Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of flagellar beating pattern on sperm rheotaxis and boundary-dependent navigation

The study of navigational mechanisms used by mammalian sperm inside a microenvironment yields better understanding of sperm locomotion during the insemination process, which aids in the design of tools for overcoming infertility. Near- and far-field hydrodynamic interactions with nearby boundaries and rheotaxis are known to be some of the steering strategies that keep sperm on the correct path toward the egg. However, it is not known how the beating patterns of sperm may influence these navigational strategies. In this study, we investigate the effect of flagellar beating pattern on navigation of sperm cells both theoretically and experimentally using a two-step approach. We first isolate bovine sperm based on their rheotactic behavior in a zone with quiescent medium using a microfluidic system. This step ensures that the swimmers are able to navigate upstream and have motilities higher than a selected value, even though they feature various flagellar beating patterns. We then explore the flagellar beating pattern of these isolated sperm and their subsequent influence on boundary-dependent navigation. Our findings indicate that rheotaxis enables sperm to navigate upstream even in the presence of circular motion in their motility, whereas boundary-dependent navigation is more sensitive to the circular motion and selects for progressive motility. This finding may explain the clinical importance of progressive motility in semen samples for fertility, as the flow of mucus may not be sufficiently strong to orient the sperm cells throughout the process of insemination. Significance Finding the egg and moving toward it while traversing the complex structure of the female reproductive tract is necessary for mammalian sperm. Previous studies have shown how sperm use navigational steering mechanisms that are based on swimming upstream (i.e. rheotaxis) and along the boundaries of the female reproductive tract. We demonstrate that the performance of theses navigational mechanisms is associated with the primary characteristics of sperm motility. In fact, sperm rheotaxis is more sensitive to the motility and thus average velocity of sperm while navigation via rigid boundaries is more sensitive to the flagellar beating pattern and selects for symmetric beating. Our results can be expanded to other autonomous microswimmers and their subsequent navigation mechanisms.
A Wide Conversion Ratio Bidirectional Modified SEPIC Converter With Nondissipative Current Snubber

A new wide conversion ratio bidirectional dc–dc converter based on the modified Single-ended primary-inductor converter (SEPIC) converter is presented in this article. A nondissipative current snubber is included in the proposed converter allowing the operation with zero current switching, obtaining reduced switching losses and high efficiency even using conventional MOSFETs. The converter presents intrinsic extended step-up and step-down voltage conversion ratios without extreme low or high duty-cycle and reduced voltage stress in all semiconductors. The theoretical analysis with the operation stages in the step-up and step-down modes, theoretical waveforms, and design procedure are presented and also a comparison with other bidirectional converter topologies. The experimental results are presented to verify the performance of the proposed converter with a 500-W prototype operating with <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$V_{1}= 48$ </tex-math></inline-formula> V and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$V_{2}= 300$ </tex-math></inline-formula> V and efficiency higher than 95% in both operation modes.
Identification of ${S}_{\text{1}}$ and ${S}_{\text{2}}$ Heart Sounds Using Spectral and Convex Hull Features

A new set of morphological characteristics of Phonocardiogram (PCG) signal is presented for recognition of first (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${S}_{{1}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) and second (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${S}_{{2}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) heart sounds (HSs). Initially, variational mode decomposition on PCG signal generates a set of amplitude and frequency modulated narrow band-limited components (NBCs) and Hilbert transformation of these NBCs comprehends its complex plane analytic signal representation (ASR). Instantaneous spectral attributes encompassing amplitude modulation bandwidths and convex hull area measure from the ASRs are concatenated to form the feature set. Experimental results on both publicly available and experimentally recorded HSs signals outperform the existing state-of-the-art. Also, the proposed technique does not require any timing information between <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${S}_{{1}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${S}_{{2}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and electrocardiogram (ECG) signal reference and is highly robust to noisy real-world PCGs as shown by noise analysis.
Digital conservation in biosphere reserves: Earth observations, social media, and nature's cultural contributions to people

