Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ON THE SIZE AND MASS OF PHOTOIONIZED CLOUDS IN EXTENDED SPIRAL GALAXY HALOS

The size and mass of two circumgalactic medium (CGM) clouds in the halo (impact parameter = 65 kpc) of a nearby late-type galaxy, MGC-01-04-005 ( cz = 1865 ? > km s - 1 ? > ), are investigated using a close triplet of QSO sight lines (the “LBQS Triplet”). Far ultraviolet spectra obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telescope find two velocity components in Ly &agr; ? > at ∼1830 and 1900 km s - 1 ? > in two of these sight lines, requiring minimum transverse cloud sizes of ≥ 10 ? > kpc. A plausible, but not conclusive, detection of C iv 1548 Å absorption at the higher velocity in the third sight line suggests an even larger lower limit of ≥ 23 ? > kpc for that cloud. Using various combinations of constraints, including photoionization modeling for one absorber, lower limits on masses of these two clouds of ≳ 10 6 M ⊙ ? > are obtained. Ground-based imaging and long-slit spectroscopy of MCG-01-04-005 obtained at the Apache Point Observatory 3.5 m telescope find it to be a relatively normal late-type galaxy with a current star formation rate (SFR) of ∼ 0.01 M ⊙ yr − 1 ? > . GALEX photometry finds an SFR only a few times higher over the last 108 years. We conclude that the CGM clouds probed by these spectra are typical because they are at impact parameters of 0.4–0.5 R vir ? > from a rather typical, non-starbursting late-type galaxy; thus, these size and mass results should be generic for this class. Therefore, at least some CGM clouds are exceptionally large and massive.
Aligning Economic Development and Water Policies in Small Island Developing States (SIDS)

to treatment and water quality. The framing of demand issues was narrower, at least in terms of the different uses and values of water. All plans devoted their primary water-related focus to access to clean water and sanitation, with a secondary focus, in some plans, on the production of food and energy. Only a small handful of plans included water-related interventions devoted to cultural and recreational activities.
Characterization of Poultry Litter Biochar and Activated Biochar as a Soil Amendment for Valorization

Biochar applications to soils may enhance soil quality, hydrological properties, and agronomic productivity. Modification of biochar by activation via introduction of heteroatoms at different pyrolysis conditions can alter physical and chemical characteristics, which may enhance soil properties, although the extent of this is unknown. The objective of this study was to investigate the impacts of pyrolysis temperature (400, 500, 600, and 700 °C) on activated (activated with methanesulfonic acid) and unactivated biochar produced from poultry litter to identify optimum production conditions for end use as a soil amendment. Physical, chemical, and surface properties of biochars were determined using wet chemistry and spectroscopic analyses. Results showed that activation with methanesulfonic acid increased biochars’ oxygen content, while decreasing its point of zero charge and electrical conductivity. Conversion of raw poultry litter to activated and unactivated biochar increased concentration of P (3-fold), K (1.8-fold), Ca (3-fold), Mg (2.3-fold), and S (4.8-fold), with concentrations increasing with increasing temperatures (p < 0.05) except for C and N. Activated biochar had lower recovery of C and N, but greater water-holding capacity than unactivated biochar. Concentrations of NH4-N, NO3-N, and water-soluble P were greater in unactivated biochar (p < 0.05). Among all biochars, activated biochar produced at 400 °C had the lowest bulk density, total P, K, Ca, and Mg, and greatest water-holding capacity, water-soluble P, Ca, and Mg concentrations, thereby suggesting improved soil amendment characteristics and subsequent soil health under poultry litter biochars produced under these conditions.
Do Patients with Atrial Fibrillation and a History of Ischemic Stroke Overuse Reduced Doses of NOACs?—Results of the Polish Atrial Fibrillation (POL-AF) Registry

Background: The aim of our study was to assess if patients with AF (atrial fibrillation) and a history of ischemic stroke (IS) excessively receive reduced doses of NOACs (non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants). Methods: The Polish AF (POL-AF) registry is a prospective, observational, multicenter study, including patients with AF from 10 cardiology hospital centers. In this study we focused on patients with IS in their past. Results: Among 3999 patients enrolled in the POL-AF registry, 479 (12%) had a previous history of IS. Compared to patients without IS history, post-stroke subjects had a higher CHA2DS2-VASc score (median score 7 vs. 4, p < 0.05). Of these subjects, 439 (92%) had anticoagulation therapy, 83 (18.9%) were treated with a vitamin K antagonist (VKA), 135 (30.8%) with rivaroxaban, 112 (25.5%) with dabigatran, and 109 (24.8%) with apixaban. There were a significant number of patients after IS with reduced doses of NOACs (48.9% for rivaroxaban, 45.5% for dabigatran, and 36.7% for apixaban). In many cases, patients were prescribed reduced doses of NOACs without any indication for reduction (28.8% of rivaroxaban use, 56.9% of dabigatran use, and 60.0% of apixaban use—out of reduced dosage groups, p = 0.06). Conclusions: A significant proportion of AF patients received reduced doses of NOAC after ischemic stroke in a sizeable number of cases, without indication for dose reduction.
Evolutionary identification of fuzzy material constants in laminates

