Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reconfigurable Antennas and their Applications

One of the biggest challenge in modern communication systems is to provide a single antenna for different applications. Existing antenna systems are limited to some applications. So it is important to design a single reconfigurable antenna for multiple applications. Five different reconfigurable printed antennas for different applications are designed during the study of this thesis. In the first design an antenna for frequency reconfigurable applications is designed. The electrical length of the conductor is changed using PIN diodes and the resonance of antenna is shifted from 4.27 GHz to 3.56 GHz. Good agreement between simulated and measured results is observed. In the second and third designs, Ultra wideband (UWB) Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antennas with on-demand Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) rejection are designed. The second design consists of two elements UWB-MIMO antenna and stubs are connected to the ground plane using PIN diodes. These stubs act as a stop-band filter and reject the band at 5.5 GHz center frequency. This design has a compact size of 23 x 39.8 mm2. The third design has almost same features as of second design but it has four elements. These elements are placed orthogonally to each other. The total size of this proposed design is 50 x 39.8 mm2. The ground plane is common and a band-stop design is placed between the ground planes. This band-stop design is connected with the ground plane using PIN diodes. When diodes are biased, the current is travelled to the nearly placed band-stop design and a notch is obtained around 5.5 GHz. In fourth design a reconfigurable array with a sensing circuit is designed. The array consists of four individual reconfigurable patches which are attached to the different conformal surfaces. These patches are reconfigured from 3.15 GHz to 2.43 GHz using PIN diodes. The correct phase at each element is provided using phase shifters. The sensing circuit is designed in such a way that only input voltage is changed to provide the correct phase on the switching frequency. The patterns of the array are recovered on both switching frequencies when array is attached to wedge or cylindrical surface. In the last design a series-fed array is designed. Composite Right/Left Handed Transmission Line (CRLH-TLs) are used instead of traditional meanderline microstrip lines to connect the array elements. These CRLH-TLs provided the zero phase at each connecting element, which resulted in broad side radiation patterns. To reconfigure the antenna to another frequency a small patch and second CRLH-TL is connected between array elements
A Dipole with Reflector-Backed Active Metasurface for Linear-to-Circular Polarization Reconfigurability

In recent years, significant advances have been made in diversifying the capabilities of communication systems by using reconfigurable antennas. There are many types of reconfigurable antennas—to achieve pattern, frequency, or polarization reconfigurability. These antennas are reconfigured either by the mechanical rotation of surfaces or by enabling or disabling specific sections of the structure using electrical switches. This paper focuses on the concept of a polarization reconfigurable antenna based on an active reflector-backed metasurface. An antenna system based on an active reflector-backed metasurface combined with a planar dipole is designed to achieve reconfigurable polarization. The polarization of the designed antenna can be switched between linear and circular polarization states using positive-intrinsic-negative diodes located in the unit cell elements of the metasurface. The measured results correlate well with the simulated results. The antenna has a physical size of 308 × 162 × 35 mm3 with an impedance bandwidth of 4.5% in the linear state and 7% in the circular state, as well as an axial ratio bandwidth larger than 8.3%.
Transcriptional Profiles Elucidate Differential Host Responses to Infection with Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii

Many aspects of the host response to invasive cryptococcal infections remain poorly understood. In order to explore the pathobiology of infection with common clinical strains, we infected BALB/cJ mice with Cryptococcus neoformans, Cryptococcus gattii, or sham control, and assayed host transcriptomic responses in peripheral blood. Infection with C. neoformans resulted in markedly greater fungal burden in the CNS than C. gattii, as well as slightly higher fungal burden in the lungs. A total of 389 genes were significantly differentially expressed in response to C. neoformans infection, which mainly clustered into pathways driving immune function, including complement activation and TH2-skewed immune responses. C. neoformans infection demonstrated dramatic up-regulation of complement-driven genes and greater up-regulation of alternatively activated macrophage activity than seen with C gattii. A 27-gene classifier was built, capable of distinguishing cryptococcal infection from animals with bacterial infection due to Staphylococcus aureus with 94% sensitivity and 89% specificity. Top genes from the murine classifiers were also differentially expressed in human PBMCs following infection, suggesting cross-species relevance of these findings. The host response, as manifested in transcriptional profiles, informs our understanding of the pathophysiology of cryptococcal infection and demonstrates promise for contributing to development of novel diagnostic approaches.
Damage Mechanism and Stress Distribution of Gypsum Rock Pillar Subjected to Blasting Disturbance

