Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dust Transport from Inland Australia and its Impact on Air Quality and Health on the Eastern Coast of Australia during the February 2019 Dust Storm.

Dust storms originating from Central Australia and western New South Wales frequently cause high particles concentration at many sites across New South Wales, both inland and along the coast. This study focussed on a dust storm event in February 2019 which affect air quality across the state as detected at many ambient monitoring stations in the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) air quality monitoring network. The WRF-Chem (Weather Research and Forecast Model – Chemistry) model is used to study the formation, dispersion and transport of dust across the state of New South Wales (NSW, Australia). Wildfires also happened in northern NSW at the same time of the dust storm in February 2019, and their emissions are taken into account in WRF-Chem model by using Fire Inventory from NCAR (FINN) as emission input. The model performance is evaluated and is shown to predict fairly accurate the PM2.5 and PM10 concentration as compared to observation. The predicted PM2.5 concentration over New South Wales during 5 days from 11 to 15 February 2019 is then used to estimate the impact of the February 2019 dust storm event on three health endpoints namely mortality, respiratory and cardiac diseases hospitalisation rates. The results show that even though as the daily average of PM2.5 over some parts of the state, especially in western and north western NSW near the centre of the dust storm and wild fires, are very high (over 900 µg/m3), the population exposure is low due to the sparse population. The top five Statistical Area Level 4 regions with the most impact in term of mortality, respiratory diseases hospitalisation and cardiac disease hospitalisation are Far West and Orana, Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, New England and North West, Sydney – Inner South West and either Central Coast (mortality) or Sydney – Parramatta (respiratory diseases hospitalisation) or Sydney – Inner West (cardiac diseases hospitalisation). Generally, the health impact is similar in order of magnitude to that caused by biomass burnings events from wildfires or from hazardous reduction burnings (HRBs) near populous centres such as in Sydney in May 2016. One notable difference is the higher respiratory diseases hospitalisation for this dust event (161) compared to fire event (24).
Automatic inference of protein quaternary structure from crystals

The arrangement of the subunits in an oligomeric protein often cannot be inferred without ambiguity from crystallographic studies. The annotation of the functional assembly of protein structures in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) is incomplete and frequently inconsistent. Instructions for the reconstruction, by symmetry, of the functional assembly from the deposited coordinates are often absent. An automatic procedure is proposed for the inference of assembly structures that are likely to be physiologically relevant. The method scores crystal contacts by their contact size and chemical complementarity. The subunit assembly is then inferred from these scored contacts by a clustering procedure involving a single adjustable parameter. When predicting the oligomeric state for a non-redundant set of 55 monomeric and 163 oligomeric proteins from dimers up to hexamers, a classification error rate of 16% was observed.
Trade Integration and Business Cycle Synchronization in Latin American Countries

This paper investigates the relationship between business cycle synchronization and trade integration in the Latin American region. Using data for 17 Latin American countries and the United States (US) from 1980 to 2018, we document the time-series characteristics of business cycle synchronization and intraand inter-regional trade in the region and empirically test whether trade integration contributed to business cycle synchronization. The data demonstrate that the business cycle synchronization index has been steadily increasing in the region. Regional trade integration increased until the financial crisis in 2008 and decreased slightly thereafter. The results of a system generalized method of moments (GMM) regression indicate that bilateral trade with the US significantly increased business cycle synchronization in the region, except during the 2000s, while regional trade had no significant effect. These results emphasize the importance of the indirect trade channel, especially with the US, as a main channel of business cycle synchronization in Latin America.
Theory of Contact Angles and the Free Energy of Formation of Ionizable Surfaces: Application to Heptylamine Radio-Frequency Plasma-Deposited Films

