Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Health Course Lecturers Managing Online Teaching in a Historically Disadvantaged University in South Africa: The Raging Waves

The emergence of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) required the sudden closing of educational institutions to save lives. Universities had to adopt and adapt to new teaching strategies to ensure that no learner was left behind. The purpose of this study is to describe the challenges experienced by university lecturers teaching health courses in adopting online teaching strategies. The objective of the study is to explore challenges experienced by university health course lecturers in a university from South Africa in managing online teaching platforms and the strategies employed by them to enhance online teaching. The study adopted a qualitative interpretative phenomenological approach engaging six purposefully sampled lecturers teaching health courses in a historically disadvantaged university in South Africa. Data were obtained through online methods such as blackboard meetings, in addition to face-to-face and telephone interviews. Preliminary findings revealed both positive and negative experiences in offering health courses online. Positive experiences included flexible time management, fuel-saving, and multi-tasking. Negative experiences included challenges such as lack of experience in designing online content, lack of knowledge to create a conducive teaching environment, students’ incapacity to engage in learning tools, poor lecturer-student interaction, and difficulty integrating theory into practice. So far, it has been concluded that a sudden shift to online teaching needs to consider the skill-level of lecturers, learners, and the courses offered. A one size fits all approach may not be an option.
A novel compact dual‐band filter based on quarter‐mode substrate integrated waveguide and complementary split‐ring resonator

This article proposes a novel miniaturized dual‐band filter, which is implemented by combining quarter‐mode substrate integrated waveguide (QMSIW) and complementary split‐ring resonator (CSRR). The resonator consists of a QMSIW cavity and CSRR structure, which can miniaturize SIW filter by increasing electrical length of the CSRR. With the combination of two second‐order QMSIW filters of different size, two propagating passbands can be generated. Based on the proposed structure, a dual‐band prototype is designed, fabricated, and measured. The measured passbands are centered at 3.5 GHz with about 3.3% bandwidth and 5.7 GHz with about 6.4% bandwidth. The measured minimum insertion loss for lower and upper bands is 0.98dB and 0.81dB respectively. While the insertion loss for all passbands is better than 2dB. The propose dual‐band filter has good performance in insertion loss with compact size, which has a great potential in the application of communication systems. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:2704–2707, 2016
A novel superhard boron nitride polymorph with monoclinic symmetry

In this work, a new superhard material named Pm BN is proposed. The structural properties, stability, mechanical properties, mechanical anisotropy properties, and electronic properties of Pm BN are studied in this work. Pm BN is dynamically and mechanically stable, the relative enthalpy of Pm BN is greater than that of c-BN, and in this respect, and it is more favorable than that of T-B3N3, T-B7N7, tP24 BN, Imm2 BN, NiAs BN, and rocksalt BN. The Young’s modulus, bulk modulus, and shear modulus of Pm BN are 327 GPa, 331 GPa, and 738 GPa, respectively, and according to Chen’s model, Pm BN is a novel superhard material. Compared with its original structure, the mechanical anisotropy of Young’s modulus of Pm BN is larger than that of C14 carbon. Finally, the calculations of the electronic energy band structure show that Pm BN is a semiconductor material with not only a wide band gap but also an indirect band gap.
Enhanced hydrogen evolution activities of the hollow surface‐oxidized cobalt phosphide nanofiber electrocatalysts in alkaline media

For green‐hydrogen production through a promising electrolytic water splitting, cobalt phosphide is in the spotlight as one of the new affordable materials to replace currently used noble‐metal catalysts. In this study, we fabricate hollow cobalt phosphide (CoP) nanofibers with advanced nanostructure using electrospinning and phosphidation. Due to their unique architecture and oxygen‐rich surface characteristics, the novel hollow‐structure CoP nanofibers effectively increase hydrogen evolution reaction catalytic activity with the low overpotentials of 91 mV (for acid) and 63 mV (for alkaline). Using in situ Raman spectroscopy, it is confirmed that high‐oxygen‐containing CoP catalysts could transform the CoOOH phase under alkaline conditions, which offer faster water dissociation kinetics. Furthermore, CoP nanofibers exhibited excellent durability even after 30000th accelerated degradation test cycles and overall water splitting for 40 h.
The effect of oolong tea as an adjunct to nonsurgical management of chronic periodontitis: A randomized controlled clinical trial

