Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Disproportionate Impact of COVID-19 among Undocumented Immigrants and Racial Minorities in the US

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus responsible for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has had an unprecedented effect, especially among under-resourced minority communities. Surveillance of those at high risk is critical for preventing and controlling the pandemic. We must better understand the relationships between COVID-19-related cases or deaths and characteristics in our most vulnerable population that put them at risk to target COVID-19 prevention and management efforts. Population characteristics strongly related to United States (US) county-level data on COVID-19 cases and deaths during all stages of the pandemic were identified from the onset of the epidemic and included county-level socio-demographic and comorbidities data, as well as daily meteorological modeled observation data from the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR), and the NARR high spatial resolution model to assess the environment. Advanced machine learning (ML) approaches were used to identify outbreaks (geographic clusters of COVID-19) and included spatiotemporal risk factors and COVID-19 vaccination efforts, especially among vulnerable and underserved communities. COVID-19 outcomes were found to be negatively associated with the number of people vaccinated and positively associated with age, the prevalence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and the minority population. There was also a strong positive correlation between unauthorized immigrants and the prevalence of COVID-19 cases and deaths. Meteorological variables were also investigated, but correlations with COVID-19 were relatively weak. Our findings suggest that COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact across the US population among vulnerable and minority communities. Findings also emphasize the importance of vaccinations and tailored public health initiatives (e.g., mask mandates, vaccination) to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and the number of COVID-19 related deaths across all populations.
Development of a Quality-of-Life Survey for Patients With Succinic Semialdehyde Dehydrogenase Deficiency, a Rare Disorder of GABA Metabolism

Succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase deficiency (SSADHD), a rare disorder of GABA metabolism, presents with significant neurodevelopmental morbidity. Although there is a growing interest in the concept of quality of life through patient reports as a meaningful outcome in rare disease clinical trials, little is known about the overall impact of SSADHD from the patient/family perspective. The purpose of this study was to determine issues related to quality of life and patient/family experience through a focus group discussion with family caregivers of patients with SSADHD. The discussion included the input of 5 family caregivers, and highlighted concerns related to physical function, cognitive and intellectual function, psychological and behavioral function, social function, and family impact. These themes represent appropriate starting points in the development of a quality-of-life survey that may serve as a meaningful clinical tool in future studies of SSADHD.
Chiefs, land professionals and hybrid planning in Tamale and Techiman, Ghana: Implications for sustainable urban development

ABSTRACT A dual land administration system in Ghana necessitates the adoption of hybrid and locally adaptive planning practices. However, whilst the scholarly discourse on hybrid planning is burgeoning, its implications for sustainable urban development are limited. Using qualitative case studies of data collected from interviews and focus group discussions with key stakeholders in Tamale and Techiman, this paper highlights the implications of hybrid planning for sustainable urban development. Although in tune with current proposals for collaborative land use planning, hybrid planning practices in peri-urban areas are dominated by land-owning chiefs who finance land use planning activities, leading to a negotiated planning and land delivery system. This engenders urban sustainability challenges, including tenure insecurities, land speculation and urban sprawl and hinders the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goal 11. Thus, urban planners must re-examine current planning practices and leverage the New Urban Agenda to explore innovative ways of ensuring sustainable urban expansion.
Porous NiCoP nanosheets as efficient and stable positive electrodes for advanced asymmetric supercapacitors

