Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 infection in human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes by targeting the Sigma-1 receptor disrupts cytoarchitecture and beating

SARS-CoV-2 infects cardiac cells and causes heart dysfunction. Conditions such as myocarditis and arrhythmia have been reported in COVID-19 patients. The Sigma-1 receptor (S1R) is a ubiquitously expressed chaperone that plays a central role in cardiomyocyte function. S1R has been proposed as a therapeutic target because it may affect SARS-CoV-2 replication; however, the impact of the inhibition of S1R in human cardiomyocytes remains to be described. In this study, we investigated the consequences of S1R inhibition in iPSC-derived human cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CM). SARS-CoV-2 infection in hiPSC-CM was productive and reduced cell survival. S1R inhibition decreased both the number of infected cells and viral particles after 48 hours. S1R inhibition also prevented the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines and cell death. Although the S1R antagonist NE-100 triggered those protective effects, it compromised cytoskeleton integrity by downregulating the expression of structural-related genes and reducing beating frequency. Our findings suggest that the detrimental effects of S1R inhibition in human cardiomyocytes’ integrity may abrogate its therapeutic potential against COVID and should be carefully considered.
Motivos para estudiar en la vejez: Estructura factorial de Educational Participation Scale (EPS A-form)

Los Programas Universitarios para Mayores (PUM) son un buen recurso para favorecer el aprendizaje permanente y, así, dar respuesta a las principales recomendaciones sociopolíticas para fomentar el envejecimiento activo. Una de las dimensiones clave para el estudio de estos programas es el tipo de razones por las que los mayores se implican en ellos, aspecto ampliamente evaluado a nivel internacional mediante la escala EPS A-form. En este trabajo se analiza la estructura factorial de la versión española de esta prueba, utilizando procedimientos estadísticos coherentes con las directrices actuales para este tipo de análisis, en una muestra de estudiantes del Aula de la Experiencia de la Universidad de XXX (España). Los resultados indican que la versión española de EPS A-form tiene la misma estructura en cuatro subescalas que la original, con índices de consistencia interna entre . 83 y . 96. Las motivaciones más destacadas fueron las de tipo cognitivo, aunque más de la mitad de los estudiantes participaban en el PUM por más de una razón. Esta escala es una herramienta eficaz de cara al estudio de las motivaciones para estudiar en la vejez, y puede ser útil tanto en la investigación como en el diseño de PUM en España.
In the Shadows of Cancer. Leisure and Subjective Wellbeing of Breast and Ovarian Cancer Patients in Honduras, Nicaragua and Portugal

In contemporary societies, a significant proportion of women will be affected by breast or ovarian cancer over the course of their lives. Dealing with illness is known to impact profoundly on the general quality of life of women, but this assessment is usually made in clinical terms, and less attention is given to the social determinants of quality of life for cancer patients, and to the implications of cancer for their subjective wellbeing. In this article, we specifically discuss the impact of being engaged in a leisure activity for the subjective wellbeing of women experiencing breast or ovarian cancer. Based on an exploratory comparative study among Honduras, Nicaragua and Portugal, we analyze the influence of leisure engagement, country of residence, treatment and social support for the subjective wellbeing of women dealing with cancer, proposing a discussion on the intersections of wellbeing, leisure and illness. The research was supported by a survey applied to 128 women diagnosed with breast and ovarian cancer. Significant relationships were found amongst subjective wellbeing, leisure engagement, country and support from patients’ associations. Results highlight the need to consider the effects of leisure among cancer patients, and the importance of institutionalized support to improve their quality of life.
Design and Realization of Fault Injection Based on CTCS-3 Simulation

Reliability of CTCS-3 train operation and control system is necessary to ensure train running safely and efficiently. Thus, train control system simulation should be used for lots of tests and validations. This paper is focus on the theory and period of fault injection systematically. According to characters of simulation of train control system and advantages of fault injection, application of fault injection in the field of train control system simulation is proposed for reliability test and to obtain system information after fault injection. Main structure and detailed functions, structures of fault injection system is designed and realized. This system could simulate system fault to cause rapid failure in train control system during the experiment. By analyzing the simulation result, the conclusion could be obtained that application of fault injection could help to improve reliability and fault tolerance of C3 simulation.
Iodine Content of Processed Foods and Condiments Sampled in China, 2017-2019

