Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Formulation-Nozzle Interactions To Minimize Nozzle Clogging Formulations into Pre-filled Syringes : Investigating Filling of High-Concentration Monoclonal Antibody

Syringe filling of high-concentration/viscosity monoclonal antibody formulations is a complex process that is not fully understood. This study, which builds on a previous investigation that used a bench-top syringe filling unit to examine formulation drying at the filling nozzle tip and subsequent nozzle clogging, further explores the impact of formulation–nozzle material interactions on formulation drying and nozzle clogging. Syringe-filling nozzles made of glass, stainless steel, or plastic (polypropylene, silicone, and Teflon), which represent a full range of materials with hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties as quantified by contact angle measurements, were used to fill liquids of different viscosity, including a high-concentration monoclonal antibody formulation. Compared with hydrophilic nozzles, hydrophobic nozzles offered two unique features that discouraged formulation drying and nozzle clogging: (1) the liquid formulation is more likely to be withdrawn into the hydrophobic nozzle under the same suck-back conditions, and (2) the residual liquid film left on the nozzle wall when using high suck-back settings settles to form a liquid plug away from the hydrophobic nozzle tip. Making the tip of the nozzle hydrophobic (silicone-coating on glass and Teflon-coating stainless steel) could achieve the same suck-back performance as plastic nozzles. This study demonstrated that using hydrophobic nozzles are most effective in reducing the risk of nozzle clogging by drying of high-concentration monoclonal antibody formulation during extended nozzle idle time in a large-scale filling facility and environment.
The Role of MSM Status, Race, and Marijuana Use in HIV Risk among Adult Males in the Columbus, OH Region

Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV, is a life-long illness that affects millions across the globe. Young adult males, especially men who have sex with men (MSM), are at significant risk for the virus. This project examined a hypothesized association between marijuana use and HIV infection, comorbidity of HIV and other STIs, and potentially confounding variables in a sample of men tested for HIV in Columbus, Ohio. The sample included a total of 898 non-Hispanic/Latino males (294 White, 604 Black/AfricanAmerican, non-Hispanic/Latino males aged 18 to 74 years. All were tested for HIV between February 2013 and April 2013 by Columbus (Ohio) Public Health. Mean age, mean number of current sexual partners (past 12 months), mean number of HIV risk factors, and mean number of lifetime sexually transmitted diseases (STD) were calculated and used to generate general linear models that compared means across groups based on MSM status, race, and marijuana use. On mean, Black/African-American males reported more STDs, current sexual partners, and HIV risk factors than White males. MSM had more HIV risk factors and current sexual partners on mean than heterosexual males. Marijuana users had more HIV risk factors, STDs, and current sexual partners than those who did not report marijuana use. It is recommended that MSM use protection for sexual activities and be given access to evidence-based information on the association between marijuana use and increased risk for contracting HIV.
A calibration method of robot kinematic parameters by drawstring displacement sensor

Calibration of robot kinematic parameters can effectively improve the absolute positioning accuracy of the end-effector for industrial robots. This article proposes a calibration method for robot kinematic parameters based on the drawstring displacement sensor. Firstly, the kinematic error model for articulated robot is established. Based on such a model, the position measurement system consisting of four drawstring displacement sensors is used to measure the actual position of the robot end-effector. Then, the deviation of the kinematic parameters of the robot is identified by the least-squares method according to robot end-effector deviations. The Cartesian space compensation method is adopted to improve the absolute positioning accuracy of the robot end-effecter. By experiments on the EFORT ER3A robot, the absolute positioning accuracy of the robot is significantly improved after calibration, which shows the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Fluid-structure interaction modelling of propellant combustion

The controlled combustion of solid propellants is vital to rocket motor design, weapon system design and gas generators used for airbag inflation and fire suppression. Given the characteristics of any propellant and structural system, a model of combustion should be able to establish the energy release and corresponding pressure generated by the propellant on the system. Due to inherent complexities associated with propellant ignition and combustion, the description of propellant burn and consequent impact on structural design is not well understood. This article investigates the nature of propellant burn through the development of a computer simulated model. More specifically, governing equations of solid propellant combustion based on the Nobel--Abel equation of state are introduced into a finite element environment to perform fluid-structure interaction modelling on the system. The Nobel--Abel Equation of State in conjunction with a steady state burning law, which describes the recession rate of the burning propellant, is incorporated into a finite element environment through a user subroutine. The fluid-structure interaction capabilities allowed for the impact of the evolving gasses on the structure of the system to be analysed. The derived model empowered the analysis of a wide range of system parameters their effect on system performance. Results of material stress/\penalty \exhyphenpenalty strain and fluid dynamics are presented.
Double-walled carbon nanotube-based polymer composites for electromagnetic protection