Materials with good capacitance performance at high loading are desirable for application in supercapacitors at the device level. Here, we have reported the synthesis of sheet-like porous NiCoP (S-NiCoP) by controllable phosphorization of a 2-D NiCo hydroxide precursor. In the synthesis, the NiCo hydroxide sheets were firstly prepared through a solvothermal process in large quantity. Under the phosphorization, the PH3 released by NaH2PO2 could react with NiCo in the precursor to form NiCoP. The release of gas by the decomposition of hydroxide could lead to the formation of pores, thus forming 2-D porous NiCoP with a high specific surface area (216.39 m2 g−1). S-NiCoP has combined the advantages of porous nanosheets (faster ion transport along the pores) and metal phosphides (TMPs) (good conductivity), and thus is promising for application in supercapacitors. S-NiCoP-300 has shown high capacitance (1206 F g−1 at 1 A g−1) and good rate performance (612 F g−1 at 20 A g−1), much superior to those of the corresponding NiCo hydroxide (566 F g−1), NiP-300 (436 F g−1) and CoP-300 (404 F g−1). Notably, the electrode still exhibits a high capacitance of 1095 F g−1 at a high loading of 13.5 mg cm−2, ascribed to the ability of easily transferring electrolyte along the pores. In this case, the area capacitance can reach a high value of 14.78 F cm−2. An asymmetric supercapacitor composed of activated carbon and S-NiCoP could achieve a high specific capacitance, good cycling stability and high energy density. A white LED (3 V) can be lit for more than 2 h by charging two S-NiCoP-2-300//AC ASC devices for about 170 s. The easy synthesis process and good performance makes 2-D NiCoP promising in portable energy systems.
A Parametric Tool for Studying a New Tracheobronchial Silicone Stent Prototype: Toward a Customized 3D Printable Prosthesis

The management of complex airway disorders is challenging, as the airway stent placement usually results in several complications. Tissue reaction to the foreign body, poor mechanical properties and inadequate fit of the stent in the airway are some of the reported problems. For this reason, the design of customized biomedical devices to improve the accuracy of the clinical results has recently gained interest. The aim of the present study is to introduce a parametric tool for the design of a new tracheo-bronchial stent that could be capable of improving some of the performances of the commercial devices. The proposed methodology is based on the computer aided design software and on the finite element modeling. The computational results are validated by a parallel experimental work that includes the production of selected stent configurations using the 3D printing technology and their compressive test.
First-Principles Study on the Single Ir Atom Embedded Graphdiyne: An Efficient Catalyst for CO Oxidation

Single-atom catalysts have attracted wide attention due to the maximum usage of single atom and the great potential to achieve high activity and selectivity. The oxidation of CO molecules on the single Ir atom embedded graphdiyne (Ir-GDY) has been investigated by using the first-principles calculations. A variety of reaction mechanisms are taken into account and a new pathway is found to catalyze CO oxidation more efficiently on Ir-GDY. A comparison of the reaction energy barrier shows that the CO oxidation likely occurs in the new Eley–Rideal (NER) mechanism rather than the traditional mechanism. In the NER mechanism, the adsorbed O2 molecule is activated by two physisorbed CO molecules thereby formed two CO2 synchronously with the energy barrier of 0.37 eV, as the rate-limiting step. In this reaction, the electrons are transferred from the substrate to the O2 and the CO, which promotes the decomposition of O2. After the C–C bond cleavage, the OOCCOO intermediate dissociates to form two CO2 molecules, in.
Role of graphene quantum dots synthesized through pyrolysis in the release behavior of temperature responsive poly (N,N-diethyl acrylamide) hydrogel loaded with doxorubicin

Abstract We have reported the synthesis and characterization of new drug carrier using Poly (N,N-diethyl acrylamide) (PDEA) and graphene quantum dots (GQDs). PDEA is a stimuli-responsive, macroporous polymer which has the ability to respond to change in surrounding temperature and addition of GQDs will help in improving the inherent characteristics of PDEA. In this research work, PDEA hydrogels along with GQDs have been synthesized by free radical polymerization. The effect of various concentrations of GQDs on the property of PDEA hydrogel was studied. The structural analysis of synthesized hydrogels was done using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT–IR). The internal surface morphology of porous hydrogels was observed using scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs. From the analysis, it has been observed that the equilibrium swelling ratio (ESR) and reswelling kinetics of the hydrogel significantly increased as the GQDs content was varied. The cancer drug (an anthracycline that is used for cancer chemotherapy) Doxorubicin (DOX) release behavior was studied and found that the performance of hydrogel is dependent on hydrogel composition, time, and surrounding temperature. The cytotoxicity of GQDs incorporated PDEA hydrogels gave a significant report which supports the potential application of hydrogel as an intelligent drug carrier.
Preparation of Calcium Fluoride using Phosphogypsum by Orthogonal Experiment