Introduction: Facing the challenge of increasing consumption of processed foods in China, along with the demand for salt reduction, and dynamic adjustment of universal salt iodization (USI) policy, it is necessary to timely evaluate the distribution of iodine content in processed foods and condiments, so as to provide more accurate data for population dietary iodine intake assessment. Methods: From markets in 6 cities and e-commerce platforms, cereal, tuber, legume, meat, fish, egg, and dairy products, and condiments, consumed by volunteers who attended in iodine intake investigation, and top selling products in particular with well-noted brands were preferentially sampled during 2017 to 2019. After being mixed and homogenized, each sample was detected by ICP-MS method. The range and medium of iodine content in each type of product were given. Results: After merging samples with close value in the same style of the same brand, and screening out samples with no added salt or low sodium content (≤120 mg/100g), total 725 data were sub- grouped and analyzed. In comparison with the 95 th percentile of the iodine distribution in relative nature source, assessed by our previous study, nearly 77% of products made from grains, potatoes, beans, nuts, livestock and poultry paste, etc., were not added iodized salt, with overall median iodine 4.0 mg/100g and 12 mg/100g respectively. Conclusion: Using iodized salt in processed foods is an approach of USI police. Affected by the nature backgrounds of ingredients composed, the amount of salt used, and the regulated fortification level, iodine content in each kind of product varied largely. It’s important to establish a monitoring system in processed foods, as well as fortification salt, to control the benefit and risk of iodine health.
Integrative Sensitivity Analysis Applied to Semi-Integral Concrete Bridges

In numerical simulations of engineering structures, several physical phenomena are represented by partial models, and the selection of the important partial models is usually based on engineering judgment. The quantitative assessment of how these partial models influence various response quantities is possible using variance-based sensitivity analysis. However, this provides information only on local positions in the structure. The present paper extends the sensitivity analysis at local positions to the integrative sensitivity analysis of the entire structural load-bearing behavior. In addition to the assessment of the partial model’s sensitivity, the method includes the local response significance factor, which relates the sensitivity to the response significance at each position in the structure. The integrative sensitivity analysis is applied to the numerical simulation of semi-integral concrete bridges to evaluate the partial model’s influence with respect to the entire integral structure. The quantitative assessment of the integrative sensitivity for varying pier heights and different loading conditions in the serviceability limit state and the ultimate limit state allows conclusions with practical engineering relevance.
Evaluation of Nutrients in Leaves and Seeds of Calotropis Procera (linn)

Calotropis procera has been widely explored in ethnomedicine to cure several ailments such as leprosy, fever, elephantiasis, menorrhagia, and snakebite. It is also used as a purgative, anthelmintic, anticoagulant, anticancer, antipyretic, analgesic, and carminative. In addition to its traditional use as coagulants, the leaves and seeds of Calotropis procera could be used in food fortifications to combat nutrient deficiencies as reflected in its bioactive components. The increase in its use might be associated with the level of many bioactive components, which provide nutritional and health benefits. Thus, the leaves and seeds were analyzed for their bioactive components and characterized for nutrient values using the procedures of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists. The chemical analyses results showed that the leaf and the seed contained (g/100 g dry weight) moisture (8.11g, 9.53g), crude protein (26.69g, 14.48g), crude fiber (7.54, 15.73), crude fat (21.70, 6.29), ash (5.32, 3.69) and carbohydrate (30.64, 50.29), respectively. The leaves and seeds contained zinc (1.20, 0.60 mg/100 g), potassium (33.60, 30.30 mg/100 g) and iron (36.90, 12.90 mg/100g), respectively. The fatty acids profile revealed that the leaves and the seed oils contained a low level of saturated palmitic acid (3.01, 7.70 g/100g) and a high level of monounsaturated oleic acid (10.31, 27.90 g/100g) and polyunsaturated acids (11.63, 18.53 g/100g), respectively. It is established that the chemical compounds in the Calotropis procera seeds and leaves could be beneficial for therapeutic and dietary purposes. Thus, it can be accepted that the Calotropis procera plant may be used as medicine and food fortificants.
Performance Analysis of External Shading Devices

Protection of the building from unwanted solar gain is a key cooling strategy which is most readily achieved by blocking the sun's rays before they reach the building. The aim of this work is to investigate the impact of external solar shading devices on the reduction of solar gains. Within the Energy Department of Politecnico di Torino, an informatic tool named Ombre (Shadow) was developed, overcoming many limits of the existing software. In this paper, first results are presented concerning a parametric study carried out using Ombre in order to evaluate the influence of the geometry of the window-shading device system on the final performance of the system itself. The simulation was carried out for the latitude of Torino (45°N), using the results to create an easy to use manual for designing external shading devices.
Low distortion speech enhancement