In this paper, we present a microwave absorber based on carbon nanotubes (CNT) dispersed inside a BenzoCycloButen® (BCB) polymer. The high aspect ratio and remarkable conductive characteristics of CNT give rise to good absorbing properties for electromagnetic protecting in microelectronic devices with very low concentration. In this article, nanocomposites are prepared using a solution-mixing method and are then evaluated and modeled by means of coplanar test structures. First, CNT concentrations are quantified by image processing. The nanocomposites implemented with coplanar test waveguides are then characterized using a vector network analyzer from 40 MHz to 20 GHz. An algorithm is developed to calculate the propagation constant “γ”, attenuation constant “α”, and relative effective complex permittivity (ɛreff = ɛreff′ − jɛreff″) for each CNT concentration. The extracted effective parameters are verified using the electromagnetic FEM-based Ansoft's® high frequency structure simulator (HFSS). Power absorption (PA) of 7 dB at 15 GHz is obtained with only 0.37 weight percent of CNT concentration in the polymer matrix. The resulting engineerable and controllable composite provides consequently a novel degree of freedom to design and optimize innovative microwave components.
Development of docetaxel-loaded folate-modified Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) particles

Background: Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) particles with small vector molecules are used for targeted delivery of anticancer agents. To be effective, they must be small, noncytotoxic, sterile, and stable. Aim: The aim of this study was to prepare docetaxel-loaded folate-modified PLGA-based nanoparticles (FD-Dtx-NPs) and to assess their as parenteral folate-receptor targeted delivery systems during γ-sterilization and long-term storage. Materials and Methods: NPs were prepared by oil/water single emulsion-solvent evaporation method and simultaneous loading of polymer particles with docetaxel and folic acid derivative. NPs’ physicochemical characteristics and antitumor activity were assessed. Findings: FD-Dtx-NPs presented uniform characteristics over repeated measurements: ~250 nm size, <0.100 polydispersity index, and >2.5% docetaxel content in the finished lyophilizate. The observed slow docetaxel release from FD-Dtx-NPs was acceptable for proposed usage. γ-irradiated NPs were sterile under all tested protocols and maintained their physicochemical properties at a 10-kGy cumulative dose, 0.500 Gy/s dose rate, and 5.57-h exposure. No significant differences were observed in physicochemical characteristics of FD-Dtx-NPs over 12 months. Finally, FD-Dtx-NPs showed a high anticancer activity in vitro. Conclusion: The proposed method generates FD-Dtx-NPs with reproducible characteristics, high activity, and elevated stability during the long-term storage. Results of γ-sterilization and stability studies may be valuable for the development of polymer-based drugs.
Combination of polyethylene glycol impregnation and paraffin heat treatment to protect round bamboo from cracking

Round bamboo has drawn more and more attention in architecture, decoration and recreational products. Splitting brings some safety problems, which shorten the service life of round bamboo. In this paper, three schemes were adopted as follows to solve the problem: round bamboo was impregnated in polyethylene glycol (PEG)-1000 solution alone, heat treatment in paraffin alone or treated with the combination of PEG impregnation and paraffin heat treatment (PEG–PH). The treated bamboo was exposed outdoors for 26 weeks to evaluate the development of cracks. Results showed as follows: the initial split of PEG–PH-treated bamboo appeared after 22 weeks, while that of the controls after 2 weeks, the total length of cracks was 2271.31 and 873.5 mm for the control and PEG–PH-treated bamboo, respectively. To reveal the reasons for reduced cracks, scanning electron micrograph (SEM) was employed to observe the microstructure of bamboo; besides, hydrophobicity of bamboo was characterized by the water contact angle. PEG can swell the cell wall and the better hydrophobicity of round bamboo could be achieved after PEG–PH treatment. Therefore, the combination of PEG immersion and paraffin heating is an effective and practicable method in bamboo treatment, especially for round bamboo with high moisture content.
Comparison theorems for parabolic functional inequalities.

