Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Linear-to-Circular Polarization Converters With Both E-Field and H-Field Hybrid Responses

This article presents a novel method to design a linear-to-circular polarization converter (LCPC) by using a hybrid array structure, which is composed of meander lines and the split ring resonators (SRRs). The LCPC can respond to both the $E$ -Field and $H$ -Field for the incident wave. When the meander line and the SRR are placed along two orthogonal directions, the composed unit cell would have different electromagnetic response characteristics in the two orthogonal directions. Using this method, two LCPCs working in frequency bands of 6–18 and 2–6 GHz are designed, respectively. The simulated results show that for the LCPC working in 6–18 GHz, the axial ratio (AR) is lower than 3 dB in 6.8–17.32 GHz with a maximum insertion loss (IL) of 1.25 dB. When the angle of incident wave is less than 45°, the 3 dB AR bandwidth is 7.87 GHz. For the LCPC working in 2–6 GHz, the AR of entire frequency band is all lower than 3 dB and the maximum IL is 0.82 dB when the incident angle increases to 15°. Even at incident angle of 45°, the bandwidth with the function of polarization conversion is 3.5 GHz. Experiments on the LCPC (6-18 GHz) are carried out, and the measured results are in agreement with the simulated ones, which proves that the LCPCs design method proposed in this paper is effective and reliable.
Evaluation of Relationship between fQRS and CD4/CD8 Ratio in Patients with HIV

Objectives: Myocardial dysfunction is an important cause of morbidity in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients. Decline in CD4 T-cell level and reversal of CD4/CD8 ratio was associated with cardiovascular events. Fragmented QRS (fQRS) can show myocardial dysfunction and cardiovascular events. The aim of this study is to investigate the presence of fQRS in HIV-infected patients and the factors affecting it. Methods: This case-control study included 153 outpatient HIV patients (97% male) and 141 healthy subjects (96% male). Patients with cardiac disease history, arrhythmia, diabetes, cancer disease, and thyroid dysfunction were excluded from the study. Electrocardiogram, echocardiography, and biochemistry tests were performed to all participants. CD4 and CD8 T cell count, and HIV RNA level were measured in HIV-infected patients. Results: Both groups had similar basal characteristics. Mean CD4 T-cell level was 356 cell/cm3, HIV was under control in 48%, and the rate of antiretroviral treatment use was 64%. HIV-infected patients had lower left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), higher Tei index, and more fQRS. HIV-infected patients with fQRS had lower nadir CD4 T-cell levels, lower CD4/CD8 ratio, and higher Tie index. In multivariate analysis, CD4/CD8 ratio and LVEF were found to be independent predictors of fQRS in HIV-infected patients. Conclusion: Myocardial dysfunction can be seen in HIV-infected patients. Caution should be exercised in terms of myocardial dysfunction in HIV-infected patients with low CD4/CD8 ratio.
Sticking to the script: women managers just do it all

The study explores the situated time work practices of Forbes 50 Romanian most influential women corporate leaders, expressed in testimonials and biographical interviews. Investigated time experiences of lived leadership do not point to a transformative environment that invites pluralism. These narratives do not disembed ideological beliefs or decolonize gender roles. Instead they mark a discourse of flawless continuity and accommodation to greedy time scripts that label downtime as wasted time. The inductive thematic analysis extracted two rhetoric tropes (i.e. wholesomeness and warrior-superhero) and five themes: multitasking, resilience to time pressure, pragmatics of perfect timing, time use maximization and constant connectivity. Potential explanations and implications for the East European management con‐ text are discussed.
Predictors of disability in patients with chronic low back pain

