Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Cross-Species Examination of Pro-White Color Bias Using a Novel Implicit Association Test

ABSTRACT There is abundant evidence for pro-White color bias across the social psychology literature. In human–animal interaction work, black dog syndrome (BDS) refers to preference toward lighter-colored dogs over black dogs, leading to differences in rates of euthanasia and adoption. BDS has received mixed support in prior studies. Results from studies examining explicit color preference toward animals are also inconsistent. Numerous studies report strong support for implicit pro-White bias toward humans, but no studies have examined implicit pro-White bias toward animals. Thus, the primary aim of the current research was to test for implicit pro-White bias across various stimuli and species, using both novel and well-established Implicit Association Tests (IATs). In study 1 (n = 127) and study 2 (n = 141), IATs assessed pro-White bias across five different stimuli: objects, rabbits, dogs, skin tone, and race, using data collected from college students. Participants were categorized into three groups based on race and ethnicity (non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, and all other racial/ethnic participants). In both studies, there was evidence of pro-White bias across all five IATs. However, both studies also revealed significant racial differences. In both studies, pro-White bias was significant among White and other racial/ethnic participants but not among Black participants. Racial/ethnic differences were also found in prevalence of pet ownership and attitudes toward pets, but neither ownership nor attitudes were significantly associated with pro-White bias. Results from this study provide indirect support for BDS, in that individuals showed an implicit bias toward White dogs, although this bias is not present among Black individuals.
Effects of magnetically targeted iron oxide@polydopamine-labeled human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells in cerebral infarction in mice

Mesenchymal stem cells are a potential therapeutic candidate for cerebral infarction due to their anti-inflammatory proprieties. However, ensuring the engraftment of sufficient cells into the affected brain area remains a challenge. Herein, magnetic targeting techniques were used for the transplantation of a large number of cells noninvasively. Mice subjected to pMCAO surgery were administered MSCs labeled or not with iron oxide@polydopamine nanoparticles by tail vein injection. Iron oxide@polydopamine particles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, and labeled MSCs were characterized by flow cytometry and their differentiation potential was assessed in vitro. Following the systemic injection of iron oxide@polydopamine-labeled MSCs into pMCAO-induced mices, magnetic navigation increased the MSCs localization to the brain lesion site and reduced the lesion volume. Treatment with iron oxide@polydopamine-labeled MSCs also significantly inhibited M1 microglia polarization and increased M2 microglia cell infiltration. Furthermore, western blotting and immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated that microtubule-associated protein 2 and NeuN levels were upregulated the brain tissue of mice treated with iron oxide@polydopamine-labeled MSCs. Thus, iron oxide@polydopamine-labeled MSCs attenuated brain injury and protected neurons by preventing pro-inflammatory microglia activation. Overall, the proposed iron oxide@polydopamine-labeled MSCs approach may overcome the major drawback of the conventional MSCs therapy for the treatment of cerebral infarction.
Selective Harmonic Elimination in Asymmetric Cascaded Multilevel Inverters Using a New Low-frequency Strategy for Photovoltaic Applications

Abstract Asymmetric multilevel inverters with a main and auxiliary power circuit can yield maximum number of voltage levels against the number of semiconductor devices. Most of the output power will be produced by the main inverter, which works at low frequency and the auxiliary inverters only improve the voltage quality. Advantages of the asymmetric structure are reduced number of semiconductors and gate drive circuits and better voltage quality and efficiency, which make the asymmetric inverter to be a perfect candidate for photovoltaic applications. This article presents a new switching strategy in asymmetric multilevel inverters, which exploits extra degrees of freedom to eliminate more low-order harmonics. Simulation results show this method can introduce two new switching angles without affecting the power losses of the inverter.
Fuzzy Integral-Based Multi-Classifiers Ensemble for Android Malware Classification

One of the most commonly used operating systems for smartphones is Android. The open-source nature of the Android operating system and the ability to include third-party Android apps from various markets has led to potential threats to user privacy. Malware developers use sophisticated methods that are intentionally designed to bypass the security checks currently used in smartphones. This makes effective detection of Android malware apps a difficult problem and important issue. This paper proposes a novel fuzzy integral-based multi-classifier ensemble to improve the accuracy of Android malware classification. The proposed approach utilizes the Choquet fuzzy integral as an aggregation function for the purpose of combining and integrating the classification results of several classifiers such as XGBoost, Random Forest, Decision Tree, AdaBoost, and LightGBM. Moreover, the proposed approach utilizes an adaptive fuzzy measure to consider the dynamic nature of the data in each classifier and the consistency and coalescence between each possible subset of classifiers. This enables the proposed approach to aggregate the classification results from the multiple classifiers. The experimental results using the dataset, consisting of 9476 Android goodware apps and 5560 malware Android apps, show that the proposed approach for Android malware classification based on the Choquet fuzzy integral technique outperforms the single classifiers and achieves the highest accuracy of 95.08%.
A Bioluminescent Sensor for Rapid Detection of PPEP-1, a Clostridioides difficile Biomarker