Introduction: Oolong tea, a functional food, has numerous therapeutic benefits owing to the presence of bioactive polyphenols, theasinensins (TS) and catechins. The present study aimed to evaluate the influence of systemic administration of oolong tea as an adjunct to nonsurgical periodontal therapy (NSPT) in the management of chronic periodontitis (CP). Methods: A total of 60 subjects with mild to moderate CP were randomly divided into two groups of tests (n = 30) and the controls (n = 30). They underwent NSPT with adjunctive oolong tea supplementation in the test group only. At baseline, 1, and 3 months, their gingival index (GI), plaque index (PI), probing pocket depth (PPD), clinical attachment loss (CAL), percentage of sites with bleeding on probing (BOP), and lobene stain index (LSI) were recorded. Furthermore, the levels of glutathione peroxidase (GPx), total antioxidants (TAO), and malondialdehyde (MDA) were also estimated in gingival crevicular fluid (GCF), saliva and serum. Additionally, colony-forming units (CFUs) of selective supra and subgingival plaque bacteria were estimated in the plaque samples.Results: In both groups, at 1 month, the GI, PI, BOP, GPx, and TAO levels were improved with a reduction in the levels of MDA and CFU’s and no staining of teeth (P < 0.05). The results were maintained in the test group at 3-month recall visit.Conclusion: Adjunctive administration of oolong tea with NSPT reduced the local and systemic oxidative burden and rapidly resolved the inflammation in CP. This would be specifically beneficial in CP subjects with systemic conditions.
Dungeons & Replicants II: Automated Game Balancing Across Multiple Difficulty Dimensions via Deep Player Behavior Modeling

Video game testing has become a major investment of time, labor, and expense in the game industry. Particularly the balancing of in-game units, characters, and classes can cause long-lasting issues that persist years after a game's launch. While approaches incorporating artificial intelligence have already shown successes in reducing manual effort and enhancing game development processes, most of these draw on heuristic, generalized, or optimal behavior routines, while actual low-level decisions from individual players and their resulting playing styles are rarely considered. In this article, we apply deep player behavior modeling to turn atomic actions of 213 players from six months of single-player instances within the MMORPG Aion into generative models that capture and reproduce particular playing strategies. In a subsequent simulation, the resulting generative agents (“replicants”) were tested against common NPC opponent types of MMORPGs that iteratively increased in difficulty, respective to the primary factor that constitutes this enemy type (Melee, Ranged, Rogue, Buffer, Debuffer, Healer, Tank, or Group). As a result, imbalances between classes as well as strengths and weaknesses regarding particular combat challenges could be identified and regulated automatically.
Hyperspectral Image Classification Based on Spectral Multiscale Convolutional Neural Network

In recent years, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been widely used for hyperspectral image classification, which show good performance. Compared with using sufficient training samples for classification, the classification accuracy of hyperspectral images is easily affected by a small number of samples. Moreover, although CNNs can effectively classify hyperspectral images, due to the rich spatial and spectral information of hyperspectral images, the efficiency of feature extraction still needs to be further improved. In order to solve these problems, a spatial–spectral attention fusion network using four branch multiscale block (FBMB) to extract spectral features and 3D-Softpool to extract spatial features is proposed. The network consists of three main parts. These three parts are connected in turn to fully extract the features of hyperspectral images. In the first part, four different branches are used to fully extract spectral features. The convolution kernel size of each branch is different. Spectral attention block is adopted behind each branch. In the second part, the spectral features are reused through dense connection blocks, and then the spectral attention module is utilized to refine the extracted spectral features. In the third part, it mainly extracts spatial features. The DenseNet module and spatial attention block jointly extract spatial features. The spatial features are fused with the previously extracted spectral features. Experiments are carried out on four commonly used hyperspectral data sets. The experimental results show that the proposed method has better classification performance than some existing classification methods when using a small number of training samples.
Cla4p Kinase Activity Is Down-Regulated by Fus3p during Yeast Mating

