Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Energetic analysis of succinic acid in water droplets: insight into the size-dependent solubility of atmospheric nanoparticles

Abstract. Size-dependent solubility is prevalent in atmospheric nanoparticles, but a molecular level understanding is still insufficient, especially for organic compounds. Here, we performed molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the size dependence of succinic acid solvation on the scale of ~1–4 nm with the potential of mean forces method. Our analyses reveal that the surface preference of succinic acid is stronger for a droplet than the slab of the same size, and the surface propensity is enhanced due to the curvature effect as the droplet becomes smaller. Energetic analyses show that such surface preference is primarily an enthalpic effect in both systems, while the entropic effect further enhances the surface propensity in droplets. On the other hand, with decreasing droplet size, the solubility of succinic acid in the internal bulk volume may decrease, imposing an opposite effect on the size dependence of solubility as compared with the enhanced surface propensity. Meanwhile, structural analyses, however, show that the surface to internal bulk volume ratio increases drastically, especially when considering the surface in respect to succinic acid, e.g., for droplet with radius of 1 nm, the internal bulk volume would be already close to zero for the succinic acid molecule.
How Power Dynamics and Relationships Interact with Assessment of Competence: Exploring the Experiences of Student Social Workers Who Failed a Practice Placement

Students have identified practice placements (or practice learning) as the single most important factor of social work education, but it is usually where issues of professional suitability become apparent. Whilst most students successfully complete their placements, a number experience difficulty and a minority ultimately fail. Protecting the profession from students not deemed suitable for professional practice requires a rigorous gatekeeping function and fair standards. On receipt of written consent, we interviewed eleven social work students who failed placement, and accessed progress reports written by Practice Teachers/Practice Educators. Participants included nine females, mean age of 33 years, seven failed their final placement and eight had registered with university disability services. Professionally transcribed interviews were analysed using an adapted version of Braun and Clarke’s method. Identified themes included the impact of personal issues; importance of working relationships; use and misuse of power; assessment and decision-making processes and developing insight and useful feedback. Students valued the opportunity to reflect on their experience and provided clear recommendations for improving how Practice Teachers, on-site supervisors, Tutors and peers can provide a supportive learning experience for students who require additional support during placement, and how to communicate concerns regarding competence more effectively.
Multimedia Vehicular Smartphone Docking with GPS Tracking

The Internet of Things (IoT) connecting many electronic devices via internet has been ubiquitous in the last decade. For instance, electric or hybrid cars and autonomous vehicles which are supported by many automotive and IT companies. IoT does not only provide internal monitoring service of the devices, but also the environmental situation. Meanwhile, smartphones are equipped with embedded built-in sensors, and also providing wireless communications. In consequence, vehicular telematics based on smartphone is growing rapidly. This paper proposes a vehicular smartphone docking prototype. It aims not only to provide an affordable alternative to Android Auto and CarPlay, but also to complement them, particularly in vision and security cases. The main issue is that the driver should not be distracted while driving. Such distraction may cause road accident which can lead to severe injuries and even death. Therefore, it is important to design a vehicle smartphone docking to guarantee distraction avoidance and to provide multimedia and localization services. This vehicular smartphone docking architecture consists of an Android smartphone and a Raspberry Pi. Several test drives were conducted with perfect results. Based on the experiment results, this system is able to reduce the number of modules required within a smart vehicle.
The Effect of Students’ Learning Activities and Creativity on The Learning Outcomes in The Aerodynamics

Vocational education aims to prepare students to acquire knowledge and skills as provisions for work. The involvement of all aspects of students, both physical and spiritual, is needed to achieve the learning objectives. It shows that each student must be actively involved in the learning process. Creativity is an essential component of learning and problem-solving. Creative learning is related to cognitive development and the process of discovering and creating something new. This research was conducted to determine the effect of student learning activities and student creativity on learning achievement, both independently and simultaneously. The subjects of this study were students of class XI AP2 SMK Bina Dhirgantara Karanganyar. The data collection technique used tests and observations. Data analysis techniques used simple regression for the first and second hypotheses (independent effect) and multiple regression analyses for the third hypothesis (simultaneous effect). The results showed that student learning activities significantly affect learning achievement with a value of t arithmetic of 3.909, a higher value than the t table of 1.69. Student creativity significantly affects learning achievement, with the t arithmetic value of 4.281, higher than the t table of 1.69. The multiple regression analysis results showed that the coefficient of determination X1 and X2 against Y was 0.477 or 47.7%. It shows that the variables of student learning activities and student creativity have a contributing influence on learning achievement.
Thin film nanocomposite (TFN) hollow fiber membranes incorporated with functionalized acid-activated bentonite (ABn-NH) clay: towards enhancement of water vapor permeance and selectivity