A theoretical description is presented for the macroscopic contact angle (θ) of a solid/vapor/aqueous solution interface when the solid surface is ionizable and relatively hydrophobic. The contact angle is related to the free energy of formation of the ionizable surface in aqueous solution. Therefore, the theoretical approach takes into account the electrostatic free energy of charging the surface and the change in the free energy associated with the acid-base reactions of the surface sites. It is shown that the dependence of θ on pH depends on the number ofionizable surface sites per unit area, the intrinsic acid-base dissociation constant (K a i ) of the surface sites, and the background electrolyte. The negative free energy change which accompanies the acid-base reactions dominates over the positive electrostatic free energy of charging the surface ; therefore, the overall free energy of ionization is negative, and the ionized surfaces are more wettable than the uncharged surfaces. The theoretical description is applied to experimental values of θ as a function of pH, measured on heptylamine plasma polymer surfaces in the presence of either 1 or 10 mM NaCl. The theoretical fit to the advancing and sessile contact angles indicates that the plasma polymer surface contains ca. 4±1x10 17 amines/m 2 and the pK a i of the amine groups is ca. 6. The surface site density is in accord with values obtained by derivatization techniques, and the pK a i is consistent with a low effective dielectric constant for the polymer-water interfacial microenvironment.
A Conceptual Engagement Framework for Gamified E-Learning Platform Activities

University students utilise e-learning resources to gain easy access to information and to make general enquiries. Such online environments offer alternatives to traditional learning, which is now considered expensive, and time-consuming with varying results. Student disengagement is reported as the main problem for higher education e-learning platforms, however, leading e-learning developers to employ Gamification to counteract this issue. A plethora of game elements are used in the gamification of e-learning, however, that necessitates more careful consideration of the various learning activities used in e-learning platforms. This study thus identifies several game elements suitable for inclusion in learning activities in e-learning platforms to improve student engagement, based on a literature-based analysis. This identified the most commonly used game elements, and a subsequent questionnaire survey examined real user perspectives on these elements. As a result, a conceptual engagement framework outlining how game elements might be used to support e-learning activities to engage students is proposed. The framework is intended to be used as a guideline for developers and academics seeking to build engaging e-learning systems based on good foundational concepts. The paper thus presents a short review of existing e-learning gamification frameworks and the steps taken towards the identification of commonly used game elements. Learning activities and student engagement factors usually employed in e-learning platforms are subsequently discussed in relation to the development of the proposed conceptual engagement framework for gamified e-learning activities.
BMOP: Bidirectional Universal Adversarial Learning for Binary OpCode Features

For malware detection, current state-of-the-art research concentrates on machine learning techniques. Binary n -gram OpCode features are commonly used for malicious code identification and classification with high accuracy. Binary OpCode modification is much more difficult than modification of image pixels. Traditional adversarial perturbation methods could not be applied on OpCode directly. In this paper, we propose a bidirectional universal adversarial learning method for effective binary OpCode perturbation from both benign and malicious perspectives. Benign features are those OpCodes that represent benign behaviours, while malicious features are OpCodes for malicious behaviours. From a large dataset of benign and malicious binary applications, we select the most significant benign and malicious OpCode features based on the feature SHAP value in the trained machine learning model. We implement an OpCode modification method that insert benign OpCodes into executables as garbage codes without execution and modify malicious OpCodes by equivalent replacement preserving execution semantics. The experimental results show that the benign and malicious OpCode perturbation (BMOP) method could bypass malicious code detection models based on the SVM, XGBoost, and DNN algorithms.
Materials design of layered silicates through covalent modification of interlayer surfaces