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the p21-activated kinase Cla4p regulates polarized morphogenesis and cytokinesis. However, it remains unknown how Cla4p kinase activity is regulated. After pheromone exposure, yeast cells temporally separate the mitotic and mating programs by sequestering Fus2p in the nucleus until cell cycle completion, after which Fus2p exits to facilitate cell fusion. Previously, we showed that sequestration is regulated by two opposing protein kinases, Cla4p and Fus3p. Phosphorylation of Fus2p-S67 by Cla4p promotes nuclear localization by both activating nuclear import and blocking export. During mating, phosphorylation of Fus2p-S85 and Fus2p-S100 by Fus3p promotes nuclear export and blocks import. Here, we find that Cla4p kinase activity is itself down-regulated during mating. Pheromone exposure causes Cla4p hyper-phosphorylation and reduced Fus2p-S67 phosphorylation, dependent on Fus3p. Multiple phosphorylation sites in Cla4p are mating- and/or Fus3p-specific. Of these, Cla4p-S186 phosphorylation reduced the kinase activity of Cla4p, in vitro. A phosphomimetic cla4-S186E mutation caused a strong reduction in Fus2p-S67 phosphorylation and nuclear localization, in vivo. More generally, a non-phosphorylatable mutation, cla4-S186A, caused failure to maintain pheromone arrest and delayed formation of the mating-specific septin morphology. Thus, as cells enter the mating pathway, Fus3p counteracts Cla4p kinase activity to allow proper mating differentiation.
Acoustic monitoring of a prestressed concrete tank

This article reviews several corrosion-monitoring methods applied in recent decades to prestressed concrete water storage reservoirs. It further describes a pilot program to acoustically monitor a prestressed concrete tank for indications of corrosion failure of prestressing wires. The project demonstrates the viability and limitations of the use of acoustic monitoring to Identily and locate prestressing wire break events.
Polyphenol Extract from “Greco” Grape Canes: Characterization, Antioxidant Capacity, and Antitumor Effects on Cal-33 and JHU-SCC-011 Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

In the current study, we determined the antioxidant properties of “Greco” grape cane extracts, a typical cultivar of southern Italy. We also explored the anticancer activity of the polyphenol-rich fraction of the extract on head and neck squamous carcinoma cells (HNSCC) and investigated the underlying mechanism. Aqueous extracts were prepared at different pHs and extraction times and the total phenolic and reducing sugar contents were estimated. Radical Scavenging Activity (RSA), Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP), and Total Antioxidant Capacity (TAC) of the extracts were measured. A polyphenol-rich fraction, accounting for 6.7% by weight and characterized mainly by procyanidins and stilbenoids, was prepared from the extract obtained at pH 7 for 60 min. We demonstrated that the extract exerted a cytotoxic effect on HNSCC cell lines by inducing cell cycle arrest via cyclin downregulation and p21 upregulation, and by triggering apoptosis through caspase cascade activation, PARP-1 cleavage, and an increase in the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. We furnished evidence that the polyphenol-rich fraction played the major role in the anticancer activity of the extract. These outcomes highlighted grape canes from the “Greco” cultivar as a valuable source of polyphenols that may represent good candidates for the design of innovative adjuvant therapies in the treatment of HNSCC.
Reduction in Hypercalcemia Following Readjustment of Target Serum 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D Concentration during Cholecalciferol Therapy in Vitamin D-Deficient Critically Ill Patients