The paper deals with the identification of material constants in fibrereinforced laminates. The Evolutionary Algorithm is used as the global optimization method. The gradient method supported by the Artificial Neutral Network is used as the local optimization method. Material constants are presented in the form of fuzzy numbers to model their uncertainty. Two types of laminates are considered: simple and hybrid ones. Modal analysis methods are used to collect data necessary for the identification process. The Finite Element Method in fuzzy version is used to solve the direct problem for the laminates. Numerical examples are attached.
Pollution risk transfer in cross-border tourism: the role of disembodied technology communications in a spatial hyperbolic model

ABSTRACT How to identify the spatial spillover effects and pollution risk transfer in cross-border tourism remains a research gap in the literature. This study embeds disembodied technology communications into the classical environmental Kuznets curve to develop a new tourism-induced environmental spatial hyperbolic model to differentiate these two opposite effects. This study finds that the disembodied technology communications of cross-border tourism reduce the pollution emissions of destinations in both local and adjacent regions. The relationships between pollution emissions and the economic growth of destinations in local and adjacent areas present an inverted U-shaped curve and a U-shaped curve, respectively. These results highlight that governments should upgrade the quality of cross-border tourism consumption to induce disembodied technology communications from developed countries.
An efficient lightweight encryption model with re‐encryption scheme to create robust blockchain architecture for COVID‐19 data

Handling electronic health records from the Internet of Medical Things is one of the most challenging research areas as it consists of sensitive information, which targets attackers. Also, dealing with modern healthcare systems is highly complex and expensive, requiring much secured storage space. However, blockchain technology can mitigate these problems through improved health record management. The proposed work develops a scalable, lightweight framework based on blockchain technology to improve COVID‐19 data security, scalability and patient privacy. Initially, the COVID‐19 related data records are hashed using the enhanced Merkle tree data structure. The hashed values are encrypted by lattice based cryptography with a Homomorphic proxy re‐encryption scheme in which the input data are secured. After completing the encryption process, the blockchain uses inter planetary file system to store secured information. Finally, the Proof of Work concept is utilized to validate the security of the input COVID based data records. The proposed work's experimental setup is performed using the Python tool. The performance metrics like encryption time, re‐encryption time, decryption time, overall processing time, and latency prove the efficacy of the proposed schemes.
Excipients Used for Modified Nasal Drug Delivery: A Mini-Review of the Recent Advances

The ongoing challenging task in the field of nasal drug delivery is the maintenance of an efficient concentration of the active substance in the target area for an adequate period of time. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop effective new strategies for drug delivery to the nose, using cutting edge technology and materials for this particular type of drug delivery. This review gives an account of the critical components of nasal drug delivery and the parameters influencing drug absorption in the nose, including the excipients required for modified drug administration.
Overview of Computational Methods for Photonic Crystals

A photonic crystal (PC) is a periodic structure whose refraction index of the material is periodically modulated on the wavelength scale to affect the electromagnetic wave propagation by creating photonic band gaps. In 1887, Lord Rayleigh is the first to show a band gap in one-dimensional periodic structures i.e. a Bragg mirror. In 1987, Eli Yablonovitch and Sajeev John have extended the band gap concept to the two and threedimensional structures and for the first time, they use the term "photonic crystal" (Yablonovitch, 1987; John, 1987).
Construction of 2DE Patterns of Plasma Proteins: Aspect of Potential Tumor Markers

The use of tumor markers aids in the early detection of cancer recurrence and prognosis. There is a hope that they might also be useful in screening tests for the early detection of cancer. Here, the question of finding ideal tumor markers, which should be sensitive, specific, and reliable, is an acute issue. Human plasma is one of the most popular samples as it is commonly collected in the clinic and provides noninvasive, rapid analysis for any type of disease including cancer. Many efforts have been applied in searching for “ideal” tumor markers, digging very deep into plasma proteomes. The situation in this area can be improved in two ways—by attempting to find an ideal single tumor marker or by generating panels of different markers. In both cases, proteomics certainly plays a major role. There is a line of evidence that the most abundant, so-called “classical plasma proteins”, may be used to generate a tumor biomarker profile. To be comprehensive these profiles should have information not only about protein levels but also proteoform distribution for each protein. Initially, the profile of these proteins in norm should be generated. In our work, we collected bibliographic information about the connection of cancers with levels of “classical plasma proteins”. Additionally, we presented the proteoform profiles (2DE patterns) of these proteins in norm generated by two-dimensional electrophoresis with mass spectrometry and immunodetection. As a next step, similar profiles representing protein perturbations in plasma produced in the case of different cancers will be generated. Additionally, based on this information, different test systems can be developed.
Antifungal effects of Zataria multiflora Boisss (Shirazi Thyme) extract against Aspergillus fumigatus Afs35 genes: crza and rpda