Layered silicates, whose frameworks are composed of only SiO4 tetrahedra, provide many interesting properties through covalent modification of interlayer SiOH/SiO−groups. This review summarizes covalent modifications of layered silicates, such as magadiite, kanemite, kenyaite, layered octosilicate (RUB-18 or ilerite), and layered zeolitic materials (or their precursors). Interlayer silanol groups can be modified with various silylation reagents including alkyl, amino, and thiol groups. Anion exchangeable layered hybrids are obtained by immobilization of imidazolium groups, and are exfoliated into monolayer nanosheets in water. New crystalline silicate structures are obtained by precisely designed silylation of octosilicate. Silanol groups of layered silicates are esterified with some alcohols. Condensation of silanol groups in the same layer is effective for intercalation of bulky nonionic surfactants. Topotactic conversion through interlayer condensation of silanol groups leads to the formation of 3-D zeolite structures. Expansion of the pores of zeolites is achieved by pillaring through covalent modification. These covalent modifications of layered silicates make it possible to design for practical applications.
Effects of Grape Destemming on the Polyphenolic and Volatile Content of Fino Sherry Wine during Alcoholic Fermentation

This study has been conducted to explore the influence of different degrees of destemming on the polyphenolic and volatile content of wines from the Palomino finogrape variety. Wines obtained from destemmed grape did not present reduced polyphenolic content. No relationship was observed between degrees of destemming and changes in the polyphenolic content. Destemming prior to pressing did not modify the production of volatile compounds during fermentation and wines with similar organoleptic characteristics to those without destemming were obtained.
Synthesis, Characterization of Poly (4-vinyl Pyridine/Vinyl Acetate) Organo Montmorillonite Clay Composites Prepared by Chemical Initiation and their Metallated Products

The nanocomposite of different ratios of (4-vinyl pyridine (VP) vinyl acetate (VAc) copolymers), with montmorillonite (Bent), was prepared by direct interaction of sodium montmorillonite (Bent). It was found that the interaction occurred, through ion exchange between sodium cations in Bent and pyridinium ions, in the copolymers. The structure of the prepared composite was confirmed via X-ray diffraction, thermal stability via thermogravimetric analysis and scanning electron microscope. Also, the formation of metallo composites with Cu+2, Hg+2, and Co+2 cations, and their antimicrobial activities were investigated. The results indicated that the prepared composite exhibited antibacterial activities.
Towards an investigation of a MASS-assisted anti-grounding service through simulated nautical scenarios in a ship handling simulator

Vessel groundings pose a major risk for maritime safety, constituting 20 percent of all incidents in the last decade. Frequent dredging and bottom mapping are resource intensive solutions currently employed, but these services cannot be maintained with the necessary frequency in all critical areas. While ships are carrying echo sounders to acquire precise and current under keel clearance data, it does not allow the vessel to react to possible deviations from the map data. Within the RoboVaaS project, a service is designed, implemented and tested in simulation. This service consists of one or more small MASS travelling ahead of a merchant vessel, collecting bathymetric data with enough lead time for the merchant vessel to react to possible threats, e.g. by course correction. This service is tested in compliance with the IMO HCD guideline in a quick approach and safe environment using a ship handling simulator. The simulator is augmented by a display system based on an ECDIS map and displaying the bathymetric data in three different scenarios. These scenarios are tested with nautical officers to collect feedback for service design and implementation with trained personnel and show the effectiveness of the chosen human machine interface.
Finite-time control design for course tracking of disturbed ships subject to input saturation

This work considers a finite-time command filtered course tracking problem of ships with unknown bounded disturbances, unmodelled dynamics and input saturation. By melting command filter technique into backstepping design, a finite-time control scheme is proposed, which overcomes the ‘explosion of complexity’ and ‘singularity’ problems resulted from the calculation of repeated derivatives of virtual control inputs in the conventional backstepping method. A hyperbolic tangent function is adopted to estimate saturation with a bounded estimation error in order to guarantee that the saturation function acting on the rudder angle can be differentiable, where the rudder angle is considered as a new state variable whose initial value is zero. The finite-time disturbance estimator is constructed to provide the estimation of compounded uncertain item derived from unmodelled dynamics and external disturbances. Simulation results and comprehensive comparisons are used to demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed control scheme.
Theory of activated rate processes: Exact solution of the Kramers problem