In the “digital conservation” age, big data from Earth observations and from social media have been increasingly used to tackle conservation challenges. Here, we combined information from those two digital sources in a multimodel inference framework to identify, map, and predict the potential for nature's cultural contributions to people in two contrasting UNESCO biosphere reserves: Doñana and Sierra Nevada (Spain). The content analysis of Flickr pictures revealed different cultural contributions, according to the natural and cultural values of the two reserves. Those contributions relied upon landscape variables computed from Earth observation data: the variety of colors and vegetation functioning that characterize Doñana landscapes, and the leisure facilities, accessibility features, and heterogeneous landscapes that shape Sierra Nevada. Our findings suggest that social media and Earth observations can aid in the cost‐efficient monitoring of nature's contributions to people, which underlie many Sustainable Development Goals and conservation targets in protected areas worldwide.
Self-esteem, organizational citizenship behavior and commitment among university students

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between self-esteem (SE), university commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) within a higher education setup. Design/methodology/approach A convenience sample of 354 students in a three-year higher national diploma awarding technical university in Ghana participated in the study via the completion of self-administered questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and partial least square-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) were used to analyze data. Findings Path results using a PLS-SEM analysis showed a positive and significant association between SE and OCBs and university commitment among the students. Furthermore, OCBs were found to partially mediate the relationship between SE and university commitment. Practical implications The findings of the study provide important implication for management of higher education institutions. Management of higher education institutions must orient academic and non-academic staff to adopt communication strategies that help to improve students’ self-worth and assertiveness. All students should be encouraged to participate in extra-curricular activities in order to build students’ beliefs about themselves and self-confidence. Originality/value This paper is one of the first to have tested a model including SE, university commitment and OCBs in a technical university setup from a developing country perspective.
Towards a Rigorous Software Architecture Documentation Process: A Demonstration with the Real-time Immersive Network Simulation Environment (RINSE)

Despite numerous empirical studies and wide-spread, practical experience demonstrating the importance of rigorous documentation in software engineering, many developers continue to treat it as an “after thought. ” Documentation, particularly of software architecture, should be an integral process of any development group, whether entrepreneurial, academic, or corporate. In this article the authors develop and apply the software engineering principles of Len Bass, Paul Clements, and Rick Kazman for software architecture documentation. The case study involves a relatively large-scale, academic development project aimed at supporting large-scale network security preparedness and training exercises, involving hundreds of players and a modeled network composed of hundreds of networks.
Women’s Developmental Networks and Career Satisfaction: Developmental Functions as a Mediator

The current research empirically examined the developmental networks of female workers and how the network configurations influence their subjective career success, with particular attention to the gender and status composition of the network along with other network characteristics. Data from 427 female workers with a college degree or higher in the Republic of Korea were analyzed using egocentric network analysis and structural equation modeling methods. The findings suggested that (a) the network characteristics of intimacy and network size showed a direct positive effect on career satisfaction, while contact frequency and network range showed a direct negative effect; (b) intimacy, network size, and developers’ status indirectly affected career satisfaction mediated by the function of role modeling, while career support and psychosocial support played no mediating role between network characteristics and career satisfaction; and (c) women benefited from relationships with higher status developers, regardless of their gender, mainly through enhanced role modeling. Based on these, practical implications and recommendations for future research were presented.
Add-On Type Pulse Charger for Quick Charging Li-Ion Batteries

In this paper, an add-on type pulse charger is proposed to shorten the charging time of a lithium ion battery. To evaluate the performance of the proposed pulse charge method, an add-on type pulse charger prototype is designed and implemented. Pulse charging is applied to 18650 cylindrical lithium ion battery packs with 10 series and 2 parallel structures. The proposed pulse charger is controlled by pulse duty, frequency and magnitude. Various experimental conditions are applied to optimize the charging parameters of the pulse charging technique. Battery charging data are analyzed according to the current magnitude and duty at 500 Hz and 1000 Hz and 2000 Hz frequency conditions. The proposed system is similar to the charging speed of the constant current method under new battery conditions. However, it was confirmed that as the battery performance is degraded, the charging speed due to pulse charging increases. Thus, in applications where battery charging/discharging occurs frequently, the proposed pulse charger has the advantage of fast charging in the long run over conventional constant current (CC) chargers.
Workaholism and well-being: Psychological capital as a potential moderator