Abstract The resource utilization of phosphogypsum is confronted with great challenge. Of all the different methods for phosphogypsum resource utilization, using phosphocypsum to fabricate calcium fluoride (CaF2) is an effective resource utilization method. In this work, high-quality nano-calcium fluoride was successfully prepared in aqueous solution using calcined phosphogypsum by direct precipitation method. A series of orthogonal experiments were carried out in study. Here, the calcined phosphogypsum powder was mixed with NH4F to react at 40°C for 70 min according to the optimum molar ratio (Ca/ F=0.4). Meanwhile, the residue obtained by separating the mixture reacted was dried at 120°C for 90min. After preparation, the nano-calcium fluoride was analyzed by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope, results found that the average particle diameter of calcium fluoride was around 70 nm. This work could increase the industrial chain of phosphogypsum application and apply a method to solve the fluorite resource shortage.
Free energy analysis of binary alloys at phase transition

Order-disorder transformation in alloys is a fascinating and extensively studied problem for many years. This transformation has been studied widely using the two state Ising model. But vacancies are not considered in two state Ising model, which may play an important rule in determining the composition of stable configuration. So we used three state Ising model which takes vacancies also at lattice sites. To make a realistic study we have included kinetic energy of the particles in the total Hamiltonian.
Efficient Conversion of Acetate to 3-Hydroxypropionic Acid by Engineered Escherichia coli

Acetate, which is an abundant carbon source, is a potential feedstock for microbial processes that produce diverse value-added chemicals. In this study, we produced 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP) from acetate with engineered Escherichia coli. For the efficient conversion of acetate to 3-HP, we initially introduced heterologous mcr (encoding malonyl-CoA reductase) from Chloroflexus aurantiacus. Then, the acetate assimilating pathway and glyoxylate shunt pathway were activated by overexpressing acs (encoding acetyl-CoA synthetase) and deleting iclR (encoding the glyoxylate shunt pathway repressor). Because a key precursor malonyl-CoA is also consumed for fatty acid synthesis, we decreased carbon flux to fatty acid synthesis by adding cerulenin. Subsequently, we found that inhibiting fatty acid synthesis dramatically improved 3-HP production (3.00 g/L of 3-HP from 8.98 g/L of acetate). The results indicated that acetate can be used as a promising carbon source for microbial processes and that 3-HP can be produced from acetate with a high yield (44.6% of the theoretical maximum yield).
Serum Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (sGDNF) Is a Novel Biomarker in Predicting Cirrhosis in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B

Objectives We assessed the potential of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) as a useful biomarker to predict cirrhosis in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. Methods A total of 735 patients from two medical centers (385 CHB patients and 350 healthy controls) were included to determine the association of serum and tissue GDNF levels with biopsy-proven cirrhosis. The diagnostic accuracy of serum GDNF (sGDNF) was estimated and compared with other indices of cirrhosis. Results We showed significantly higher levels of sGDNF in CHB patients with fibrosis (28.4 pg/ml vs. 11.6 pg/ml in patients without) and patients with cirrhosis (33.8 pg/ml vs. 23.5 pg/ml in patients without). The areas under receiver operating curve (AUROCs) of sGDNF were 0.83 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.80–0.87) for predicting liver fibrosis and 0.84 (95% CI: 0.79–0.89) for cirrhosis. Findings from the serum protein level and hepatic mRNA expression were consistent. Using the best cutoff to predict cirrhosis, we categorized the patients into sGDNF-high and sGDNF-low groups. The sGDNF-high group had significantly larger Masson's trichrome and reticulin staining-positive area, higher Scheuer score, and METAVIR fibrosis stage (all p < 0.001) but not steatosis. On multivariable regression, sGDNF was independently associated with cirrhosis with an odds ratio of 6.98 (95% CI: 1.10–17.94). Finally, we demonstrated that sGDNF outperformed AST to platelet ratio index, FIB-4, fibroscore, forn index, and fibrometer in differentiating F4 vs. F3. Conclusion Using serum, tissue mRNA, and biopsy data, our study revealed a significant potential of sGDNF as a novel noninvasive biomarker for cirrhosis in CHB patients.
Dual-Branch Pre-Distorted Enhanced ADO-OFDM for Full-Duplex Underwater Optical Wireless Communication System