The Kramers theory for the escape rate of a Brownian particle from a potential well is extended to the full damping range. It is shown that the most adequate description of the underdamped Brownian motion in a deep potential well is provided by a Green function of the Fokker–Planck equation in the energy‐position variables. The problem of lifetime of a particle in a single potential well is reduced to an integral equation in energy variable, with the Green function being the kernel of this equation. The straightforward solution by the Wiener–Hopf method yields an explicit expression for the lifetime, which describes the crossover from the extremely underdamped regime to that of a moderate damping. With the use of Kramer’s result for moderate‐to‐large damping an expression for the lifetime is presented, which holds at arbitrary damping. The problem of the rate of transitions between the two minima of a double‐well potential is reduced to a system of two integral equations, which is also solved by the Wiener–Hopf method. An explicit expression for the relaxation time of nonequilibrium populations of the two minima is given.
An Efficient Method for Training Deep Learning Networks Distributed

SUMMARY Training deep learning (DL) is a computationally intensive process; as a result, training time can become so long that it impedes the development of DL. High performance computing clusters, especially supercomputers, are equipped with a large amount of computing resources, storage resources, and e ﬃ cient interconnection ability, which can train DL networks better and faster. In this paper, we propose a method to train DL networks distributed with high e ﬃ ciency. First, we propose a hierarchical synchronous Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) strategy, which can make full use of hardware resources and greatly increase computational ef-ﬁciency. Second, we present a two-level parameter synchronization scheme which can reduce communication overhead by transmitting parameters of the ﬁrst layer models in shared memory. Third, we optimize the parallel I / O by making each reader read data as continuously as possible to avoid the high overhead of discontinuous data reading. At last, we integrate the LARS algorithm into our system. The experimental results demonstrate that our approach has tremendous performance advantages relative to un-optimized methods. Compared with the native distributed strategy, our hierarchical synchronous SGD strategy (HSGD) can increase computing e ﬃ ciency by about 20 times.
Overtreatment in Nonmalignant Lesions Detected in a Colorectal Cancer Screening Program: A Cross-Sectional Analysis.

Joaquin Cubiella (  joaquin.cubiella.fernandez@sergas.es ) Hospital Universitario de Ourense https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9994-4831 Antía González Direccíon Xeral de Saude Pública. Conselleria de Sanidade Raquel Almazán Dirección Xeral de SAude Pública. Conselleria de Sanidade Elena Rodríguez-Camacho Direccíon Xeral de Saúde Pública. Conselleria de Sanidade Raquel Zubizarreta Dirección Xeral de Saúde Pública. Conselleria de Sanidade Isabel Peña-Rey Lorenzo MD Dirección General de Epidemiología: Direccion General de Epidemiologia
Capital Heterogeneity and the Decline of the Labour Share

We investigate the decline of the labour share in a world characterized by increasing heterogeneity of capital assets. Our results show that, over the 1970-2007 period, the decline of the labour share has been mainly driven by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) assets and is mitigated by increasing investments in R&Dbased knowledge assets. Extending to other forms of intangible capital from 1995 onwards, we find that intangible investments related to innovation increase the labour share while those related to the organisation of firms contribute to its decline, particularly for the low and intermediate skilled workers. Our results are robust to an array of econometric issues, namely heterogeneity, cross-sectional dependence, and endogeneity
Influence of rootstocks on fruit physical and chemical properties of peach cv. UFSun