The intent of this study was an evaluation of our effort to reduce the incidence of hypercalcemia in critically ill vitamin D-deficient patients with multiple traumatic injuries given cholecalciferol. Vitamin D deficiency was defined as a serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D concentration (25-OH vit D) of <20 ng/mL. Adult patients (>17 years of age) were given 10,000 IU of cholecalciferol daily with an intended target 25-OH vit D of >19.9 ng/mL. These patients were compared to a historical control group that underwent therapy with a higher target of >29.9 ng/mL. Patients received cholecalciferol via the feeding tube along with enteral nutrition (EN) until the target 25-OH vit D was achieved, EN discontinued, the nutrition support service signed off the patient, or the patient was discharged from the TICU. Patients were included if two consecutive weekly 25-OH vit D were measured. One hundred and three critically ill trauma patients were retrospectively studied. Fifty were given cholecalciferol therapy with the new lower target 25-OH vit D, and 53 were from a historical cohort aiming for the higher target. Hypercalcemia (serum ionized calcium concentration > 1.32 mmol/L) was reduced from 40% (21 out of 53 patients) to 4% (2 out of 50 patients; p < 0.001). None of the hypercalcemic patients were symptomatic. Readjustment of target 25-OH vit D concentration resulted in a ten-fold decrease in the rate of hypercalcemia and improved the safety of cholecalciferol therapy for critically ill patients with traumatic injuries.
Response-Based Synchrophasor Controls for Power Systems

The electric power grid is operated with exceptionally high levels of reliability, yet recent large-scale outages have highlighted areas for improvement in operation, control, and planning of power systems. Synchrophasor technology may be able to address these concerns, and Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) are actively being deployed across the Western Interconnection and North America. Initiatives such as the Western Interconnection Synchrophasor Program (WISP) are making significant investments PMUs with the expectation that wide-area, synchronized, high-resolution measurements will improve operator situational awareness, enable advanced control strategies, and aid in planning the grid. This research is multifaceted in that it focuses on improved operator awareness and alarming as well as innovative remedial controls utilizing synchrophasors. It integrates existing tools, controls, and infrastructure with new technology to propose applications and schemes that can be implemented for any utility. This work presents solutions to problems relevant to the industry today, emphasizing utility design and implementation. The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) transmission systems are used as the testing environment, and the work performed here is being explored for implementation at BPA. However, this work is general in nature such that it can be implemented in myriad networks and control centers. A Phase Angle Alarming methodology is proposed for improving operator situational awareness. The methodology is used for setting phase angle limits for a two-tiered angle alarming application. PMUs are clustered using an adapted disturbance-based probabilistic rms-coherency analysis. While the lower tier angle limits are determined using static security assessment between the PMU clusters, the higher tier limits are based on pre-contingency operating conditions that signify poorly damped post-
Competing for attention on Twitter during the 2012 and 2016 U.S. presidential debates

ABSTRACT This study explores how Presidential candidates compete for Twitter attention during a televised debate using two datasets of tweets posted during the first 2012 and 2016 U.S. Presidential debates. Using a time series analysis, we find that both debates exhibited zero-sum attention dynamics such that when one candidate gained attention, the other lost attention. However, our error correction models also revealed that the attention dynamics of Romney and Obama in 2012 produced an equilibrium that neither candidate could break from, whereas in 2016, Twitter attention to Trump overwhelmed Clinton. We therefore conclude that social media attention competition in during the 2012 U.S. presidential debate was more tightly contested compared to 2016.
Out-of-Plane Translational PZT Bimorph Actuator with Archimedes’ Spiral Actuating Tethers