As the use of membrane technology for gas separation has grown, various membrane materials have been developed by numerous researchers to demonstrate separation processes. The present study was intended to make a novel thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane hybridized with amino functionalized acid-activated bentonite (ABn-NH) clay. It was projected that the ABn-NH-TFN membranes could improve water vapor permeation performance. The present work was done paying attention to how the incorporation of ABn-NH could affect the TFN membrane physicochemical properties and permeation performance. Thin films of ABn-NH-TFN membranes were prepared using interfacial polymerization on the inner surface of a polysulfone (PSf) hollow-fiber membrane support for the separation of a water vapor/N2 gas mixture. The prepared material and thin film composite membranes were fully characterized using physicochemical techniques including X-ray diffraction, BET surface analysis, thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and contact angle analysis. The concentration effect of ABn-NH clay (0–1.0 wt%) on the permeation of water vapor and N2 was investigated. According to SEM images of the composite membranes, 0.5 wt% of ABn-NH clay particles shows good dispersion on a thin selective layer. Water vapor permeation results showed that with the incorporation of ABn-NH particles into the polyamide membrane, the permeance increases enormously. The most advantageous performance, that of ABn-NH-TFN-3 (0.5 wt%) membrane, was achieved with a water vapor permeance of 2809 GPU and a water vapor/N2 selectivity of 913, with a membrane prepared with 2.0 wt% MPD and 0.2 wt% TMC monomer concentrations of coating solution.
Sleep deprivation effect on concentration of some reproductive hormones in healthy men and women volunteers

The research aimed to explore the impact of sleep deprivation on some hematological parameters and concentration of some reproductive hormones in the serum of men and women volunteers. The study included 50 men and 50 women adult healthy volunteers aged between 20 to 45 years old suffering from sleep deprivation. Five ml of blood gathered from a cubical vein at 3-4 p.m. One ml was kept in EDTA tube for complete blood count test by Saw lab, while four ml in Jell tubes for separation of serum by centrifuge and kept in Eppendorf tubes at deep freeze till detection of hormones FSH, LH, testosterone and prolactin by VIDAS depending on enzyme-linked fluorescent assay. The results of the experiment recorded a significant decrease (p < 0.05) in the concentration of Hb and % PCV and increase in MCV level in sleep-deprived men. While there was remarkable decline (P<0.05) in the level of LH and no significant alterations in testosterone hormone in sleep-deprived men, but significant increment (P<0.01) in the concentration of prolactin. On other hand sleep-deprived women recorded significant decline (P<0.05) in the concentration of prolactin and non-significant alterations (P>0.05) in other studied hormones. So we concluded that sleep deprivation have negative effects on some blood parameters and some reproductive hormones that may impact the health and fertility of individuals.
A VR-based Learning Material for Anti-drug Education: Evaluation from Aspects of Motivation, Satisfaction, and Self-efficacy

: Anti-drug education is one of the important and necessary educational activities for young people. In this paper, a virtual reality based (VR-based) material for learning anti-drug skills is proposed. By using the learning material, learners are exposed in a virtual unsafe drug situation, and can feel the dangerousness seriously to learn the harms and risks of drug abuse while improving their abilities to refuse drugs. In order to evaluate the proposed material, it was compared with
Influence of Preprocessing on Deep Learning Models

Deep learning models continue to gain popularity in various domains due to the increase in available data. The models are usually compared on their prediction performance after extensive hyperparameter tuning. An often unrecognised factor for the increase or decrease in performance of these models is the preprocessing of the data. This thesis proposes an extensive comparison study of various different preprocessing methods and their influence on model performance on the example of time-series data. Two timeseries datasets are analysed with varying preprocessing methods and their influence on classification and forecasting performance of 12 different models. The experimental results for classification indicate a low variability of convolutional neural networks through preprocessing while maintaining high classification accuracy. The results also indicate that tree based machine learning models are more robust to data preprocessing variations than support vector or nearest neighbour classifiers. The addition of bi-directionality to a recurrent neural network has also been observed to decrease the variability due to preprocessing while improving performance. The forecasting experiments confirm the stability of CNNs with regard to preprocessing.
Organizational Citizenship Behavior of Academic Staff in Malaysian Research Universities