In this paper, dual-branch pre-distorted enhanced asymmetrically clipped direct current (DC) biased optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (PEADO-OFDM) for underwater optical wireless communication (UOWC) is firstly proposed and simulated. The performances of PEADO-OFDM on the underwater optical channel model (UOCM) are analyzed and further compared with the typical ADO-OFDM. Using the Monte Carlo method for the modeling of UOCM, we adopt a double-gamma function to represent three different water qualities including clear, coastal and harbor waters. The full-duplex architecture enables the removal of Hermitian symmetry (HS) from conventional optical OFDM and can increase the spectral efficiency at the cost of hardware complexity. A new PEADO-OFDM transmitter is also proposed to reduce the complexity of the transmitter. The simulation results exhibit that our proposed dual-branch PEADO-OFDM scheme outperforms the typical ADO-OFDM scheme in spectral efficiency, bit error rate (BER) and stability over the underwater channels of three different water qualities.
Determinants of Saving Behaviour among Universities Students in Guangdong Province

Saving is the final manifestation of surplus in an economic cycle and it is the most common way for people to manage their wealth. In recent years, China's domestic saving rate still remains the highest level in the world. This research focuses on Guangdong province, whose saving scale ranks the top among mainland China. At present, there are few researches based on the influencing factors of Guangdong university students' saving behaviour. Therefore, this research is aims to investigate whether financial literacy (FL), parent influence (PaI), peer influence (PeI) and self-restraint (SR) have significant influence on the saving behaviour (SB) of university students in Guangdong province. Primary data are collected using self-administered questionnaire. The samples comprised 404 students from 16 different cities in Guangdong. Meanwhile, Pearson Correlations and Multiple Regression Analysis are employed to identify whether the four factors have relationship with the saving behaviour of university students. The results show that all the FL, PaI, PeI and SR have positive relationship with SB while FL has the greatest impact on SB among the four independent variables. In terms of practical significance, not only this research can fills in the academic gap to a certain extent, but also can contribute to university students, parents, universities commercial banks and other relevant parties.
Modified affinity propagation

Affinity Propagation (AP) is exemplar-based clustering algorithm, this algorithmdoes not require prior knowledge of the number of clusters. The quality of clustering results is highly dependent on the “preference” value. Standard AP algorithm take “preference” value based on median or minimum value of similarity matrix, then the value is shared to all “preference” value on similarity matrix. This method does not give the best solution, because the value not represent the overall data structure. The Modified AP (M-AP) is proposed to resolve this problem. M-AP algorithmtake “preference” value based on data distribution on each row from similarity matrix. Experimental result show that M-AP cat outperform AP in quality clustering result based on Silhouette Index score.
Template-free solvothermal preparation of ternary FeNi2S4 hollow balloons as RuO2-like efficient electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction with superior stability

Ternary transition metal sulfide hollow structures are promising materials for energy storage and conversion applications. However, their synthetic methods are rather complicated and time-consuming. In this work, for the first time, with FeNi2S4 hollow balloons (FNSH) as the quintessential example, a template-free solvothermal method has been developed to synthesize ternary transition metal sulfide hollow balloons. The corresponding formation mechanism is deeply investigated, and the main factors affecting the formation of the hollow balloons are confirmed to be reaction time and temperature. FNSH/graphene aerogel (FNSH/GA) is further fabricated, which has been proven to be a highly efficient electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The FNSH/GA exhibits excellent performance for the OER with a small overpotential of 273 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in 1.0 M KOH, which is even superior to the typical RuO2 catalyst. Furthermore, the FNSH/GA maintains the excellent performance for the OER even after a 10 h chronoamperometric test. Moreover, the synthetic method is universal and can be widely extended to other ternary transition metal sulfide hollow balloons.
VARIABILITAS KLOROFIL-a PERIODE INDIAN OCEAN DIPOLE DI SELAT BALI BERDASARKAN ANALISIS EMPIRICAL ORTHOGONAL FUNCTION

