Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Propagation Measurements and Path Loss Models for sub-THz in Urban Microcells

Terahertz frequency bands will likely be used for the next-generation wireless communication systems to provide data rates of hundreds of Gbps or even Tbps because of the wide swaths of unused and unexplored spectrum. This paper presents two outdoor wideband measurement campaigns in downtown Brooklyn (urban microcell environment) in the sub-THz band of 140 GHz with TX-RX separation distance up to 117.4 m: i) terrestrial urban microcell measurement campaign, and ii) rooftop surrogate satellite and backhaul measurement campaign. Outdoor omnidirectional and directional path loss models for both line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight scenarios, as well as foliage loss (signal attenuation through foliage), are provided at 140 GHz for urban microcell environments. These measurements and models provide an understanding of both the outdoor terrestrial (e.g., 6G cellular and backhaul) and non-terrestrial (e.g., satellite and unmanned aerial vehicle communications) wireless channels, and prove the feasibility of using THz frequency bands for outdoor fixed and mobile cellular communications. This paper can be used for future outdoor wireless system design at frequencies above 100 GHz.
TweetCOVID: A System for Analyzing Public Sentiments and Discussions about COVID-19 via Twitter Activities

The COVID-19 pandemic has created widespread health and economical impacts, affecting millions around the world. To better understand these impacts, we present the TweetCOVID system that offers the capability to understand the public reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of their sentiments, emotions, topics of interest and controversial discussions, over a range of time periods and locations, using public tweets. We also present three example use cases that illustrates the usefulness of our proposed TweetCOVID system.
Marine soundscape variation reveals insights into baleen whales and their environment: a case study in central New Zealand

Baleen whales reliably produce stereotyped vocalizations, enabling their spatio-temporal distributions to be inferred from acoustic detections. Soundscape analysis provides an integrated approach whereby vocal species, such as baleen whales, are sampled holistically with other acoustic contributors to their environment. Acoustic elements that occur concurrently in space, time and/or frequency can indicate overlaps between free-ranging species and potential stressors. Such information can inform risk assessment framework models. Here, we demonstrate the utility of soundscape monitoring in central New Zealand, an area of high cetacean diversity where potential threats are poorly understood. Pygmy blue whale calls were abundant in the South Taranaki Bight (STB) throughout recording periods and were also detected near Kaikōura during autumn. Humpback, Antarctic blue and Antarctic minke whales were detected in winter and spring, during migration. Wind, rain, tidal and wave activity increased ambient sound levels in both deep- and shallow-water environments across a broad range of frequencies, including those used by baleen whales, and sound from shipping, seismic surveys and earthquakes overlapped in time, space and frequency with whale calls. The results highlight the feasibility of soundscape analysis to quantify and understand potential stressors to free-ranging species, which is essential for conservation and management decisions.
Validity of Willems age estimation method in children’s & adolescents’ of Dakshina Kannada Region, India

Abstract Willems gender-specific and non-specific maturity scores derive the age of the individual with acceptable error margins in the Belgian Population. This needs to be validated in various subpopulations to enable its use in age estimation. Our aim was to test the validity of both Willems’s I & II maturity scores to estimate dental age in children and adolescents (aged 5–20 yrs) in Dakshina Kannada population in India. Seven teeth of mandibular left quadrant from 800 Orthopantomograms (Male:Female::372:428) of individuals aged 5–20 years were staged using Demirjian’s method and substituted by the Willems maturity scores to derive the age. The chronological and the predicted age of the individuals were correlated to derive the mean absolute error of age estimation in male, female and total. The mean absolute error of estimation of age in males, females, and total of Willems I and II techniques were 1.11, 1.04, 1.07, 1.15, 1.04 and 1.09 years respectively. The gender nonspecific scores predominantly underestimated the age. The Willems I technique showed an underestimation of age in females and over-estimation of age in males (p < 0.001). The present study validates Willems method of age estimation in Dakshina Kannada population, showing a low error rate of ∼1 year.
The connections and disconnections between teacher education policy and research: reframing evidence