Current assays for Clostridioides difficile in nonhospital settings are outsourced and time-intensive, resulting in both delayed diagnosis and quarantining of infected individuals. We designed a more rapid point-of-care assay featuring a “turn-on” bioluminescent readout of a C. difficile-specific protease, PPEP-1. NanoLuc, a bright and stable luciferase, was “caged” with a PPEP-1-responsive peptide tail that inhibited luminescence. Upon proteolytic cleavage, the peptide was released and NanoLuc activity was restored, providing a visible readout. The bioluminescent sensor detected PPEP-1 concentrations as low as 10 nM. Sensor uncaging was achieved within minutes, and signal was captured using a digital camera. Importantly, the sensor was also functional at ambient temperature and compatible with fecal material, suggesting that it can be readily deployed in a variety of settings.
Temporal variations of country-specific mutational profile of SARS-CoV-2: effect on vaccine efficacy

Aim: In order to curb the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, nation-wide travel restrictions at different levels were implemented in different countries. Country-specific mutational profile may exist and have an impact on vaccine efficacy. Materials & methods: We identified nonsynonymous mutations in approximately 215,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences during the 1st year of the pandemic in 35 countries. Mutational profiles on a bimonthly basis were traced over time. We also examined the mutations that overlapped with the spike protein vaccine epitopes. Results: Several new mutations emerged over time and were dominating in specific countries. Many nonsynonymous mutations were within multiple spike protein epitopes that might impact the vaccine efficacy. Conclusion: Our study advocates requirement of active monitoring of country-specific mutations and vaccine efficacies in respective countries.
Evaluation of Flygt Mixers for Application in Savannah River Site Tank 19 Test Results from Phase A: Small-Scale Testing at ITT Flygt

The key findings of the small-scale Flygt mixer tests are provided in this section. Some of these findings may not apply in larger tanks, so these data must be applied carefully when making predictions for large tanks. Flygt mixer testing in larger tanks at PNNL and in a full-scale tank at the SRS will be used to determine the applicability of these findings. The principal objectives of the small-scale Flygt mixer tests were to measure the critical fluid velocities required for sludge mobilization and particle suspension, to evaluate the applicability of the Gladki (1997) method for predicting required mixer thrust, and to provide small-scale test results for comparison with larger-scale tests to observe the effects of scale-up. The tank profile and mixer orientation (i.e., stationary, horizontal mixers) were in the same configuration as the prototype system, however, available resources did not allow geometric, kinematic, and dynamic similitude to be achieved. The results of these tests will be used in conjunction with the results from similar tests using larger tanks and mixers (tank diameters of 1.8 and 5.7 m [Powell et al. 1999]) to evaluate the effects of scaling and to aid in developing a methodology for predicting performance at full scale.
How can we promote co-creation in communities? The perspective of health promoting professionals in four European countries

PurposeThe aim was to identify the competencies professionals need to promote co-creation engagement within communities.Design/methodology/approachCo-creation could contribute to building community capacity to promote health. Professional development is key to support co-creative practices. Participants were professionals in a position to promote co-creation processes in health-promoting welfare settings across Denmark, Portugal, France and United Kingdom. An overarching unstructured topic guide was used within interviews, focus groups, questionnaires and creative activities.FindingsThe need to develop competencies to promote co-creation was high across all countries. Creating a common understanding of co-creation and the processes involved to increase inclusivity, engagement and shared understanding was also necessary. Competencies included: How to run co-creation from the beginning of the process right through to evaluation, using feedback and communication throughout using an open action-oriented approach; initiating a perspective change and committing to the transformation of co-creation into a real-life process.Practical implicationsOverall, learning about underlying principles, process initiation, implementation and facilitation of co-creation were areas identified to be included within a co-creation training programme. This can be applied through the framework of enabling change, advocating for co-creative processes, mediating through partnership, communication, leadership, assessment, planning, implementation, evaluation and research, ethical values and knowledge of co-creative processes.Originality/valueThis study provides novel findings on the competencies needed for health promoting professionals to embed co-creative processes within their practice, and the key concerns that professionals with a position to mediate co-creation have in transferring the abstract term of co-creation into a real-world practice.
Mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate stimulates parturition-relation responses in human gestational tissues and cells

Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) is an environmental contaminant used as a plasticizer in polyvinyl chloride products. Mono-ethylhexyl phthalate (MEHP), the active metabolite of DEHP, increases reactive oxygen species production and decreases antioxidants in liver, kidney and testicular cells. To investigate whether placenta is a potential target of MEHP, we evaluated MEHP effects on reactive oxygen species generation, oxidative DNA adduct formation, apoptosis and expression of redox-sensitive genes in the human extravillous trophoblast cell line HTR-8/SVneo (HTR-8). HTR-8 cells were treated with MEHP concentrations ranging from 10-180 ! M. Solvent controls were exposed to dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO; 0.05% v/v). Stimulation of oxidant species generation was assessed by formation of the fluorescent product 2,7"-dichlorofluorescein (DCF) in HTR-8 cells loaded with 5-(and-6)-carboxy-2 7 -dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (H2DCFDA) and exposed for 1 h to MEHP. Treatment with 45, 90, or 180 ! M MEHP for 1 h significantly increased oxidant species after 1 h of exposure. In other experiments, HTR-8 cells were loaded with H2DCF-DA, pretreated for 1 h with or
A service improvement project of a legacy nurse programme to improve the retention of late career nurses

Background A Nottingham Legacy Nurse Programme was developed in response to the reducing supply of new nursing registrants and an ageing workforce. The programme comprised components of focussed mentorship, knowledge transition, support and development of new learners in practice. Aims The work-based development programme aimed to improve the retention and experience of late career registered nurses. Methods The programme was informed by the evidence base and co-produced with late career registered nurses (aged 55 years or over, approaching retirement). A small pilot programme (n = 6) was evaluated through a mixed-methods approach. Refinements and recommendations were proposed in response to findings of a scoping search of the literature, feedback from participants and stakeholder groups across the NHS Midlands and East regions (n = 238). Results A Legacy Nurse programme has potential to address nurses’ individual career development needs, valuing and retaining them in the workforce, enabling them to share professional knowledge and skills within clinical teams and offers a cost-effective solution to improving retention of late career nurses. Conclusions Addressing the needs of late career registered nurses is required to improve retention, job satisfaction, quality-of-care provision and facilitate knowledge transfer. The programme requires evaluation in other care settings and should be considered as part of an integrated approach to nurse retention, inclusive talent management and workforce planning, alongside financial and careers advice.
The Effect of Therapeutic Hypothermia after Cardiac Arrest on the Neurological Outcome and Survival—A Systematic Review of RCTs Published between 2016 and 2020

Therapeutic hypothermia is a treatment used for patients who have suffered cardiorespiratory arrest and remain conscious after the recovery of spontaneous circulation. However, its effectiveness is controversial. The objective of this systematic review is to summarize the scientific evidence available about the effect of therapeutic hypothermia on neurological status and survival in this type of patients. Methodology: A primary search in CINAHL, CUIDEN, Pubmed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases was carried out. Randomized clinical trials (RCT) published from 2016 to 2020 were selected. Results: 17 studies were selected for inclusion and most relevant data were extracted. Methodological quality was assessed by the RoB tool. Conclusions: Although therapeutic hypothermia is a safe technique with few adverse and manageable effects, it has not shown to improve survival rate and neurological status of adult nor pediatric patients. It is possible that its positive effect on neuroprotection could be achieved only by preventing hyperthermia although further investigation is needed.
Use of Membrane Technologies in Dairy Industry: An Overview

The use of treatments of segregated process streams as a water source, as well as technical fluid reuse as a source of value-added recovery products, is an emerging direction of resource recovery in several applications. Apart from the desired final product obtained in agro-food industries, one of the challenges is the recovery or separation of intermediate and/or secondary metabolites with high-added-value compounds (e.g., whey protein). In this way, processes based on membranes, such as microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO), could be integrated to treat these agro-industrial streams, such as milk and cheese whey. Therefore, the industrial application of membrane technologies in some processing stages could be a solution, replacing traditional processes or adding them into existing treatments. Therefore, greater efficiency, yield enhancement, energy or capital expenditure reduction or even an increase in sustainability by producing less waste, as well as by-product recovery and valorization opportunities, could be possible, in line with industrial symbiosis and circular economy principles. The maturity of membrane technologies in the dairy industry was analyzed for the possible integration options of membrane processes in their filtration treatment. The reported studies and developments showed a wide window of possible applications for membrane technologies in dairy industry treatments. Therefore, the integration of membrane processes into traditional processing schemes is presented in this work. Overall, it could be highlighted that membrane providers and agro-industries will continue with a gradual implementation of membrane technology integration in the production processes, referring to the progress reported on both the scientific literature and industrial solutions commercialized.
Single-phase three-level boost power factor correction converter