The room-pillar mining technology of underground gypsum resources results in numerous gypsum rock pillars for controlling and supporting mined gobs, which forms a large area of roof hanging gobs. Owing to weathering and mining activities, gypsum rock pillar damage and failure will occur, thereby inducing a large area of gypsum mined-gob collapse accidents and disasters. Blasting is vital to the stability of gypsum rock pillars and is indispensable in mining engineering. Based on field blasting tests and using wave velocity as the basic parameter to characterise the integrity of gypsum rock, the damage mechanism of gypsum rock pillars subjected to blasting disturbance is investigated. With ten blasting tests, the maximum damage rate is 7.82% along the horizontal direction of pillar, and 3.52% along the vertical direction. The FLAC numerical simulation calculation software is used to analyse the stress distribution law of gypsum rock pillars with disturbances of different strengths from different distances. As the disturbance strength increased, the stress increased with no clear linear relationship; as the disturbance distance increased, the stress decreased gradually with a linear relationship. All stress after disturbance is greater than the original static stress, and lower than the ultimate compressive strength. However, the correlation between blasting tests results and numerical simulation results is poor and is discussed for many factors. The results can provide important guidance and reference for clarifying the damage mechanism of gypsum rock pillars subjected to blasting disturbance, as well as reveal the collapse mechanism of gypsum mined gobs.
Positive and Negative Psychological Derailment in Chinese Adolescents and the Mechanism by Which It Affects Mental Health: A Mediated Moderation Model

Psychological derailment refers to the phenomenon whereby original self-expectations are seriously inconsistent with developments in reality. Research to date has neglected the valence of derailment and the mechanism by which it affects mental health. To improve the mental health of Chinese adolescents from the perspective of psychological derailment, after validating the translated Chinese versions of the derailment measurement instruments, we conducted an empirical study on the freshmen in senior high schools and universities in China and obtained three major results. First, the study revealed the prevalence of psychological derailment among Chinese adolescents and its strong correlation with mental health indicators (depression, anxiety, stress and satisfaction with life). Second, the study found significant differences in all mental health indicators among the non-derailed group, the positively derailed group and the negatively derailed group, and suggested that positive psychological derailment may help to ease mental health problems. Third, using path analysis to establish a mediated moderation model relating psychological derailment, psychological derailment valence, self-esteem and depression, the study uncovered that the valence of psychological derailment moderated the effect of psychological derailment on depression, while self-esteem mediated the moderating effect. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed.
Does Intracellular Metabolism Render Gemcitabine Uptake Undetectable in Mass Spectrometry?

The ergothioneine transporter ETT (formerly OCTN1; human gene symbol SLC22A4) is a powerful and highly specific transporter for the uptake of ergothioneine (ET). Recently, Sparreboom et al. reported that the ETT would transport nucleosides and nucleoside analogues such as cytarabine and gemcitabine with the highest efficiency. In our assay system, we could not detect any such transport. Subsequently, Sparreboom suggested that the intracellular metabolization of the nucleosides occurs so fast that the original compounds cannot be detected by LC–MS/MS after inward transport. Our current experiments with 293 cells disprove this hypothesis. Uptake of gemcitabine was easily detected by LC–MS/MS measurements when we expressed the Na+/nucleoside cotransporter CNT3 (SLC28A3). Inward transport was 1280 times faster than the intracellular production of gemcitabine triphosphate. The deoxycytidine kinase inhibitor 2-thio-2′-deoxycytidine markedly blocked the production of gemcitabine triphosphate. There was no concomitant surge in intracellular gemcitabine, however. This does not fit the rapid phosphorylation of gemcitabine. Uptake of cytarabine was very slow, but detection by MS was still possible. When the ETT was expressed and incubated with gemcitabine, there was no increase in intracellular gemcitabine triphosphate. We conclude that the ETT does not transport nucleosides.
Relationship of the preoperative NRS 2002 score, PG-SGA score, and serum indices with postoperative complications in patients with gastric cancer

Abstract: Objective To examine the utility of the Nutrition Risk Screening 2002 (NRS 2002), Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) and serum factors for the preoperative evaluation of gastric cancer patients. Methods We examined 181 gastric cancer patients treated at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University from January 2015 to January 2018. Nutritional assessments were administered within 48 h of admission. The body mass index (BMI) and serum factors were measured, and information on preoperative nutritional support and postoperative complications was recorded. Results Both the NRS 2002 and PG-SGA had positive correlations with age (P < 0.05), and negative correlations with albumin, prealbumin, transferrin, hemoglobin, BMI, and bodyweight (P < 0.05). The NRS 2002 and PG-SGA scores were positively correlated with each other (r = 0.683, P < 0.01), but had poor consistency (κ = 0.357, P < 0.01). During the preoperative period, 33.2% of patients received nutritional support, mainly enteral nutrition. The nutritional risk group (NRS 2002 ≥ 3) received more support than the group without nutritional risk (NRS 2002 < 3; P < 0.05). Patients with nutritional risk or malnutrition who received preoperative nutritional support had fewer postoperative complications than unsupported patients. The overall rate of complications was 12.2%, and the rate of severe complications (grade III or above) was 5.5%. The malnutrition and nutritional risk groups had higher rates of severe complications. Conclusions The combined application of the NRS 2002, PG-SGA, BMI, and serum nutritional indices was useful for the nutritional screening and assessment of preoperative gastric cancer patients. The NRS 2002 and PG-SGA provided guidance on the need for nutritional support during the preoperative period.
About Capital and Ideology by Thomas Piketty