ABSTRACT This paper examines the connections and disconnections between teacher education policy and research, and considers future opportunities for teacher education research by rethinking the notion of evidence as it is conceptualised in current policy debates. Historically, teacher education was positioned as a training issue, then as a learning issue, and more recently it has been framed as a policy problem requiring significant reform. By analysing the influences on current teacher education policy, this paper argues that we are now in a second stage of the ‘teacher education as a policy problem’ phase. Teacher education is now a politically constructed and ideological policy problem and the associated discourses of evidence are contributing to disconnections between teacher education research and policy. Drawing on findings from a large-scale longitudinal study investigating the effectiveness of teacher education that highlighted the complex and non-linear processes of learning teaching and doing teaching, I argue that singular thinking about the purpose of teacher education as only preparing teachers must be problematised. I suggest that calls for evidence, that are so prevalent in current policy, must be interrogated and reframed if compelling and convincing connections between teacher education policy and research are to be realised.
Cross-border reproductive care: Opinions and attitudes of society towards surrogate pregnancy

Surrogate pregnancy (SP) has acquired a prominent public profile through the bioethical, legal and media debates this cross-border reproductive practice has raised worldwide. The different social agents involved in the phenomenon frequently appeal to public opinion looking for legitimation and endorsement of their ethical and political positions on the matter. However, opinion polls occupy a marginal place in research about SP. The article presents the findings of the scoping review of 31 scientific articles (1985–2017) analysing public opinion regarding SP in 13 countries. The aim is to single out the main subtopics covered by the studies in order to identify research gaps as well as describe and analyse SP as a socio-cultural construct and ‘social problem’ which is currently situated in a complex multidimensional arena made of conflicting narratives and attitudes that divide international public opinion along each one of the identified subtopics. Additionally, the article presents the results of the survey Opinion and Attitudes of the Spanish Population towards Adoption, Fostering and Gestational Surrogacy (2018), the first conducted in Spain with a representative national sample.
Multiobjective preimpact trajectory planning of space manipulator for self-assembling a heavy payload

To assemble a heavy payload to the spacecraft (free-floating base), the present study proposes a scheme of multiobjective trajectory planning for preimpact motion of redundant space manipulator (mounted on the base). Force impulse for self-assembly is derived as the function of joint angles/velocities, base pose, and impact direction. The trajectory planning problem is formulated as multiobjective optimization to minimize force impulse, base attitude disturbance, and energy consumption in the load-carrying process. A two-stage trajectory planning algorithm is proposed. To be specific, at the first stage, multiple desired configurations at the contact point are generated by position-level inverse kinematics with Newton–Raphson iterative method. At the second stage, joint trajectories satisfying joint angle limits and desired motion of the payload are parameterized by coefficients of sinusoidal polynomial functions. Multiobjective particle swarm optimization algorithm is adopted to solve the problem of multiobjective trajectory planning, and screening process is conducted to reserve nondominated solutions in limits of joint torques. The algorithm is implemented to a seven degrees of freedom space manipulator, and the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by simulation results.
Thermodynamics of Adsorption of Eriochrome Black-T Dye from Aqueous Media on each Modified Kaolin Clay and Talc

Modified kaolin clay and talc have been employed as adsorbents for the removal of industrially important dye namely erichrame black-T from aqueous solution. The effect of solution pH, initial dye concentration, temperature and adsorption time on dye removal were studied using UV-visible spectroscopy technique at λmax = 541 mm. The equilibrium time was found to be 30 minutes on each surface. The best results were achieved at pH = 9 and T = 318 K on modified kaolin clay surface and at pH = 7 and T = 288 K on talc surface. It was noted that adsorption of the dye on modified kaolin clay increases with an increase in temperature while its adsorption on talc decrease with an increase in temperature. The result showed that the equilibrium datas were fitted by both of the Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm. Values of parameters for these isotherm equations were calculated. Isotherms have also been used to obtain the thermodynamic parameters such as free energy, enthalpy and entropy of adsorption. The adsorption of EBT (Eriochrome Black-T) is endothermic on modified kaolin clay and exothermic on talc.
Disturbance compensation-based output feedback adaptive control for shape memory alloy actuator system