Aspergillus fumigatus causes a fatal infection particularly among immunocompromised individuals. Nowadays herbal and medicinal essential oils play a vital role as an alternative safe medication. Zataria multiflora Boiss essential oils have antifungal activities mainly on the expression of some gene required for fungal survival. The main objective of the study was evaluation of antifungal effects of Z. multiflora Boiss extract against A. fumigatus AfS35 strain. The strain was obtained from department of biology, Baghdad University. Various concentrations (10-300mg/mL) of Z. multiflora Boiss extract were prepared and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) were determined using micro-broth dilution method. The expression of crzA and rpdA genes was evaluated using the quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) technique. The concentrations ≥100mg/mL of extract inhibited the fungal growth which was non-toxic to normal cell line (MIC=100mg/mL and MFC=150mg/mL). The combination of 50mg/mL of extract plus each of amphotericin B (10mg/ml) and nystatin (10mg/mL) significantly decreased the MIC level (p<0.001). The concentration of 10mg/mL of the extract decreased the expression of crzA and rpdA genes 2.4 (p<0.001) and 3.6 (p<0.0001) fold, respectively. The same concentration of amphotericin B non- significantly decreased the crzA and rpdA genes expression by 0.6 (p=0.224) and 1.1 (p=0.033) fold, respectively. The study concluded that Z. multiflora Boiss extract exerted antifungal effect against A. fumigatus by inhibiting the cell wall biosynthesis (down-regulation of crzA), sustainability and virulence expression (rpdA). The combination therapy with Z. multifora Boiss is promising to eradicate A. fumigatus infections.
Investigation of formation and breakage mechanism of microweld of typical wire-bonding materials via molecular dynamics simulation

Wire bonding is the most popular first-level interconnection technology used in traditional electronic packaging but still needs fundamental research. This work investigated the formation and breakage mechanism of wire-bonding microwelds in typical wire-bonding material pairs by analyzing the loading force curve, total energy curve, atomic morphology, and von Mises stress. The longer the range of the high attractive force of the atoms of a material, the earlier the real contact between the wire and substrate occurs, which means the bonding is completed earlier. The higher stiffness of the material strengthens the weld and causes damage during the bonding process. Graphical abstract
Secure Inter-Container Communications Using XDP/eBPF

While the use of containerization technologies for virtual application deployment has grown at an astonishing rate, the question of the robustness of container networking has not been well scrutinized from a security perspective, even though inter-container networking is indispensable for microservices. Thus, this paper first analyzes container networks from a security perspective, discussing the implications based on their architectural limitations. Then, it presents Bastion+, a secure inter-container communication bridge. Bastion+ introduces (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$i$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) a network security enforcement stack that provides fine-grained control per container application and securely isolates inter- container traffic in a point-to-point manner. Bastion+ also supports (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ii$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) selective security function chaining, enabling various security functions to be chained between containers for further security inspections (e.g., deep packet inspection) according to the container’s network context. Bastion+ incorporates (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$iii$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) a security policy assistant that helps an administrator discover inter-container networking dependencies correctly. Our evaluation demonstrates how Bastion+ can effectively mitigate several adversarial attacks in container networks while improving the overall performance up to 25.4% within single-host containers and 17.7% for cross-host container communications.
Predição de Resiliência Econômica a partir de Métodos Supervisionados baseados em Grafos Dinâmicos

O desenvolvimento de resiliência econômica é uma das discussões priorizadas nas 5 últimas ocorrências do Fórum Econômico Mundial. Desde a Grande Recessão (2008), diversos trabalhos se dedicaram a definir, mensurar e recuperar fatores que expliquem a diferença entre economias que superam desastres econômicos rapidamente, daquelas que demoram ou precisam de aporte externo. O presente trabalho utiliza bases históricas massivas da ONU para treinar diferentes modelos supervisionados sobre a economia de dezenas de países, apresentando as vantagens de utilizar uma modelagem que considere informações da vizinhança por meio de um grafo dinâmico. Resultados mostram um ganho de até 19% (F1-Score) na previsão de crise e estabilidade
fMRI to Predict Naming Decline: Can We Improve the Grade From a C to an A?