An innovative approach to speech enhancement is illustrated which minimises distortion to the underlying speech during the noise-reduction process. The key to this approach lies in the identification of whether the additive noise for a particular frequency component is constructive or destructive. Once this can be identified, both multiplicative and subtractive filters can be derived using the minimum mean-square error criterion. The optimal combination of the proposed multiplicative and subtractive filter is also shown.
Design and Simulation of a Magnetic Shape Memory (MSM) Alloy Energy Harvester

We present the simulation and development of a vibration energy harvester based on an active element made of Ni-Mn-Ga Magnetic Shape Memory (MSM) alloy. As the MSM element is subjected to mechanical stress within an external magnetic field, its magnetization changes in proportion to its length, facilitating energy generation in a pick-up coil. Whereas conventional piezo and magnetostrictive devices operate with small (sub-millimeter) stroke at high frequencies (kHz range), the MSM harvester is best suited to longer (millimeter range) stroke at a low frequency (100 Hz or below). Power output of 20 mW has been demonstrated with the prototype device operating at 45 Hz.
HiSIM: The first complete drift-diffusion MOSFET model for circuit simulation

Today's drift-approximation-based MOSFET models for circuit simulation face increasing difficulties to deliver numerical efficacy and accurate description of new physical phenomena arising as technology approaches the 100nm node. A break-through to a new model-generation, preferably based on the drift-diffusion approximation and a surface-potential description, will be necessary to ensure design reliability. HiSIM (H_i_roshima University S_TARC I_GFET M_odel) is the first of these new-generation MOSFET models.
Ex Vivo Assessment of Natural Teeth Wear against Zirconia and Novel Glass-Fiber-Reinforced Composite Crowns in Primary Teeth by a Three-Dimensional Assessment Method

Objectives The main purpose of the study was to assess the material wear, antagonistic natural primary teeth wear, and microhardness of zirconia (ZR), a recently launched novel glass-fiber-reinforced composite crown (GFRC). The research question was, are these aesthetic crowns resulting in antagonistic natural primary tooth wear and the crown material itself? Methods Forty-five primary canines were divided into three groups (15 per group) and mounted against Zr (Group A), GFRC (Group B), and natural teeth as control (Group C) in the wear test machine. All samples were assessed for surface wear with pre- and post-3-dimensional scanning. In addition, microhardness was assessed for all three groups. Results The mean microhardness value for the Zr disc was 1157 ± 7 HV; for the GFRC disc, it was 29.35 ± 2 HV; while with natural teeth, it was 105 ± 4 HV. There was a statistically significant difference in teeth wear in the prescan and postscan in the natural tooth (p < 0.05) group, highly significant difference (p < 0.001) in the ZR group, and no significant difference in the GFRC group. Conclusion There is more significant wear loss of glass-fiber-reinforced composite discs as compared to zirconia. In addition, the wear of the antagonistic tooth with zirconia and natural teeth is more remarkable than with GFRC. There is a vast difference of microhardness between natural teeth and zirconia (almost 10 times higher) which suggests further scope of study. Clinical Relevance. Pediatric dentistry deals with the transition of dentition from primary to permanent through mixed dentition. Selection of restorative material needs to be done cautiously when we are dealing with primary teeth and young permanent teeth as antagonistic teeth. Wear of the crown material itself and opposing natural teeth are essential factors that should be considered in selecting crowns in clinical practice. The present study results can be extrapolated to clinical practice, and the practitioner can consider various factors in selecting full-coverage crowns for primary teeth. The vast difference in aesthetic crowns and natural teeth microhardness indicates a further need for research. Additionally, there is no literature published for the recently launched GFRCs.
A new unified construction of perfect root-of-unity sequences

Perfect root-of-unity sequences (PRUS) have found applications in numerous spread spectrum systems such as pulse compression radars, DS/SSMA, FH/SSMA, etc. A unified PRUS construction, which includes all known constructions as special cases, was previously devised by this author. In this paper, a class of root-of-unity sequence sets with certain interesting correlation properties is identified as a very important source of PRUS. By deriving a general construction of such sequence sets, a new, even more general unified PRUS construction is obtained. In addition, a new lower bound on the total number of PRUS with given alphabet size and sequence length is derived by determining the exact number of PRUS obtainable from the construction. The bound is tight for all cases, in which the exact values are known. Furthermore, it is proved that there is no new PRUS obtainable through the application of various perfectness-invariant transformations and the direct product construction. This gives strong evidences to support the conjecture that the new unified construction in fact describes all PRUS that exist.
A New Generalization of the Student's t Distribution with an Application in Quantile Regression