Shape memory alloy (SMA) has been utilized as the material of smart actuators due to the miniaturization and lightweight. However, the nonlinearity and hysteresis of SMA material seriously affect the precise control. In this article, a novel disturbance compensation-based adaptive control scheme is developed to improve the control performance of SMA actuator system. Firstly, the nominal model is constructed based on the physical process. Next, an estimator is developed to online update not only the unmeasured system states but also the total disturbance. Then, the novel adaptive controller, which is composed of the nominal control law and the compensation control law, is designed. Finally, the proposed scheme is evaluated in the SMA experimental setup. The comparison results have demonstrated that the proposed control method can track reference trajectory accurately, reject load variations and stochastic disturbances timely, and exhibit satisfactory robust stability. The proposed control scheme is system independent and has some potential in other types of SMA-actuated systems.
Characterisation of the cell product obtained with the ‘ESVIEF System’ kit for isolation of stromal vascular fraction from human adipose tissue

Production technology and characteristics of the cell product obtained using the ‘ESVIEF System’ kit (developed by JoinTechCell LLC, Russian Federation) for isolation of a stromal vascular fraction from human adipose tissue are described. The use of subcutaneous fat as a source of stem and progenitor cells for regenerative medicine has become widespread during the last decade. The main advantage of using adipose tissue as a source of stem cells when compared with bone marrow is the lower invasiveness of the material sampling procedure during liposuction in addition to the significantly larger number of multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells obtained per unit of tissue volume. The development and implementation of devices for automation and standardisation of stem cell isolation from adipose tissue are important for the widespread use of stem cells in clinical practice. This work aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the cell production technology using the ‘ESVIEF System’ kit for isolation of a stromal vascular fraction from human adipose tissue. Adipose tissue samples obtained from patients during liposuction were used as clinical material. The obtained cell fractions were studied using microscopy, flow cytometry and cell culture methods. The viability of the stromal vascular fraction cells (nucleated) was 90.9 ± 0.3% with a total number of 0.81 ± 0.08 × 106 cells/ml of adipose tissue. The study showed that the ‘ESVIEF System’ kit that was developed for isolating stromal vascular fractions from human adipose tissue is a promising and safe technology for producing cell products.
Health Causal Probability Knowledge Graph: Another Intelligent Health Knowledge Discovery Approach

Currently, most of the health-data research concentrates on applying Deep Learning technologies for prediction and reasoning. Deep Learning processes build the prediction model purely based on fitting weights on the raw data inside multiple neural layers, which is difficult to explain the prediction outputs. However, telling ‘WHY’ is crucial for healthcare research. The major difficulty to explain in Deep Learning models is a lack of knowledge-based analysis environment that not only can model the knowledge in a machine-understandable way but also can create causal probability relations inside the knowledge. In our research, we propose a Causal Probability Description Logic (CPDL) framework that extended the current Description Logic (DL). The key extension is to have a two-layer DL representation. One layer represents causality knowledge. The other layer takes observation inputs e.g. symptoms for generating a runtime probability knowledge graph based on the previous layer's knowledge. The CPDL framework can support probability-based causal reasoning tasks in a transparent and human-understandable way. CPDL can be easily implemented using existing programming standards such as OWL, RDF, SPARQL and probability network programming libraries. The experimental evaluations extract 383 common disease conditions from the UK NHS (National Healthcare Service) and enable automatically linked 418 condition terms from the DBpedia dataset. The CPDL-based knowledge graph can support disease prediction with traceable pieces of evidence behind the ranking results.
ΔG(CH2) in PEG−Salt and Ucon−Salt Aqueous Two-Phase Systems