Prediction of Naming Outcome With fMRI Language Lateralization in Left Temporal Epilepsy Surgery Gross WL, Helfand AI, Swanson SJ, Conant LL, Humphries CJ, Raghavan M, Mueller WM, Busch RM, Allen L, Anderson CT, Carlson CE, Lowe MJ, Langfitt JT, Tivarus ME, Drane DL, Loring DW, Jacobs M, Morgan VL, Allendorfer JB, Szaflarski JP, Bonilha L, Bookheimer S, Grabowski T, Vannest J, Binder JR; FMRI in Anterior Temporal Epilepsy Surgery (FATES) Study. Neurology. 2022;98(23):e2337-e2346. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000200552. PMID: 35410903; PMCID: PMC9202528. Background and Objectives: Naming decline after left temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) surgery is common and difficult to predict. Preoperative language fMRI may predict naming decline, but this application is still lacking evidence. We performed a large multicenter cohort study of the effectiveness of fMRI in predicting naming deficits after left TLE surgery. Methods: At 10 US epilepsy centers, 81 patients with left TLE were prospectively recruited and given the Boston Naming Test (BNT) before and ≈7 months after anterior temporal lobectomy. An fMRI language laterality index (LI) was measured with an auditory semantic decision-tone decision task contrast. Correlations and a multiple regression model were built with a priori chosen predictors. Results: Naming decline occurred in 56% of patients and correlated with fMRI LI (r = −0.41, p < 0.001), age at epilepsy onset (r = −0.30, p = 0.006), age at surgery (r = −0.23, p = 0.039), and years of education (r = 0.24, p = 0.032). Preoperative BNT score and duration of epilepsy were not correlated with naming decline. The regression model explained 31% of the variance, with fMRI contributing 14%, with a 96% sensitivity, and 44% specificity for predicting meaningful naming decline. Cross-validation resulted in an average prediction error of 6 points. Discussion: An fMRI-based regression model predicted naming outcome after left TLE surgery in a large, prospective multicenter sample, with fMRI as the strongest predictor. These results provide evidence supporting the use of preoperative language fMRI to predict language outcome in patients undergoing left TLE surgery.
Cordyceps militaris—Fruiting Bodies, Mycelium, and Supplements: Valuable Component of Daily Diet

Cordyceps militaris has long been used in Eastern medicine for alleviating fatigue and as an immunostimulant. The present study aimed to determine the content of biologically active substances (bioelements and organic compounds), the total phenolic content, and the antioxidant activity of fruiting bodies (commercially available and self-cultivated), mycelia, and two food supplements. The results show that substrate composition and cultivation method had an influence on the properties of mushroom materials. An important aspect of the study is the estimation of the content of bioactive substances present after extraction into digestive juices in the artificial gastrointestinal tract model, which can allow for determining the amount of these substances that is potentially bioavailable for the human body. The best results for cordycepin (81.4 mg/100 g d.w.) and lovastatin (53.6 mg/100 g d.w.) were achieved for commercially available food supplements. Furthermore, after digestion in artificial intestinal juice, the highest amount of cordycepin was determined in the fruiting bodies from commercially obtained (25.9 mg/100 g d.w.) and self-cultivated mushroom (25.8 mg/100 g d.w.). In conclusion, the mycelium and fruiting bodies of C. militaris are ideal food supplements and pharmaceutical agents and can serve as a good source of prohealth substances potentially bioavailable for humans.
A Deep Learning Approach for Task Offloading in Multi-UAV Aided Mobile Edge Computing

Computation offloading has proven to be an effective method for facilitating resource-intensive tasks on IoT mobile edge nodes with limited processing capabilities. Additionally, in the context of Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) systems, edge nodes can offload its computation-intensive tasks to a suitable edge server. Hence, they can reduce energy cost and speed up processing. Despite the numerous accomplished efforts in task offloading problems on the Internet of Things (IoT), this problem remains a research gap mainly because of its NP-hardness in addition to the unrealistic assumptions in many proposed solutions. In order to accurately extract information from raw sensor data from IoT devices deployed in complicated contexts, Deep Learning (DL) is a potential method. Therefore, in this paper, an approach based on Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) will be presented to optimize the offloading process for IoT in MEC environments. This approach can achieve the optimal offloading decision. A Markov Decision Problem (MDP) is used to formulate the offloading problem. Delay time and consumed energy are the main optimization targets in this work. The proposed approach has been verified using extensive simulations. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed model can effectively improve the MEC system latency, energy consumption, and significantly outperforms the Deep Q Networks (DQNs) and Actor Critic (AC) approaches.