Abstract The subtropical peach cultivar UFSun grafted on five different rootstocks ('Flordaguard', 'Barton', 'MP‐29', 'P‐22', and 'Okinawa') was investigated in terms of the pomological and biochemical parameters of the fruit. Significant differences in fruit weight and size, soluble solids content, titratable acidity, and firmness were found among some rootstocks. The fruit length and diameter were different between the 'MP‐29' and other rootstocks. It was also found that firmness of 'UFSun' fruit was affected by the rootstock. The highest firmness value was found when 'UFSun' was grafted on 'Flordaguard'. ' 'MP‐29' fruit had the highest soluble solids content, but there were no differences among the other rootstocks. 'UFSun' fruit from trees grafted on 'MP‐29' were smaller and had the most intense color compared to 'UFSun' fruit from other rootstocks. Rootstock had a significant influence on total fruit phenolic compounds, anthocyanin content, and total antioxidant activity, with fruit from 'UFSun' on 'MP‐29' having the highest values in all of them. A high correlation between fruit total antioxidant activity and total phenolic content was found. Overall, the results showed that 'MP‐29' seems to induce the highest fruit quality, showing higher contents of total soluble solids, total titratable acidity, total phenolic compounds, total antioxidant activity, and total anthocyanin content. Selecting the right combination of the rootstock and cultivar is important for optimizing fruit quality parameters.
Impact of Bedside Combined Cardiopulmonary Ultrasound on Etiological Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute Respiratory Failure in Critically Ill Patients

Abstract Aims and objectives To prospectively evaluate the impact of cardiopulmonary ultrasound (CPUS) on etiological diagnosis and treatment of critically ill acute respiratory failure (ARF) patients. Design This is a prospective observational study conducted in a general intensive care unit (ICU) of a tertiary care center in India. Patients over 18 years old with presence of one of the objective criteria of ARF. Patients either consecutively admitted for ARF to ICU or already admitted to ICU for a different reason but later developed ARF during their hospital stay. Written informed consent in local language was obtained from next of kin. Interventions All included patients underwent bedside CPUS including lung ultrasound (US) and transthoracic echocardiography plus targeted venous US by single investigator, blinded to clinical data. The US diagnosis of ARF etiology was shared with treating intensivist. Initial clinical diagnosis (ICD) and treatment plan (made before US) of each patient were compared with post-US clinical diagnosis and treatment plan. The changes in diagnosis and treatment up to 24 hours post-US were considered as impact of US. Results Mean age of 108 included patients was 45.7 ± 20.4 years (standard deviation). The ICD was correct in 67.5% (73/108) cases, whereas the combined CPUS yielded correct etiological diagnosis in 88% (95/108) cases. Among the 108 included patients, etiological diagnosis of ARF was altered after CPUS in 40 (37%) patients, which included “diagnosis changed” in 18 (17%) and “diagnosis added” in 22 (20%). Treatment plan was changed in 39 (36%) patients after CPUS, which included surgical interventions in 17 (16%), changes in medical therapy in 12 (11%), and changes in ventilation strategy in 4 (3.5%) patients. Conclusion This study demonstrates that use of combined US approach as an initial test in ARF, improves diagnostic accuracy for identification of underlying etiology, and frequently changes clinical diagnosis and/or treatment. How to cite this article Barman B, Parihar A, Kohli N, Agarwal A, Dwivedi DK, Kumari G. Impact of Bedside Combined Cardiopulmonary Ultrasound on Etiological Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute Respiratory Failure in Critically Ill Patients. Indian J Crit Care Med 2020;24(11):1062–1070.
To be or not to be? Material incentives and indigenous identification in Latin America

ABSTRACT Latin American governments have recently implemented race conscious policies to provide resources to stigmatized groups like indigenous people. Nevertheless, critics have questioned the legitimacy of these policies and argued that they could artificially induce indigenous identification. Such claim, however, has never been tested. We use a causal inference approach based on nationally-representative survey experiments applied door-to-door in Mexico and Peru to examine whether material incentives can indeed encourage indigenous identification. Our results are counterintuitive. Reminding respondents of potential material benefits of indigenous identification does not increase such identification. It reduces it. We theorize this negative effect may be driven by the fact that receiving social benefits is stigmatized. Our findings call into question critics’ concerns that ethnic-based redistributive policies necessarily incentivize ethnic identification. These results not only provide compelling evidence of the social construction of ethnic identities, but they also seemingly challenge purely instrumentalist models of ethnic identification.