The aim of the current study is to examine the relationships among workaholism, psychological capital (PsyCap), and well-being. Workaholism is a condition which affects approximately 10% of the U.S. population (Sussman, Lisha, & Griffiths, 2011). Research has found it to be linked to many adverse outcomes, including physical symptoms such as poor overall health (Taris, Schaufeli, & Verhoeven, 2005), as well as psychological symptoms such as work-stress, worklife conflict, and burnout (Clark, Michel, Zhandova, Pui, & Baltes, 2016). In the current research, we are interested in identifying a construct that might ameliorate the negative influence of workaholism on one’s well-being. Research regarding the outcomes of employee wellness programs are mostly inconclusive (Semmer, 2011), alluding to a lack of research on constructs that truly impact employees and their quality of work life. If significant results are found in the current study, this research could better inform organizations on ways to reduce work stress and combat negative effects on physical and psychological well-being resulting from workaholism. Thus, we seek to examine the potentially moderating influence of PsyCap on the relationship between workaholism and well-being. Similar to previous studies, we expect workaholism will be negatively related to physical health (H1a), workaholism will be negatively related to psychological well-being (H1b), and workaholism will be positively related to work stress (H1c). Furthermore, we hypothesize PsyCap will be positively related to physical health (H2a), PsyCap will be positively related to psychological well-being (H2b), and PsyCap will be negatively related to work stress (H2c). Finally, as a cognitive tool, it is hypothesized PsyCap will moderate the relationship between workaholism and physical health such that the higher the level of PsyCap, the weaker the relationship between workaholism and physical health (H3a), PsyCap will moderate the relationship between workaholism and psychological well-being, such that the higher the level of PsyCap, the weaker the relationship between workaholism and psychological well-being (H3b), and PsyCap will moderate the relationship between workaholism and work stress such that the higher the level of PsyCap, the weaker the relationship between workaholism and work stress (H3c). Participants will include full-time faculty and staff members of a large Southeastern university, recruited via an online email distribution service. The hypotheses will be tested using a multiple regression analysis. The interaction effect of workaholism and PsyCap will be assessed. Lastly, a PROCESS Hayes (2014) analysis will be used to examine the potential moderating effect of PsyCap.
Ontology‐lexicon–based question answering over linked data

Recently, Linked Open Data has become a large set of knowledge bases. Therefore, the need to query Linked Data using question answering (QA) techniques has attracted the attention of many researchers. A QA system translates natural language questions into structured queries, such as SPARQL queries, to be executed over Linked Data. The two main challenges in such systems are lexical and semantic gaps. A lexical gap refers to the difference between the vocabularies used in an input question and those used in the knowledge base. A semantic gap refers to the difference between expressed information needs and the representation of the knowledge base. In this paper, we present a novel method using an ontology lexicon and dependency parse trees to overcome lexical and semantic gaps. The proposed technique is evaluated on the QALD‐5 benchmark and exhibits promising results.
Seeking Balance: How the Practice of Spiritual Disciplines Impacts the Health of Residence Hall Directors

Residence hall directors often fulfill an instrumental role in a student’s college experience. As residence hall directors facilitate programs and intentionally interact with students, a unique connection is formed between the student and his or her residence hall director. Residence hall directors experience unique work-related stress through flexible workhours each day of the week. Thus, it is crucial for residence hall directors to establish healthy rhythms of rest and rejuvenation as they integrate living where they work. Research suggests spirituality as an effective stress management tool. This study specifically focuses on how various spiritual disciplines of Christianity impact stress experienced as a residence hall director.
Design and experiments of X-type artificial control targets for a UAV-LiDAR system

ABSTRACT Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Light Detecting and Ranging (UAV-LiDAR) systems can potentially generate high precision Digital Terrain Models (DTM), especially for railway surveys. However, traditional feature points do not exist in LiDAR systems due to discrete sampling. Artificial control targets (ACTs) can be used as ground control points (GCPs) in a LiDAR system. In this paper, we present a new type of ACT suitable for a UAV-LiDAR system. The design of X-type ACTs and railway survey experiments with a multi-rotor UAV-LiDAR system are illustrated. Six ACTs are settled in the study area. The root mean square errors (RMSE) in the x, y direction are 0.15 m and 0.13 m, respectively, from collected multi-rotor UAV-LiDAR data. Planimetric errors in the LiDAR data were corrected with the six ACTs. With 22 horizontal and 32 elevation checkpoints, the accuracy estimation results demonstrate that RMSE values in the x, y, z directions are 0.06 m, 0.07 m and 0.030 m, respectively. The design of X-type ACTs, accuracy estimations and improvements for railway surveys with the multi-rotor UAV-LiDAR system presented in this paper will provide a reference for 3D measurements along other railways.
Soil Microbial Biomass and Community Composition Relates to Poplar Genotypes and Environmental Conditions