Three new phase diagrams for polymer−salt aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) at 23 °C are presented. Then, partition coefficients for a series of five dinitrophenylated amino acids were obtained experimentally in five polymer−salt ATPS. The ATPS were obtained combining a polymer, polyethylene glycol (PEG) or Ucon (a random copolymer of 50 % ethylene oxide and 50 % propylene oxide), and a salt (Na2SO4, (NH4)2SO4, or Li2SO4). The series of amino acids allowed the calculation of the free energy of transfer of a methylene group, which is used as a measure of the relative hydrophobicity of the equilibrium phases. Ucon-rich phases proved to have a higher affinity for methylene groups than PEG which suggests a more efficient biphasic separation system with lower cross-contamination.
Organisations as Computing Systems

Abstract Organisations are computing systems. The university’s sports centre is a computing system for managing sports teams and facilities. The tenure committee is a computing system for assigning tenure status. Despite an increasing number of publications in group ontology, the computational nature of organisations has not been recognised. The present paper is the first in this debate to propose a theory of organisations as groups structured for computing. I begin by describing the current situation in group ontology and by spelling out the thesis in more detail. I then present the example of a sports centre to illustrate why one might intuitively think of organisations as computing systems. To substantiate the thesis, I introduce Piccinini’s restrictive analysis of physical computation. As I show, organisations meet all criteria for being computing systems. Organisations are structured groups with the function of manipulating medium-independent vehicles according to rules. Furthermore, I argue for the modal claim that this is a necessary feature of organisations. Having sketched the computational account of organisations, I compare it to other proposals in the literature.
On the Synthesis of Carbon Nanofibers and Nanotubes by Microwave Irradiation: Parameters, Catalysts, and Substrates

The microwave (MW)‐assisted synthesis of one dimensional carbon systems is introduced as a promising approach to improve the speed and cost‐effectiveness of the fabrication process. Improved reaction conditions are generated by direct MW heating and synthesis under advanced reaction conditions. The influence of the reaction conditions is investigated and the importance of individual process parameters on the synthesis is discussed. Temperature and pressure data recorded during the irradiation process are analyzed in detail and allow the determination of essential process parameters. This leads to improved reaction conditions, better control of the one‐dimensional carbon nanosystems by tuning the catalyst materials, and allows expanding this approach to initiate the synthesis on a variety of different substrates, such as quartz glass and mica.
Quantitation of model digestive mixtures

~ Abstract 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra were obtained at 50.3 and 100.5 MHz for methanolic and aqueous mixtures of sodium taurocholate, l-monocapryloyl- mcglycerol, and caprylic acid. Distortionless Enhancement by Polarization Transfer (DEPT) was used to improve spec- tral sensitivity and resolution, and to generate calibration curves for quantitative determinations of each lipid in methanol. Alternatively, the heights for nonoverlapping peaks in a I3C NMR spectrum acquired with inverse-gated decoupling provide reliable quantitative estimates for each component of the mixture, particularly when the data are obtained in methanol. These experiments also demonstrate the feasibility of detailed NMR structural investigations in model systems for glyceride digestion. -Wang, D. , N. L. Hadipour, E. A. Jerlin, and R. E. Stark. Quantitation of model digestive mixtures by 13C NMR.J. Lipid Res. 1992. 33 431-439.
N-heterocyclic carbene supported Au(I) and Au(III) complexes: a comparison of cytotoxicities