Perairan Selat Bali secara tidak langsung dipengaruhi oleh peristiwa yang terjadi di Samudera Hindia Selatan Jawa. Variabilitas musim dan antar-tahunan dari konsentrasi klorofil-a permukaan (SSC) di Selat Bali, berhubungan erat dengan periode Indian ocean dipole (IOD) dan upwelling kuat yang terjadi di sepanjang Pantai Selatan Jawa. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis variabilitas musiman dan antar-tahunan secara spasial dan temporal dari klorofil-a periode IOD di Selat Bali. Data oseanografi diperoleh dari Satelit Aqua/Terra MODIS ( Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) level 2 harian, selama periode Maret 2000-Mei 2020, dan analisis data menggunakan Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF). Analisis EOF dilakukan pada data harian yang dikomposit menjadi bulanan dan dinormalisasi untuk mengisi data kosong. Hasil analisis EOF variasi temporal yang koheren dalam pemompaan klorofil-a di Selat Bali. Deret waktu dari mode pertama yang terbentuk mengungkapkan variasi musiman yang kuat dan variasi antar-tahunan yang relatif lemah. Mode kedua menunjukkan variasi antar-tahunan yang berbeda dengan klorofil-a yang tinggi di sepanjang pantai Selat Bali. Klorofil-a tinggi bersama dengan suhu permukaan laut yang rendah terjadi pada saat musim tenggara. Pola musiman berdasarkan analisis EOF menunjukkan mode pertama selama puncak IOD September hingga November (SON) menunjukkan klorofil-a tinggi di pantai Selat Bali. Deret waktu dari mode EOF menunjukkan korelasi yang signifikan dengan IOD. Kondisi ini terlihat selama fase puncak periode IOD bersamaan dengan monsun tenggara konsentrasi klorofil-a meningkat di sepanjang pantai Selat Bali dibandingkan pada musim sebelumnya.
Modeling representative Gen‐IV molten fuel reactivity effects in the ZEPHYR ZPR ‐ LFR analysis

Studies related to severe core accidents constitute a crucial element in the safety design of Gen‐IV systems. A new experimental program, related to severe core accidents studies, is proposed for the zero‐power experimental physics reactor (ZEPHYR) future reactor. The innovative program aims at studying reactivity effects at high temperature during degradation of Gen‐IV cores by using critical facilities and surrogate models. The current study introduces the European lead‐cooled system (ELSY) as an additional Gen‐IV system into the representativity arsenal of the ZEPHYR, in addition to the sodium‐cooled fast reactors. Furthermore, this study constitutes yet another step towards the ultimate goal of studying severe core accidents on a full core scale. The representation of the various systems is enabled by optimizing the content of plutonium oxide in the ZEPHYR fuel assembly. The study focuses on representing reactivity variation from 900°C at nominal state to 3000°C at a degraded state in both ELSY and Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration (ASTRID) cores. The study utilizes the previously developed calculation scheme, which is based on the coupling of stochastic optimization process and Serpent 2 code for sensitivity analysis. Two covariance data are used: the ENDF 175 groups for ELSY and the Covariance Matrix Cadarache (COMAC) 33 groups for ASTRID. The effect of the energy group structure of the covariance data on the representativity process is found to be significant. The results for single degraded ELSY fuel assembly demonstrate high representativity factor (>0.95) for reactivity variation and for the criticality level. Also, it is shown that the finer energy group structure of the covariance matrices results in dramatic improvement in the representation level of reactivity variations.
Bioinspired Inchworm‐ and Earthworm‐like Soft Robots with Intrinsic Strain Sensing

Stimulus‐responsive soft structures, with biological organs like intrinsic sensing, are needed to enable controlled movements and hence bring the transformative advances in soft robotics. Herein, bioinspired inchworm‐ and earthworm‐like soft structures with intrinsic strain sensing achieved by seamless embedding of a graphite‐paste‐based sensor material are presented. The developed strain sensor exhibits a record stretchability (900%) and sensitivity (of 103 up to ≈200 and of the order of 105 at around 700% linear strain). With tiny permanent magnets incorporated at the ends of these soft structures, the sensory‐feedback‐based controlled movements of magnetically driven inchworm‐ and earthworm‐like soft robots are also demonstrated. The presented results potentially boost the prospects of self‐sensing in soft robots and advance the field toward cognitive soft robotics.