Differential inequalities containing functional are assuming an increasing importance in problems of biomathematics, mathematical medicine, chemistry, heat flow and population growth. Many of these applications lead to an equation which is of parabolic structure, in the sense that the equation would be parabolic if the functional in it were replaced by a known function. One way in which a functional arises in such equations is through a Volterra type memory term, which takes account of the past history of the process. We shall present a number of comparison inequalities for parabolic functional operators. These can be used to answer questions pertaining to uniqueness, monotonicity, stability and qualitative behavior with the same simplicity and directness as has long been available in the purely parabolic case. As an application, we obtain new results on the behavior of strongly coupled systems.
Road detection using cycle-consistent adversarial networks

Abstract. Today, road detection is still a challenging task in intelligent driving. With the continuous improvement of computer vision, many methods of deep learning are used for road detection because they can achieve image features at a deeper level and discover road areas from raw RGB data. However, the method to detect the road areas accurately needs to be improved. We present a method that can extract the road area features and complete road detection tasks. Our method mainly includes the following points: (1) to introduce the cycle-consistent adversarial network to extract the road area features in a picture and complete image to image conversion and (2) to complete road detection by adding a new model and to improve the accuracy of detection. The results of our method are evaluated by uploading to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Toyota Technological Institute road detection benchmark and named it as “road detection cycle-consistent adversarial networks. ” Our method achieves an overall max F-measure of 88.63% and precision of 91.35%. In addition to high precision, our method also has a good robustness. Meanwhile, the accuracy for narrow road areas needs to be optimized in the future.
An Internet of Things infrastructure for gait characterization in assisted living environments and its application in the discovery of associations between frailty and cognition

This article presents an easy-to-deploy and low-cost Internet of Things infrastructure for gait characterization based on a set of wireless inertial sensors, called nodes, connected to the same local area network. These nodes allow acquiring inertial raw data from the trunk of each frail elder involved in explicit gait trials carried out directly in the elderly care homes. The Internet of Things infrastructure has been validated for Quantitative Gait Analysis showing an adequate accuracy in the demarcation of relevant gait events and in the estimation of stride interval variability. The latter, in combination with other characteristics that are commonly used to assess the state of frail elders and which come from anthropometric, biological, nutritional, functional, and mobility domains, allows us to perform a cross-sectional cohort study and a subsequent multiple logistic regression to evaluate their impact on cognitive functioning. The cohort study and the multivariate regression are performed using a sample of 81 frail elders from two nursing homes in Spain. The results obtained indicate that frail elders aged 90 years or older, with moderate dependence in daily functioning and with a stride interval gait variability greater than 6%, were most likely to suffer cognitive impairment, representing what is called cognitive frail.
Preliminary pharmacognostic and phytochemical evaluation of Hybanthus stellarioides (Domin) P. I. Forst

Hybanthus stellarioides (Domin) P. I. Forst. (Violaceae) is a seasonal herb recently reported from Karnataka state. So far phytochemical and pharmacognostic characters of this plant have not been studied. Therefore present study was focused on macroscopic characters, microscopic characters and physico-chemical properties.
An improved national house price index using Land Registry data

The methods of constructing house price indices in the UK have lagged behind those employed in some Western countries. The deficiencies in these methods weaken the decision-making ability of investors, stakeholders and policy makers. This paper reviews existing methodologies and introduces the repeat sales regression (RSR) method in a UK context, utilising Land Registry data. Particularly, we build upon the argument presented by Leishman and Watkins (2002) that some deficiencies of the existing indices can in part be remedied through the application of the repeat sales regression method using Land Registry Data. We initially summarise evidence and conclusions drawn from previous studies in order to demonstrate through application that repeat sales regression analysis on the recently released Land Registry `price paid' dataset, is the preferable methodology for the measurement of house price movements in England and Wales; addressing some of the shortcomings associated with the current methodologies. We present empirical research conducted by the author, illustrating the first application of repeat sales regression for England and Wales using Land Registry data.
Global axially symmetric solutions with large swirl to the Navier-Stokes equations

Long time existence of axially symmetric solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations in a bounded cylinder and with boundary slip conditions is proved. The axially symmetric solutions with nonvanishing azimuthal component of velocity (swirl) are examined. The solutions are such that swirl is small in a neighbourhood close to the axis of symmetry but it is large in some positive distance from it. There is a great difference between the proofs of global axially symmetric solutions with vanishing and nonvanishing swirl. In the first case global estimate follows at once but in the second case we need a lot of considerations in weighted spaces to show it. The existence is proved by the Leray-Schauder fixed point theorem.
Review of Malaysian agricultural policies with regards to sustainability.