This study reviews Thomas Piketty’s Capital and Ideology and provides a detailed analysis to aid understanding of the book, combined with diverse scholars’ perspectives in the fields of economic history, political economics, and social sciences. This book is selected as my review target to answer the following research question, “How do we conquer the growth limits of capitalism? ” This book gave me several ideas for the basis of my future research. In this review paper, I provide a guide for readers to understand ways to conquer the growth limits of capitalism. My study also provides a creative understanding of the evolution of the capitalist economy from new perspectives. In particular, it presents an analysis of Piketty’s diverse policy ideas from the viewpoint of a global history of capitalism. This will give a new lens through which to focus on understanding and resolving the inequalities of 21st-century hyper-capitalism and to construct policy for the current world economy. Finally, this study offers a causal loop model of Piketty’s findings and proposals, and suggests future research topics.
Neighbour Cell List Reduction in Multi-Tier Heterogeneous Networks

—The ongoing call or data session must be maintained to ensure a good quality of service. This can be accomplished by performing handover procedure while the user is on the move. However, dense deployment of small cells in 5G networks is a challenging issue due to the extensive number of handovers. In this paper, a neighbour cell list method is proposed to reduce the number of target small cells and hence minimizing the number of handovers. The neighbour cell list is built by omitting cells that could cause an unnecessary handover and/or handover failure because of short time of stay of a user in these cells. A multi-attribute decision making technique, simple additive weighting, is then applied to the optimized neighbour cell list. The performance of the proposed method is analysed and compared with that of the existing methods. Results disclose that our method decreases the candidate small cell list, unnecessary handovers, handover failure and short time of stay cells compared to the competitive method.
Direct and Legacy Effects of Spring Temperature Anomalies on Seasonal Productivity in Northern Ecosystems

Warmer or cooler spring in northern high latitudes will, for the most part, directly impact gross primary productivity (GPP) of ecosystems, but also carry consequences for the upcoming seasonal GPP. Spatiotemporal patterns of these legacy effects are still largely unknown but important for improving our understanding of how plant phenology is associated with vegetation dynamics. In this study, impacts of spring temperature anomalies on spring, summer and autumn GPP were investigated, and the dominant drivers of summer and autumn GPP including air temperature, vapor pressure deficit and soil moisture have been explored for northern ecosystems (>30°N). Three remote sensing products of seasonal GPP (GOSIF-GPP, NIRv-GPP and FluxSat-GPP) over 2001–2018, all based on a spatial resolution of 0.05°, were employed. Our results indicate that legacy effects from spring temperature are most pronounced in summer, where they have stimulating effects on the Arctic ecosystem productivity. Spring warming likely lessens the harsh climatic constraints that govern the Arctic tundra and extends the growing season length. Further south, legacy effects are mainly negative. This strengthens the hypothesis that enhanced vegetation growth in spring will increase plant water demand and stress in summer and autumn. Soil moisture is the dominant control of summer GPP in temperate regions. However, the dominant meteorological variables controlling vegetation growth may differ depending on the GPP products, highlighting the need to address uncertainties among different methods of estimating GPP.
Efficacy of Donated Milk in Early Nutrition of Preterm Infants: A Meta-Analysis

Background: Preterm birth is associated with an increased risk of many complications, which is a main public health problem worldwide with social and economic consequences. Human milk from breast feeding has been proved to be the optimal nutrition strategy for preterm infants when available. However, the lack of human milk from mothers makes formula widely used in clinical practice. In recent years, donated breast milk has gained popularity as an alternative choice which can provide human milk oligosaccharides and other bioactive substances. Objective: We aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the nutritional effects of donated breast milk on preterm infants compared with formula. Method: In the present study, we searched Medline, Web of Science, Embase, clinicaltrials.gov, the China national knowledge infrastructure, and the Cochrane central register of controlled trials for candidate randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Results: A total of 1390 patients were enrolled in 11 RCTs and meta-analysis results showed that donated breast milk is also more advantageous in reducing the incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC, RR = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.48 to 0.93, p = 0.02), reducing the duration of parenteral nutrition (MD = −2.39, 95% CI = −3.66 to −1.13, p = 0.0002) and the time of full enteral feeding (MD = −0.33, 95% CI = −3.23 to 2.57, p = 0.0002). In comparison, formula significantly promotes the growth of premature infants, including their weight gain (MD = −3.45, 95% CI = −3.68 to −3.21, p < 0.00001), head growth (MD = −0.07, 95% CI = −0.08 to −0.06, p < 0.00001) and body length (MD = −0.13, 95% CI = −0.15 to −0.11, p < 0.00001), and reduces the time it takes for premature infants to regain birth weight (MD = 6.60, 95% CI = 6.11 to 7.08, p < 0.00001. Conclusion: Compared with formula, donated breast milk could significantly reduce the incidence of NEC, the duration of parenteral nutrition, and the time of full enteral feeding. Adding fortifiers in donated milk could make it as effective as formula in promoting the physical growth of premature infants.
Understanding Strategic Information Manoeuvres in Network Media to Advance Cyber Operations: A Case Study Analysing Pro-Russian Separatists’ Cyber Information Operations in Crimean Water Crisis