This study examined the level of organizational citizenship behavior of academic staff in Malaysian Research Universities. This study employed a quantitative descriptive survey whereby a total of 372 academic staff from five Research Universities were selected as samples for the study. An instrument consisting of 24 items was used to measure the level of academic staff’ organizational citizenship behavior at the workplace. The data were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistical tools (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation). The descriptive analysis showed that the level of organizational citizenship behavior (mean = 5.91, SD = 0.56) was high. The result of this study also found that the highest dimension of organizational citizenship behavior was contributed by the dimension of courtesy (mean = 6.36, SD = 0.59), followed by the dimension of conscientiousness (mean = 5.96, SD = 0.74). The lowest dimension was contributed by Civic Virtue (mean = 5.55, SD = 0.80). Overall, academic staff’ organizational citizenship behavior was confirmed as a significant factor in enhancing institutional development in Malaysian Research Universities.
Treatment Strategy Using mtor Pathway in Incurable Prostate Cancer

In spite of androgen deprivation therapy and novel hormone therapy such as enzalutamide or abiraterone has possibility of various regimens, there is still barrier to expect a complete response (CR) in castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) patients. In these cases, a new strategy using drugs targeting PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway is necessary. In conclusion, drugs or biomarkers targeting PI3K/AKT/mTOR
The Wisdom of Model Crowds

A wide body of empirical research has revealed the descriptive shortcomings of expected value and expected utility models of risky decision making. In response, numerous models have been advanced to predict and explain people’s choices between gambles. Although some of these models have had a great impact in the behavioral, social and management sciences, there is little consensus about which model offers the best account of choice behavior. In this paper, we conduct a large-scale comparison of 58 prominent models of risky choice, using 19 existing behavioral datasets involving more than 800 participants. This allows us to comprehensively evaluate models in terms of individual-level predictive performance across a range of different choice settings. We also identify the psychological mechanisms that lead to superior predictive performance and the properties of choice stimuli that favor certain types of models over others. Second, drawing on research on the wisdom of crowds, we argue that each of the existing models can be seen as an expert that provides unique forecasts in choice predictions. Consistent with this claim, we find that crowds of risky choice models perform better than individual models and thus provide a performance bound for assessing the historical accumulation of knowledge in our field. Our results suggest that each model captures unique aspects of the decision process, and that existing risky choice models offer complementary rather than competing accounts of behavior. We discuss the implications of our results on theories of risky decision making and the quantitative modeling of choice behavior.
Analysis and optimization of electromagnetic vibration of a propulsion PMSM

The paper studied on the electromagnetic vibration of a propulsion PMSM equipped on an AUV. Firstly, electromagnetic field model, modal model and transient response model are established to analyze the electromagnetic vibration using FEA; Then optimization intended to reduce vibration is introduced. At last the vibration response after optimization is calculated. The result shows that after optimization, the motor’s vibration is reduced.
Importance of Microalgae Speciation on Biogas Production and Nutrient Recovery from Anaerobic Digestion of Lipid-Extracted Microalgae Biomass

Abstract While the recovery of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) from anaerobic digestion (AD) of lipid-extracted microalgae biomass has been suggested to increase microalgae biofuel sustainability, most studies use assumed biogas and nutrient recovery values that do not take into consideration how microalgae speciation and biomass composition may affect these recovery values. This study is among the first to examine how microalgae speciation and biomass composition influence the recovery of biogas and nutrients from the AD of lipid-extracted microalgae. Batch AD of lipid-extracted Chlorella vulgaris (a model freshwater microalgae) and lipid-extracted Cyclotella sp. (a model marine diatomic microalgae with a high silica composition) resulted in similar 30-day biogas yields of 0.37 ± 0.02 L-biogas/g-microalgaeVS and 0.38 ± 0.02 L-biogas/g-microalgaeVS, respectively. However, biogas production rates varied significantly between species with lipid-extracted Cyclotella producing 79% ± 1% of its biogas withi.
iPSC-induced neurons with the V337M MAPT mutation are selectively vulnerable to caspase-mediated cleavage of tau and apoptotic cell death