The N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) precursor 2-pyridin-2-yl-2H-imidazo[1,5-a]pyridin-4-ylium hexafluorophosphate (1·HPF6) was used to synthesize various Ag and Au complexes, including [Ag(1)2][PF6] (2), [Au(1)2][PF6] (3) and [Au(1)Cl3] (4). The structure of the silver(I) complex 2 was established via NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and single crystal X-ray crystallography. The gold(I)–NHC complex 3 was synthesized via transmetallation of the aforementioned silver complex and characterized using various spectroscopic methods. Treatment of 3 with Au(SMe2)Cl afforded 4, ostensibly via a disproportionation process. Close inspection of the solid state structure of 2 revealed that the Ag(I) center adopted a linear geometry; in contrast, a square planar geometry was observed for the solid structure of 4. The cytotoxicities of the gold complexes 3 and 4 were tested in vitro against Human colorectal carcinoma (HCT 116), Human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2), Human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7) and Murine melanoma (B16F10). The measured IC50 values showed that the Au(I) complex 3 was more potent than the Au(III) complex 4 as well as cisplatin.
An evolutionary system of mineralogy. Part III: Primary chondrule mineralogy (4566 to 4561 Ma)

Abstract Information-rich attributes of minerals reveal their physical, chemical, and biological modes of origin in the context of planetary evolution, and thus they provide the basis for an evolutionary system of mineralogy. Part III of this system considers the formation of 43 different primary crystalline and amorphous phases in chondrules, which are diverse igneous droplets that formed in environments with high dust/gas ratios during an interval of planetesimal accretion and differentiation between 4566 and 4561 Ma. Chondrule mineralogy is complex, with several generations of initial droplet formation via various proposed heating mechanisms, followed in many instances by multiple episodes of reheating and partial melting. Primary chondrule mineralogy thus reflects a dynamic stage of mineral evolution, when the diversity and distribution of natural condensed solids expanded significantly.
Specialization of the Reiterated Copies of the Heterodimeric Integration Host Factor Genes in Geobacter sulfurreducens

Integration host factor (IHF) is a widely distributed small heterodimeric protein member of the bacterial Nucleoid-Associated Proteins (NAPs), implicated in multiple DNA regulatory processes. IHF recognizes a specific DNA sequence and induces a large bend of the nucleic acid. IHF function has been mainly linked with the regulation of RpoN-dependent promoters, where IHF commonly recognizes a DNA sequence between the enhancer-binding region and the promoter, facilitating a close contact between the upstream bound activator and the promoter bound, RNA polymerase. In most proteobacteria, the genes encoding IHF subunits (ihfA and ihfB) are found in a single copy. However, in some Deltaproteobacteria, like Geobacter sulfurreducens, those genes are duplicated. To date, the functionality of IHF reiterated encoding genes is unknown. In this work, we achieved the functional characterization of the ihfA-1, ihfA-2, ihfB-1, and ihfB-2 from G. sulfurreducens. Unlike the ΔihfA-2 or ΔihfB-1 strains, single gene deletion in ihfA-1 or ihfB-2, provokes an impairment in fumarate and Fe(III) citrate reduction. Accordingly, sqRT-PCR experiments showed that ihfA-1 and ihfB-2 were expressed at higher levels than ihfA-2 and ihfB-1. In addition, RNA-Seq analysis of the ΔihfA-1 and ΔihfB-2 strains revealed a total of 89 and 122 differentially expressed genes, respectively. Furthermore, transcriptional changes in 25 genes were shared in both mutant strains. Among these genes, we confirmed the upregulation of the pilA-repressor, GSU1771, and downregulation of the triheme-cytochrome (pgcA) and the aconitate hydratase (acnA) genes by RT-qPCR. EMSA experiments also demonstrated the direct binding of IHF to the upstream promoter regions of GSU1771, pgcA and acnA. PilA changes in ΔihfA-1 and ΔihfB-2 strains were also verified by immunoblotting. Additionally, heme-staining of subcellular fractions in ΔihfA-1 and ΔihfB-2 strains revealed a remarkable deficit of c-type cytochromes. Overall, our data indicate that at least during fumarate and Fe(III) citrate reduction, the functional IHF regulator is likely assembled by the products of ihfA-1 and ihfB-2. Also, a role of IHF controlling expression of multiple genes (other than RpoN-dependent) affects G. sulfurreducens physiology and extracellular electron transfer.