Abstract The inexpensive nature and wide availability of emerging media outlets, e.g. social networking sites and blogs makes them easy-to-use weapons, giving power and courage to individuals to form groups that are able to win or at least force concessions from stronger forces. Today, terrorist groups know that opinions can be influenced using networked media and this knowledge empowers and enables them to alienate their audience and sometimes provoke them into violent actions. To understand the strategic information manoeuvres used by such groups, e.g., trans-national terrorist groups, we study the channels (blogs, Twitter, etc.) and methods (e.g., influential actors/groups) they use to disseminate messages pertaining to recruitment, radicalization, and raising funds. We collect data from several sources, including over 130 blog websites known for pro-Russian propaganda for events such as the Crimean water crisis and Trident Juncture Exercise (TRJE 15). In addition to blogs, we collect data from Twitter for the above-mentioned events to study the crossinfluence of various social media platforms in conducting strategic information manoeuvres. The study shows that groups are able to spread their opinions and create emotional attitudes for their followers through the sophisticated and blended use of these network media platforms via powerful actors, trolls, and botnets. We design social and network science informed methodologies to study the sociotechnical behaviours of trolls and botnets and develop detection tools ready to be deployed for Cyber operations. The tools have been further tested in the information operations of ISIL, e.g., beheading of hostages in orange jump suits. This study helps identifying the actions needed to win this “battle of ideas”.
Upscalable ultra thick rayon carbon felt based hybrid organic‐inorganic electrodes for high energy density supercapacitors

Low weight, small footprint, and high performances are essential requisites for the implementation of energy storage devices within consumer electronics. One way to achieve these goals is to increase the thickness of the active material layer. In this work, carbonized and graphitized rayon felt, a cellulose‐derived material, is used as a three‐dimensional current collector scaffold to enable the incorporation of large amount of active energy storage materials and ionic liquid‐based gel electrolyte in the supercapacitor devices. PEDOT:PSS, alone or in combination with active carbon, has been used as the active material. Three‐dimensional supercapacitors with high per unit area capacitance (more than 1.1 F/cm2) have been achieved owing to the loading of large amount of active material in the felt matrix. Areal energy density of more than 101 μWh/cm2 and areal power density of more than 5.9 mW/cm2 have been achieved for 0.8 V operating voltage at a current density of 1 mA/cm2. A nanographite material was found to be beneficial in reducing the internal serial resistance of the supercapacitor to lower than 1.7 Ω. Furthermore, it was shown that even after 2000 times cycling test, the devices could still retain its performance with at least 88% coulombic efficiency for all the devices. All the materials are readily available commercially, environmentally sustainable and the process can potentially be upscaled with industrial process.
Mechanisms of Inhibition of Quorum Sensing as an Alternative for the Control of E. coli and Salmonella

Quorum sensing (QS) is a process of cell–cell communication for bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella that cause foodborne diseases, with the production, release, and detection of autoinducer (AI) molecules that participate in the regulation of virulence genes. All of these proteins are useful in coordinating collective behavior, the expression of virulence factors, and the pathogenicity of Gram-negative bacteria. In this work, we review the natural or synthetic inhibitor molecules of QS that inactivate the autoinducer and block QS regulatory proteins in E. coli and Salmonella. Furthermore, we describe mechanisms of QS inhibitors (QSIs) that act as competitive inhibitors, being a useful tool for preventing virulence gene expression through the downregulation of AI-2 production pathways and the disruption of signal uptake. In addition, we showed that QSIs have negative regulatory activity of genes related to bacterial biofilm formation on clinical artifacts, which confirms the therapeutic potential of QSIs in the control of infectious pathogens. Finally, we discuss resistance to QSIs, the design of next-generation QSIs, and how these molecules can be leveraged to provide a new antivirulence therapy to combat diseases caused by E. coli or Salmonella.