In this work, we present a new generalization of the student’s t distribution. The new distribution is obtained by the quotient of two independent random variables. This quotient consists of a standard Normal distribution divided by the power of a chi square distribution divided by its degrees of freedom. Thus, the new symmetric distribution has heavier tails than the student’s t distribution and extensions of the slash distribution. We develop a procedure to use quantile regression where the response variable or the residuals have high kurtosis. We give the density function expressed by an integral, we obtain some important properties and some useful procedures for making inference, such as moment and maximum likelihood estimators. By way of illustration, we carry out two applications using real data, in the first we provide maximum likelihood estimates for the parameters of the generalized student’s t distribution, student’s t, the extended slash distribution, the modified slash distribution, the slash distribution generalized student’s t test, and the double slash distribution, in the second we perform quantile regression to fit a model where the response variable presents a high kurtosis.
Closed form solutions for the pull-in voltage of micro curled beams subjected to electrostatic loads

This paper derives three analytical models, namely the full-order, the fourth-order and the third-order models, and the corresponding closed form solutions for the pull-in voltages of micro curled beams subjected to electrostatic loads. The analytical models are derived based on the Euler–Bernoulli beam theory and Taylor's series expansion and are then solved by the energy method. The accuracy of the present models is verified through comparing with former analytical models and the experimentally measured data conducted in former works. It is verified that the present closed form solutions are more accurate than past works. This paper also compares three commonly used assumed deflection shape functions and shows that the natural mode of the beam is the best choice in predicting the pull-in voltage. The present closed form solutions for the pull-in voltage are very convenient and accurate enough for implementation in device design.
The Mundane Computer: Non-Technical Design Challenges Facing Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence

Interdisciplinary collaboration, to include those who are not natural scientists, engineers and computer scientists, is inherent in the idea of ubiquitous computing, as formulated by Mark Weiser in the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, ubiquitous computing has remained largely a computer science and engineering concept, and its non-technical side remains relatively underdeveloped. The aim of the article is, first, to clarify the kind of interdisciplinary collaboration envisaged by Weiser. Second, the difficulties of understanding the everyday and weaving ubiquitous technologies into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it, as conceived by Weiser, are explored. The contributions of Anne Galloway, Paul Dourish and Philip Agre to creating an understanding of everyday life relevant to the development of ubiquitous computing are discussed, focusing on the notions of performative practice, embodied interaction and contextualisation. Third, it is argued that with the shift to the notion of ambient intelligence, the larger scale socio-economic and socio-political dimensions of context become more explicit, in contrast to the focus on the smaller scale anthropological study of social (mainly workplace) practices inherent in the concept of ubiquitous computing. This can be seen in the adoption of the concept of ambient intelligence within the European Union and in the focus on rebalancing (personal) privacy protection and (state) security in the wake of 11 September 2001. Fourth, the importance of adopting a futures-oriented approach to discussing the issues arising from the notions of ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence is stressed, while the difficulty of trying to achieve societal foresight is acknowledged.
Characterization of charge trapping and high-field endurance for 15-nm thermally nitrided oxides

Device-quality gate oxides have been nitrided using both rapid thermal processing and conventional furnace treatment. Charge trapping and high-field endurance including breakdown field and time-dependent dielectric breakdown, are investigated in detail. It is found that proper nitridation can eliminate positive charge accumulation in oxides, increase charge to breakdown, suppress high-field injection-induced interface state generation, and decrease the dependence of the breakdown field on the gate area as a result of the reduced density of microdefects. Experimental results show that although both the density and capture cross-section of the bulk and interface traps increased by nitridation, the combined effects of bulk and interface traps induced by high-field injection can improve the stability of the flatband voltage. For lightly nitrided oxides, the trap generation rate is greatly decreased as compared with the as-grown oxide. Not only are the density and capture cross-section of the traps affected by nitridation, but also the locations of the trapped-charge centroids are changed. The experimental results for postnitridation annealing suggest that these property modifications most likely result from nitridation-induced structural changes rather than hydrogenation alone. >
Design support based on projection of information across the product-development life cycle by means of case-based reasoning

Information that originates during the late stages of the product development life cycle can provide important advice in subsequent designs regarding potential 'good' and 'poor' outcomes during product development and manufacturing activities. It is possible to provide information system solutions that project such information into the product design phase. Case-based reasoning (CBR) is a method that has been found to provide design support during the product prototyping stages. CBR methods are based on the ability to characterise cases so that a degree of similarity can be found between the problem case and the potential advice cases. Similar cases can then be used to influence the problem case thus drawing on experience. The CBR system reported is used to support the design of a product with a high probability of being fit for its purpose. The reasoning is therefore based on the customer requirement specification as well as design data and historically observed functional characteristics of standard assemblies, parts and form features. The system was tested and evaluated in an automotive manufacturing enterprise with positive results.