Introduction Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a common and disabling health problem. In this study, we aimed to assess the relationship between pain intensity, the components of catastrophizing, depression and disability in patients with chronic low back pain. Material and methods Seventy-six patients diagnosed with CLBP (age range 25–77 years; 73.7% female) participated in the study. Participants’ socio-demographic data were collected: age, gender, height, weight, and work status (employed or retired). All participants were asked to complete the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), the visual analogue scale (VAS), the Oswestry Disability Questionnaire (ODQ), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Results The mean group scores revealed moderate CLBP complaints (VAS – 4 [3–6]), mild depression (BDI – 10 [5–16]), a moderate level of catastrophizing (PCS total score 20.5 [10–34]) and moderate disability (Oswestry Disability Index [ODI] – 31 [14–38]). Positive significant correlations were found between ODI and age, residence, work status, VAS, PCS-rumination, PCS-magnification, PCS-helplessness and BDI, and also between PCS subscales and VAS. Our multivariate linear regression analysis showed that age, pain intensity, PCS-helplessness and depression can predict disability in patients with CLBP, explaining 84% of the variance of disability (R2 = 0.851, adjusted R2 = 0.843). Conclusions A multidisciplinary approach is needed for patients with CLBP and should include physical, mental and social evaluation in order to offer an optimal treatment.
Investments in Subsidiaries, Joint Ventures, Affiliates and Firm Growth: Evidence from Vietnam

This paper investigates the effect of investments in subsidiaries, joint ventures and affiliates (affiliate investment) on firm growth. Using both static and dynamic panel data models with a sample dataset of 2,056 firm-year observations on Vietnam’s stock market from 2008-2015, the study finds that increasing affiliate investment in prior periods had a significantly positive impact on asset growth and net income growth (but not sales growth) of the firms in subsequent periods. In addition, the study finds new empirical evidence that private-controlled firms are more efficient than government controlled firms in terms of affiliate investment. It is also found that profitability, government ownership and foreign ownership are significant dynamics for firm growth. This research sheds light on the role of affiliate investment as a corporate diversification strategy to boost firm growth, including growth rates of multinational corporations. It also provides important implications about the determinants of different dimensions of firm growth in the context of an Asian emerging economy.
Distribution of microarthropods across altitude and aspect in the sub-Antarctic: climate change implications for an isolated oceanic island

Current climate change is altering the distribution of species across both broad and fine scales. Examining contemporary species distributions along altitudinal gradients is one approach to predicting species future distributions, as species occurrence patterns at cold, high altitudes are expected to resemble the species distribution patterns currently observed at warmer, lower altitudes if warming occurs. Strong changes in climate have been observed in the sub-Antarctic over the last 50 years, with a 1.5 °C increase in mean temperature and a c. 30% decrease in mean precipitation recorded on Marion Island. In this study, the distribution patterns of mites and springtails inhabiting the cushion-plant Azorella selago were studied on Marion Island. Mite and springtail species richness and springtail abundance were significantly higher on the western aspect of the island, possibly due to higher rainfall and greater cloud cover on the windward side of the island. Mite abundance did not differ between aspects of the island, which may be due to the higher desiccation tolerance of mites. Mite and springtail species richness and springtail abundance were significantly lower at high altitudes coinciding with lower temperatures and generally harsher environment at higher altitudes. Plant characteristics generally did not contribute to explaining species patterns, suggesting that at the island-scale abiotic variables, rather than biotic factors, appeared to be the more important determinants of community structure. Therefore, despite species responding individualistically, it is clear that a warmer and drier climate will dramatically change the microarthropod community structure within A. selago on Marion Island.
The effect of plasma lipids and lipid lowering interventions on bone mineral density: a Mendelian randomization study

