particularly desirable as they allow wafer-scale device testing, yield improved alignment tolerances, and are compatible with state-of-the-art integration and packaging technologies. While several factors jointly contribute to the coupler performance, the grating directionality is a critical parameter for high-efficiency fiber-chip coupling. To address this issue, conventional coupler designs typically call upon comparatively complex architectures to improve light coupling efficiency. Increasing the intrinsic directionality of the grating by exploiting the blazing effects is another promising solution. In this paper, we report on our recent advances in development of low-loss grating couplers that afford excellent directionality, close to the theoretical limit of 100%. In particular, we demonstrate, by theory and experiments, several implementations of blazed grating couplers with layout features that are compatible with deepultraviolet (deep-UV) optical lithography. Devices can be advantageously implemented on various photonic platforms, including industry-specific and the offerings of publicly accessible foundries. The first experimental realizations of uniform deep-UV-compatible couplers yield losses of -2.7 dB at 1.55-µm and a 3-dB bandwidth of 62 nm. A subwavelength-index-engineered impedance matching transition is used to reduce back-reflections down to -20 dB.
The nexus between drivers of wetland utilisation patterns, land use/land cover change and ecosystem services in two wetlands, Zimbabwe

The study assesses the nexus between the drivers of wetland utilisation patterns, land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) and the current status of provisioning and cultural services in Driefontein and Intunjambili wetlands, Zimbabwe. A total of 280 household questionnaires were administered together with semi-structured interviews conducted with key informants in the two wetlands. Qualitative data were analysed using the content analysis method whereas descriptive and inferential statistics were used for quantitative data. LULCC was assessed using Landsat and Sentinel data for the years 1999, 2009 and 2019. Supervised classification was performed using the Maximum Likelihood Classification (MLC) algorithm in ArcMap 10.5. Eighty-six percent of Driefontein and 75% of Intunjambili households indicated that wetland use for horticulture farming was the predominant activity, but for different reasons in the two areas. In Intunjambili wetland, horticultural farming was mainly for subsistence use due to the prevailing semi-arid conditions. This was different from Driefontein, where market availability for horticultural produce was the major factor behind commercialised wetland use. Results of the LULCC analysis showed an increase in the spatial extent of the cultivated area in the two wetland areas, at the expense of vegetation and water and some of the associated ecosystem services. The studied wetlands provide cultural services since they are used as sites for research and academic excursions. The variations in the anthropogenic drivers of wetland use in Driefontein and Intunjambili show that location-specific wetland studies are important to inform appropriate wetland scale utilisation and management policies and strategies that result in the maintenance of ecosystem services.
A Multi-class Dataset Expansion Method for Wi-Fi-Based Fall Detection

Nowadays, with the wide commercial use of Wi-Fi technology, the use of Wi-Fi channel state information (CSI) for fall detection has gradually become a hot research field. However, many existing fall detection systems based on Wi-Fi lack accurate action classification because of the high acquisition cost of complex action datasets. They cannot accurately identify complex fall actions, and have a high false positive rate. This paper proposes a multi-class dataset expansion method for different fall actions and non-fall actions, which classifies the movements in detail according to fall speed and other limb movements and expands the scale of the data set by dividing and reorganizing the limited data. As a result, the proposed method reaches a recognition accuracy of 91.6%.