In many single-phase power factor correction (PFC) applications, the power level can reach several kilowatts; and in some situations, the input voltage can be quite high too. For high power and/or high voltage applications, the major concerns of the conventional boost PFC converter are the inductor volume and weight, and losses on the power devices, which will affect converter cost, efficiency, and power density. In this paper, a three-level boost converter is adopted for single-phase PFC, which uses a much smaller inductor and lower voltage devices than the conventional boost PFC converter does, yielding high power density, high efficiency, and low cost. <<ETX>>
Compact Uwb Multilayer 3 Db Directional Coupler Design And Analysis on Coupler Performances

An extended works of a diamond shaped 3 dB coupler design that is operating in ultra‐wideband frequency range is presented in this article. The proposed design is accomplished by using multilayer technology in which the structure is formed by three layers of conductors and interleaved by a layer of substrate between each one of the conductor layer. The proposed designed coupler simulation result shows that the design exhibits a coupling of 3 dB return loss and isolation better than 22 and 21 dB, respectively. Whereas, the phase difference performance is in the range of 90° ± 2° over the designated band. The coupler is fabricated and measured. Analysis studies on the parametric value are presented and discussed to observe the effect of the dimension of the patch to the performance of the coupler. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:2214–2219, 2013
Management of the Water Slide Brought and Saline Flow in Irrigated Onion (Allium cepa L.) Cultivation in the Senegal River Delta

The find for the optimal slide of water to bring to the plot during the irrigated onion crop was important in order to limit the recharge of the water table close to the soil surface. The quantities of water supplied during onion irrigation were estimated from measurements made with a metal crest to the plot positioned at the tertiary canal. The flow rates at the tertiary canal directly irrigating the plot were recorded during irrigation. From this flow rate, the quantity of water supplied to each plot was determined. From then, the performance of the irrigated system in onion cultivation should pass on the management of this water slide at the level of the hydroagricultural facilities. The integrated soil water mass, salinity and water table dynamics monitoring system was used to assess the water requirements of onion following the irrigation. The daily water requirement of onion in the holland soil of the delta was estimated to average 0.45 g/m3. These requirements were varied according to the development stage of the crop. The water level between the ridges was between 6 and 9 mm during irrigation. This was not permanent, it infiltrated between 12 and 18 hours. This type to the stingray irrigation did not favour the arrival of the water table on the surface. The only fluctuations in the water table were observed during the bulb maturation phase. During this phase, the soil water masses were important. The electrical conductivity recorded varied during the campaign. At the beginning of irrigation, it was 3.62 mS/cm on a 30 cm profile, it decreased towards the end of the irrigations to reach 2.06 mS/cm. The quantities of salt recorded on a 30 cm profile varied from one month to the next; they were 0.468 t/ha at the beginning of irrigation (January) and 0.275 t/ha at the end of the campaign (April). From these results we can say that land degradation in the Senegal river delta would be linked to the arrival of salty groundwater on the surface. How to cite this paper: Kaly, E. , Sarr, O. , Malou, R. , Diatta, S. , Ngom, D. and Guisse, A. (2021) Management of the Water Slide Brought and Saline Flow in Irrigated Onion (Allium cepa L.) Cultivation in the Senegal River Delta. Agricultural Sciences, 12, 1255-1268. https://doi.org/10.4236/as.2021. 1211080 Received: September 14, 2021 Accepted: November 12, 2021 Published: November 15, 2021 Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Gong wong sound synthesis using digital filters and applications

Gong wong is an important instrument in Thai music orchestra bands. Its role is to be the tune keeper of the bands. Thus gong wong sound synthesis could be a key factor in a development of a computer aided Thai music composition. This article presents a gong wong sound synthesis method based on an assumption that the gong sound is a composition of exponential decay sinusoids. The gong sounds frequency components were determined through the power spectrum density (PSD) function using Welch’s periodogram method. The decay rates were measured through the reverberation times (T60) of the gong sounds using Schroeder’s backward integral. The frequencies and the decay rates found from the measurements were used to design infinite impulse response digital filters. Thefilters were designed with an aid of the z – transforms table. These filters were implemented on Chuck programminglanguage which is a real-time audio programming language. The filters were controlled by MIDI messages whichthe computer received from a MIDI keyboard. The synthesized gong satisfied the primary users, a Thai musiccomposer. Keywords: Discrete signal processing, Sound synthesis, Thai music
A kernel approach to the estimation of performance measures in a helicopter ambulance service with missing data

Abstract : We study two different operational scenarios for a regional air ambulance service-company which has bases in Northern California. Two of these bases serve the land areas encompassed roughly in a circular area of radius 100 miles centered in Gilroy and Salinas, respectively; with a large part of their coverage areas reachable from either base. The base in Salinas currently operates one helicopter only from Thursday to Monday, whereas the base in Gilroy operates one helicopter 24/7. The company is considering extending the operation of one helicopter to 24/7 for its Salinas base. In this study we analyze the operational impacts of that extension, and develop a framework that can be applied towards the study of the ambulance assignment problem faced by small operators.