Statin treatment increases bone mineral density (BMD) and reduces fracture risk, but the underlying mechanism is unclear. We used Mendelian randomization (MR) to assess whether this relation is explained by a specific effect in response to statin use, or by a general effect of lipid-lowering. We utilized 400 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) robustly associated with plasma lipid levels and results from a heel BMD GWAS (derived from quantitative ultrasound) in 426,824 individuals from the UK Biobank. We performed univariate and multivariable MR analyses of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglyceride levels on BMD. To test whether the effect of statins on BMD was mediated by lowering lipid levels, MR was repeated with and without SNPs in the HMGCR region, the gene targeted by statins. Univariate MR analyses provided evidence for a causal effect of LDL-C on BMD (β = −0.060; −0.084 to −0.036; P = 4×10-6; standard deviation change in BMD per standard deviation change in LDL-C, with 95% CI), but not HDL or triglycerides. Multivariable MR analysis suggested that the effect of LDL-C on BMD was independent of HDL-C and triglycerides, and sensitivity analyses involving MR Egger and weighted median MR approaches suggested that the LDL-C results were robust to pleiotropy. MR analyses of LDL-C restricted to SNPs in the HMGCR region showed similar effects on BMD(β = −0.083; −0.132 to −0.034; P = 0.001) to those excluding these SNPs (β = −0.063; −0.090 to −0.036; P = 8×10-6). Bidirectional MR analyses provided some evidence for a causal effect of BMD on plasma LDL-C levels. Our results suggest that effects of statins on BMD are at least partly due to their LDL-C lowering effect. Further studies are required to examine the potential role of modifying plasma lipid levels in treating osteoporosis.
Cocaine-induced lipidomic alterations for the study of addictive behaviors

Although the neurochemical and neurobiological effects of various drugs of abuse are well-characterized, there is little information regarding the role of complex lipid remodeling within the context of addiction. The series of studies presented herein addressed these gaps in knowledge by testing the hypothesis that cocaine induces lipid alterations that may serve as indicators of addictive behaviors. Firstly, we demonstrated the effects of dietary fat intake and aging on the blood lipidome. These findings occurred in a stimuli-independent manner across several models, and emphasized the need to consider these factors in experiments prior to assessing the effect of any stimuli on lipidomic changes in the blood. Untargeted lipidomics revealed blood lipid remodeling of phospholipids, glycerolipids, and fatty acyls using both preclinical and clinical models of cocaine exposure. Cocaine exposure demonstrated region-specific changes in the rat brain lipidome that suggest that addictive behaviors, i.e. sensitization, extinction, and reinstatement, can induce widespread lipid alterations. Blood lipid changes could also be correlated to behavioral sensitization to cocaine in both rats and human models of exposure. Cocaine differentially regulated genes involved in fatty acid metabolism and mitochondrial biogenesis region-specifically in the brain. These effects indicate a potential role for cocaine in the maintenance of CNS energetics and lipid regulation. In summary, the data presented here demonstrated comprehensive lipidomic assessment of cocaine-induced lipid remodeling in blood and brain profiles. These findings provide a platform for discerning how changes in the lipidome may mediate some of the molecular adaptions of the brain in response to drugs of abuse. INDEX WORDS: lipids, lipidomics, addiction, cocaine, blood, brain COCAINE-INDUCED LIPIDOMIC ALTERATIONS FOR THE STUDY OF ADDICTIVE BEHAVIORS
Papaya yellow leaf curl virus: A newly identified begomovirus infecting Carica papaya L. from the Indian Subcontinent

ABSTRACT India is one of the world’s largest producers of papaya. Viruses, mainly begomoviruses and potyviruses, cause a significant loss in papaya production. The study described here has identified a new species of begomovirus and a new species of betasatellite infecting Carica papaya in India. The sequences of the begomovirus and betasatellite show 90.03% nucleotide sequence identity to an isolate of Radish leaf curl virus and 92.25% identity to an isolate of Tomato leaf curl betasatellite, respectively. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree of begomovirus sequence of isolate DP2 (KX353622) showed distant relationships with previously characterised begomoviruses. Recombination analysis proposed six recombination breakpoints in begomovirus genome with other geographical begomovirus isolates.
Cryopreservation of boar semen in 0.5mL straws at low spermatozoa concentration is better than high concentration to maintain sperm viability