Poplars, known for their diversity, are trees that can develop symbiotic relationships with several groups of microorganisms. The genetic diversity of poplars and different abiotic factors influence the properties of the soil and may shape microbial communities. Our study aimed to analyse the impact of poplar genotype on the biomass and community composition of the microbiome of four poplar genotypes grown under different soil conditions and soil depths. Of the three study sites, established in the mid-1990s, one was near a copper smelter, whereas the two others were situated in unpolluted regions, but were differentiated according to the physicochemical traits of the soil. The whole-cell fatty acid analysis was used to determine the biomass and proportions of gram-positive, gram-negative and actinobacteria, arbuscular fungi (AMF), other soil fungi, and protozoa in the whole microbial community in the soil. The results showed that the biomass of microorganisms and their contributions to the community of organisms in the soil close to poplar roots were determined by both factors: the tree-host genotype and the soil environment. However, each group of microorganisms was influenced by these factors to a different degree. In general, the site effect played the main role in shaping the microbial biomass (excluding actinobacteria), whereas tree genotype determined the proportions of the fungal and bacterial groups in the microbial communities and the proportion of AMF in the fungal community. Bacterial biomass was influenced more by site factors, whereas fungal biomass more by tree genotype. With increasing soil depth, a decrease in the biomass of all microorganisms was observed; however, the proportions of the different microorganisms within the soil profile were the result of interactions between the host genotype and soil conditions. Despite the predominant impact of soil conditions, our results showed the important role of poplar genotype in shaping microorganism communities in the soil.
POSSUM and P-POSSUM: Predictors of Morbidity and Mortality in Laparoscopic Roux-En-Y Gastric Bypass?

Background: Evidence to support the use of Physiological and Operative Severity Score for the enumeration of Mortality and morbidity (POSSUM) and Portsmouth-POSSUM (P-POSSUM) to predict outcomes in bariatric surgery is sparse. Objectives: The aim of this study is prospectively evaluate their usefulness in laparoscopic gastric bypass. Setting: University Hospital Methods: All patients undergoing primary laparoscopic gastric bypass between November/14 and September/15 in our institution were included. POSSUM and P-POSSUM scores were applied preoperatively. The observed to expect ratios for morbidity and mortality at 30 days after surgery were calculated. Chi-square and binomial tests were used to compare observed and expected outcomes. A p-value <0.05 was considered significant. Results: Ninety-four patients (76 female) were included, mean age of 45.5years, 66 patients were ASA 2. Mean BMI was 43.9Kg/m2. Estimated morbidity by POSSUM score was 24.1%. Estimated mortality was 4.4% by POSSUM, 1.0% by P-POSSUM. Observed morbidity was 23.4%. No patient died. Both scores resulted in over predicted outcomes. In contrast to P-POSSUM, POSSUM expected outcomes were statistically different from the ones observed. Conclusion: POSSUM was not a good predictor of morbidity and mortality in the sample. The use of these scores in bariatric surgery has to be careful. These results should be assessed further in larger, multicenter, studies.
Hybrid Myocardial Revascularization or Multivessel Minimally Invasive Direct Coronary Artery Bypass: Two Case Reports

Since the first introduction of direct grafting of the Left Anterior Descending artery (LAD) by Kolessov in 1967, the tendency in myocardial revascularization has been towards less invasive techniques. New developments are increasingly making it possible to extend the indication for Robotically Assisted Minimally Invasive Direct Coronary Artery Bypass (RAMIDCAB) surgery to patients with triple vessel disease. Here, we present two cases in which complete revascularization was successfully achieved. The first patient underwent a hybrid procedure involving RA-MIDCAB followed by Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI); the other patient received RA-MIDCAB in which bilateral internal mammary arteries were used as a conduit for grafting. The implications, limitations and challenges of these interventional strategies are discussed. Furthermore, it is suggested that minimally invasive strategies might have important benefits especially for high-risk patients, and that these strategies should be included in decisionmaking by the Heart Team if available.