The new scientific knowledge coupled with concerns for the environmental, economic and social aspects of agriculture brought Malaysian agriculture into a state of transition. The need for reviewing Malaysian agricultural policies has arisen due to that fact that current agricultural practices in the country are found to be related to environmental, economic and social problems. This study is an effort to review the current Malaysian agricultural policies with regards to sustainability. The Third National Agricultural Policy (3NAP), which is the latest one and relevant secondary materials have primarily been reviewed to substantiate our arguments in this paper. The study, however, argues that the latest Malaysian agricultural policies are compatible with the standards of sustainable agriculture, but the current agricultural practices in the country differ, to some extent, from sustainability principles. The study ends up with some concluding remarks.
Near-surface study at the Valhall oil field from ambient noise surface wave tomography

We used 6 hr of continuous seismic noise records from 2320 four-component sensors of the Valhall 'Life of Field Seismic' network to compute cross-correlations (CCs) of ambient seismic noise. A beamforming analysis showed that at low frequencies (below 2 Hz) the seismic noise sources were spatially homogeneously distributed, whereas at higher frequencies (2-30 Hz), the dominant noise source was the oil platform at the centre of the network. Here, we performed an ambient noise surface wave tomography at frequencies below 2 Hz. We used vertical-component geophones CCs to extract and measure the Scholte waves group velocities dispersion curves that were then processed with a set of quality criteria and inverted to build group velocity maps of the Valhall area. Although Scholte wave group velocity depends on S wave, our group velocity maps show features similar to that was previously obtained from P-wave velocity full-waveform inversion of an active seismic data set. Since the dominant noise source at high frequency (above 3 Hz) was the oil platform, we determined a 2-D S-wave velocity model along a profile aligned with the platform by inverting group velocity dispersion curves of Love waves from transverse-component geophones CCs. We found that S-wave velocity down to 20 m was low and varied along the profile, and could be used to estimate S-wave static.
Underwater image restoration through a combination of improved dark channel prior and gray world algorithms

Abstract. Due to the absorption and scattering of light caused by particles suspended in water and the variable attenuation of light with different wavelengths, underwater images are typically characterized by low contrast, blurred features, and severe color bias. To improve the quality of underwater images, an underwater image restoration method is proposed. First, based on similarities between the underwater optical imaging model and the atmosphere model, an improved dark channel prior algorithm is used to enhance the original underwater image and an improved gray world algorithm is used to calibrate the image. Then, an improved wavelet fusion algorithm is adopted to combine the results produced by the two algorithms. The experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively improve feature clarity and color accuracy in underwater images with low quality and illumination, resulting in a better visual effect.
LOW ANGULAR MOMENTUM IN CLUMPY, TURBULENT DISK GALAXIES

We measure the stellar specific angular momentum j s = J s / M s ? > in four nearby (z ≈ 0.1) disk galaxies that have stellar masses M s ? > near the break M s * ? > of the galaxy mass function but look like typical star-forming disks at z ≈ 2 in terms of their low stability (Q ≈ 1), clumpiness, high ionized gas dispersion (40−50 km s - 1 ? > ), high molecular gas fraction (20%–30%), and rapid star formation ( ∼ 20 M ⊙ yr - 1 ? > ). Combining high-resolution (Keck-OSIRIS) and large-radius (Gemini-GMOS) spectroscopic maps, only available at low z, we discover that these targets have ∼ 3 ? > times less stellar angular momentum than typical local spiral galaxies of equal stellar mass and bulge fraction. Theoretical considerations show that this deficiency in angular momentum is the main cause of their low stability, while the high gas fraction plays a complementary role. Interestingly, the low j s ? > values of our targets are similar to those expected in the M s * ? > population at higher z from the approximate theoretical scaling j s ∝ ( 1 + z ) − 1 / 2 ? > at fixed M s . > This suggests that a change in angular momentum, driven by cosmic expansion, is the main cause for the remarkable difference between clumpy M s * ? > disks at high z (which likely evolve into early-type galaxies) and mass-matched local spirals.
Neural observer-based path following control for underactuated unmanned surface vessels with input saturation and time-varying disturbance

In this study, a new neural observer-based dynamic surface control scheme is proposed for the path following of underactuated unmanned surface vessels in the presence of input saturation and time-varying external disturbance. The dynamic surface control technique is augmented by a robust adaptive radial basis function neural network and a nonlinear neural disturbance observer. Radial basis function neural network is employed to deal with system uncertainties, and the nonlinear neural disturbance observer is developed to compensate for the unknown compound disturbance that contains the input saturation approximation error and the external disturbance. Moreover, the stringent known boundary requirement of the unknown disturbance constraint is eliminated with the proposed nonlinear neural disturbance observer. Meanwhile, to deal with the non-smooth saturation nonlinearity, a new parametric hyperbolic tangent function approximation model with arbitrary prescribed precision is constructed, which results in the transient performance improvement for the path following control system. Stability analysis shows that all the signals in the closed-loop system are guaranteed to be ultimately bounded. Comparative simulation results further demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.