ABSTRACT: To date, no studies have been performed evaluating the effect of boar spermatozoa concentration in 0.5mL freezing straws, leading us to examine this question. Each sperm-rich fraction of the ejaculate (n=25) was diluted at five different sperm concentrations (100, 200, 300, 600 and 800 x 106 spermatozoa/mL), packaged in 0.5mL straws, and subsequently frozen. After thawing, the sperm from all of treatment groups were analyzed to determine motility characteristics using a sperm class analyzer (SCA-CASA), and their plasma and acrosomal membrane integrity, mitochondrial membrane potential, sperm membrane lipid peroxidation and fluidity were analyzed by flow cytometry. An increase in spermatozoa concentration above 300x106 spermatozoa/mL in a 0.5mL straw impaired (p<0.05) the total and progressive motility, curvilinear velocity, straight-line velocity, linearity and beat cross frequency. However, the plasma and acrosomal membrane integrity, mitochondrial membrane potential, membrane lipid peroxidation and fluidity were not influenced (p>0.05) by high spermatozoa concentrations at freezing. Therefore, to increase spermatozoa survival and total and progressive motility after thawing, boar spermatozoa should be frozen at concentrations up to 300x106 spermatozoa/mL.
CatbNet: A Multi Network Analyzer for Comparing and Analyzing the Topology of Biological Networks

Background: Complexity and dynamicity of biological events is a reason to use comprehen-sive and holistic approaches to deal with their difficulty. Currently with advances in omics data genera-tion, network-based approaches are used frequently in different areas of computational biology and bio-informatics to solve problems in a systematic way. Also, there are many applications and tools for net-work data analysis and manipulation which their goal is to facilitate the way of improving our under-standings of inter/intra cellular interactions. Methods: In this article, we introduce CatbNet, a multi network analyzer application which is prepared for network comparison objectives. Result and Conclusion: CatbNet uses many topological features of networks to compare their structure and foundations. One of the most prominent properties of this application is classified network analysis in which groups of networks are compared with each other.
Thermal landscapes in a changing climate: biological implications of water temperature patterns in an extreme year

Record-breaking droughts and high temperatures in 2015 across the Pacific Northwest, USA, provide an opportunistic glimpse into potential future thermal regimes of rivers and their implications for freshwater fishes. We applied spatial stream network models to data collected every 30 min for 4 years at 42 sites on the Snoqualmie River (Washington, United States) to compare water temperature patterns, summarized with relevance to particular life stages of native and nonnative fishes, in 2015 with more typical conditions (2012–2014). Although 2015 conditions were drier and warmer than what had been observed since 1960, patterns were neither consistent over the year nor on the network. Some locations showed dramatic increases in air and water temperature, whereas others had temperatures that differed little from typical years; these results contrasted with existing forecasts of future thermal landscapes. If we will observe years like 2015 more frequently in the future, we can expect conditions to be less favorable to native, cool-water fishes such as Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) but beneficial to warm-water nonnative species such as largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides).
Spectral–Spatial Hyperspectral Image Classification Using Dual-Channel Capsule Networks

Deep learning methods have shown their marvel performance on hyperspectral image (HSI) classification tasks. In particular, algorithms based on convolution neural network (CNN) outperformed most of the conventional machine learning-based algorithms and have become the mainstream of the current HSI classification research works. Recently, a newly proposed neural network called capsule network (CapsNet) showed its potential to replace the CNNs in various classification tasks with its amazing performance. In this letter, we proposed a new network architecture based on the CapsNet for HSI classification tasks, called dual-channel capsule network (DCCapsNet). Our DCCapsNet model extracts the features from spectral and spatial domains, respectively, with two separate convolution channels and then concatenates and feeds them into the following capsule layers to classify each of the HSI pixels. The model was trained and validated on four real HSI data sets and achieved high accuracy. We also compared our network with some of the state-of-the-art models and found that our model outperformed these competitor models.
Foreground-aware Dense Depth Estimation for 360 Images