The design, finite element analysis (FEA), and experimental characterization of a MEMS out-of-plane (vertical) translational lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) bimorph actuator supported on Archimedes’ spiral tethers are presented. Two types of bimorph actuators with different electrode patterns (with spiral tethers half actuated or fully actuated) are designed and fabricated. Both designs are fabricated by commercial processes and are compatible with integration into more complex MEMS systems. Finite element analysis (FEA) was used to analyze and predict the displacements of both types of actuators. The deflections of both fully- actuated and half-actuated devices were measured experimentally to validate the design. At an applied voltage of 110V, the out-of-plane deflections of the actuators with half-actuated and fully-actuated tethers were measured at about 17 μm and 29 μm respectively, in good agreement with FEA predictions of 17.1 μm and 25.8 μm. The corresponding blocking forces are predicted as 10 mN and 17 mN by FEA.
Sparse and Flexible Projections for Unsupervised Feature Selection

In recent decades, unsupervised feature selection methods have become increasingly popular. Nevertheless, most of the existing unsupervised feature selection methods suffer from two major problems that lead to suboptimal solutions. Many methods impose a hard linear projection constraint on original data, which is overly strict in nature and not suitable for dealing with data sampled from nonlinear manifolds. Second, most existing methods use <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ell _{2,p}$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:msub><mml:mi>ℓ</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn><mml:mo>,</mml:mo><mml:mi>p</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="zhang-ieq1-3167996.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>-norm (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0< p\leq 1$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:mn>0</mml:mn><mml:mo><</mml:mo><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>≤</mml:mo><mml:mn>1</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="zhang-ieq2-3167996.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>) regularization on projection matrix to obtain row sparse matrix and then calculate scores of each feature, which would introduce extra parameter with a slight possibility to directly obtain indexes of discriminative features. To solve the above problems, we propose two novel unsupervised feature selection methods called SF<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{2}$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:msup><mml:mrow/><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msup></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="zhang-ieq3-3167996.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>S and SF<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{2}$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:msup><mml:mrow/><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msup></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="zhang-ieq4-3167996.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>SOG, which can simultaneously learn optimal flexible projections and obtain an orthogonal sparse projection to directly select discriminative features by applying <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ell _{2,0}$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:msub><mml:mi>ℓ</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn><mml:mo>,</mml:mo><mml:mn>0</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="zhang-ieq5-3167996.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>-norm constraint. Moreover, we propose to explore the local structure of flexible embedding through preserving the manifold structure of original data and adaptively constructing an optimal graph in subspace. Third, the novel iterative optimization algorithms are presented to solve objective functions guaranteeing convergence theoretically. Various evaluation experiments on synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of our proposed methods.
Screening Direct Seeding-Related Traits by Using an Improved Mesocotyl Elongation Assay and Association between Seedling and Maturity Traits in Rice

Direct seeding (DS) of rice gained much attention due to labor scarcity and unavailability of water. However, reduced emergence and poor seedling establishment are the main problems of DS which causes significant yield losses. Herein, DS-associated seedling traits of three major rice groups, i.e., Indica (Ind), Japonica (Jap), and aus-type (Aus), were evaluated by using an improved mesocotyl elongation assay. The associations among different traits at the seedling and maturity stage were also studied. Significant variation was observed among the cultivars of different rice groups. The Aus group cultivars showed higher mean values for coleoptile (C, 3.85 cm), mesocotyl (MC, 4.17 cm), shoot length (SL, 13.64 cm), panicle length (PL, 23.44 cm), tillers number (T, 15.95), culm length (CL, 105.29 cm), and plant height (PH, 128.73 cm), while the Indica and Japonica groups showed higher mean values of grain length (GL, 8.69 mm), grain length/width ratio (GL/WR, 3.07), and grain width (GW, 3.31 mm), with 1000 grain weight (TGWt, 25.53 g), respectively. Pairwise correlation analysis showed that MC, C, and SL were positively correlated among themselves and with PL, CL, and PH. Moreover, based on principal component analysis (PCA), C, MC, SL, CL, and PH were identified as the major discriminative factors in the rice cultivars. This study describes the development of desired DS rice variety with long MC and semidwarf in height and suggests that Aus group cultivars can be used as the donor parents of favorable DS-associated traits in rice breeding programs.