With 360 imaging devices becoming widely accessible, omnidirectional content has gained popularity in multiple fields. The ability to estimate depth from a single omnidirectional image can benefit applications such as robotics navigation and virtual reality. However, existing depth estimation approaches produce sub-optimal results on real-world omnidirectional images with dynamic foreground objects. On the one hand, capture-based methods cannot obtain the foreground due to the limitations of the scanning and stitching schemes. On the other hand, it is challenging for synthesis-based methods to generate highly-realistic virtual foreground objects that are comparable to the real-world ones. In this paper, we propose to augment datasets with realistic foreground objects using an image-based approach, which produces a foreground-aware photorealistic dataset for machine learning algorithms. By exploiting a novel scale-invariant RGB-D correspondence in the spherical domain, we repurpose abundant non-omnidirectional datasets to include realistic foreground objects with correct distortions. We further propose a novel auxiliary deep neural network to estimate both the depth of the omnidirectional images and the mask of the foreground objects, where the two tasks facilitate each other. A new local depth loss considers small regions of interests and ensures that their depth estimations are not smoothed out during the global gradient’s optimization. We demonstrate the system using human as the foreground due to its complexity and contextual importance, while the framework can be generalized to any other foreground objects. Experimental results demonstrate more consistent global estimations and more accurate local estimations compared with state-of-the-arts.
Impolite Pedestrian Detection by Using Enhanced YOLOv3-Tiny

In recent years, the problem of “Impolite Pedestrian” in front of the zebra crossing has aroused widespread concern from all walks of life. The traffic sector’s governance measures have become more serious. The traditional way of governance is onsite law enforcement, which requires a lot of manpower and material resources and is low efficiency. An enhanced YOLOv3-tiny model is proposed for pedestrians and vehicle detection in traffic monitoring. By modifying the backbone network structure of YOLOv3tiny model, introducing deep detachable convolution operation, and designing the basic residual block unit of the network, the feature extraction ability of the backbone network is enhanced. The improved model is trained on the VOC2007+VOC2012 training set, and the trained model is tested for performance on the test data set. The experimental results show that: the mean Average Precision (mAP) increased from 0.672 to 0.732, increasing the measurement accuracy by 9%. The Intersection over Union (IoU) increased from 0.783 to 0.855, increasing the coverage accuracy by 7.2%. The enhanced YOLOv3-tiny model has higher measurement accuracy than the original model. Applying this model to the 1080P traffic video on the NVIDIA RTX 2080, the detection speed is 150 FPS, which can fully achieve real-time detection. Through the analysis of pedestrians and vehicle coordinates, it is judged whether or not illegal acts occur. For illegal vehicles, save three pictures as the basis for law enforcement, which forms an important supplement to off-site law enforcement.
Influence of Anthropogenic Factors on the Diversity and Structure of a Dry Forest in the Central Part of the Tumbesian Region (Ecuador–Perú)

The dry forest of southern Ecuador and northern Perú (called the Tumbesian region) is known for its high diversity, endemism, and healthy conservation state. Nevertheless, the forest is exposed to many threats linked with human activities. To understand the effects of these threats, which have not been appropriately assessed, we pose two questions: (a) What are the diversity and structural situations of the forest? (b) Are anthropogenic activities affecting the composition and structure of the forest? The assessed factors were species richness, diversity, species similarity, abundance, and density. Forest information was obtained from 72 plots (total area 25.92 ha) randomly placed to cover a wide range of stand densities (from 200 to 1100 m a.s.l.). After constructing linear mixed models and selecting the most influential one, we determined the individual influences of 12 predictors. The human pressure index (HPI) was the most negative predictor of forest health, and annual precipitation was the most important abiotic predictor of good health conditions. Livestock grazing did not significantly change the diversity and structure of mature forest. The mean annual temperature and stoniness influenced only the basal area and number of individuals, respectively. The species composition in our study area was not affected by the HPI, but was strongly predicted by annual precipitation.