Background: Tau post-translational modifications (PTMs) are associated with progressive tau accumulation and neuronal loss in tauopathies, including forms of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Tau proteolysis by caspases, including caspase-6, represents an understudied PTM that may increase neurotoxicity and tau self-aggregation. Methods: To elucidate the presence and temporal course of caspase activation, tau cleavage, and neuronal death, we generated two novel epitope (neoepitope) monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against caspase-6 tau proteolytic sites. We evaluated tau cleavage and response to apoptotic stress in cortical neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with frontotemporal dementia (FTD)-causing V337M MAPT mutation. We tested the neuroprotective effect of caspase inhibitors in the induced neurons. We also demonstrated the presence of the tau neoepitopes in postmortem brains from an individual with FTD (V337M MAPT) and an individual with AD, compared to a healthy control.Results: FTLD V337M MAPT and AD postmortem brains showed positivity for both cleaved tau mAbs and active caspase-6. Relative to isogenic wild-type MAPT controls, V337M MAPT neurons cultured for 3 months showed a time-dependent increase in pathogenic tau in the form of caspase-cleaved tau and phosphorylated (p)-tau, and higher levels of tau oligomers. Accumulation of toxic tau species in V337M MAPT neurons was correlated with increased vulnerability to pro-apoptotic stress. Notably, this mutation-associated cell death was pharmacologically rescued by inhibition of effector caspases.Conclusions: Culturing iPSC-derived neurons for three months exposes age-related tau pathologies, including caspase-mediated cleavage, that are also observed in human postmortem brains with abnormal tau deposition. Neoepitope antibodies to caspase-cleaved tau may serve as biomarkers of tau pathology. Furthermore, caspases could be viable therapeutic targets for tau pathogenesis in FTLD and other tauopathies.
Experiment and analysis of the neutralization of the electron cyclotron resonance ion thruster

An electron cyclotron resonance ion thruster must emit an electron current equivalent to its ion beam current to prevent the thruster system from being electrically charged. This operation is defined as neutralization. The factors which influence neutralization are categorized into the ion beam current parameters, the neutralizer input parameters, and the neutralizer position. To understand the mechanism of neutralization, an experiment and a calculation study on how these factors influence thruster neutralization are presented. The experiment results show that the minimum bias voltage of the neutralizer was −60 V at the ion beam current of 80 mA for the argon propellant, and a critical gas flow rate existed, below which the coupling voltage increased sharply. Based on the experiment, the neutralization was analyzed by means of a one-dimensional calculation model. The computation results show that the coupling voltage was influenced by the beam divergence and the negative potential zone near the grids.
GROUND-DWELLING SPIDERS IN DIVERSE MOSAIC OF GARDEN HABITATS

The species composition of a biota in an urban environment can greatly depend on the characteristics of local and surrounding habitats. Research on the composition of spider communities was carried out in a private garden, in various places stored wood, under thujas, on a mown lawn, in an orchard and in a garden with crops, to identify habitat variables associated with fluctuations in spider assemblages affected by human disturbance. Although gardens do not seem to be as diverse as the natural places, we found a surprisingly large variety of spiders, 74 species. Differences in the composition of spider communities between land use types were a small number of species tolerant to the urban environment, a high number of specific species that showed different responses to habitat properties such as vegetation cover, light and humidity conditions and human activity. We found interesting records of new species that were spread by humans species successfully adapted to synanthropic environments. In gardens, our records were the second one to report adult individuals of Hoplopholcus forskali and Mermessus trilobatus, so far found as juveniles in botanical gardens or Tallusia vindobonensis, previously only found in salt marshes. Tegenaria hasperi is a new spider to Slovakia.
The mast cell/S1P axis is not linked to pre-lesional male skin remodeling in a mouse model of eczema

Atopic dermatitis (AD, eczema) is an inflammatory skin condition whose histopathology involves remodeling. Few preclinical AD studies are performed using male mice. The histopathological mechanisms underlying AD development were investigated here in male mice at a pre-lesional stage using a human AD-like mouse model. Hypodermal cellular infiltration without thickening of skin layers was observed after one epicutaneous exposure to antigen ovalbumin (OVA), compared to controls. In contrast to our previous report using female mice, OVA treatment did not activate skin mast cells (MC) or elevate sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) levels while increasing systemic but not local levels of CCL2, CCL3 and CCL5 chemokines. In contrast to the pathogenic AD mechanisms we recently uncovered in female, S1P-mediated skin MC activation with subsequent local chemokine production is not observed in male mice, supporting sex differences in pre-lesional stages of AD. We are proposing that differential involvement of the MC/S1P axis in early pathogenic skin changes contributes to the well documented yet still incompletely understood sex-dimorphic susceptibility to AD in humans.
Using Ecosystem Service Bundles to Evaluate Spatial and Tmporal Impacts of Large-scale Landscape Restoration on Ecosystem Services on the Chinese Loess Plateau

ContextFrom 1999 onwards, China has initiated a large-scale landscape restoration project on the Chinese Loess Plateau, which has had profound but variable impacts on the local ecosystem services supply. There was less understood of land restoration impacts on the ecosystem services and dynamics of ecosystem services thoroughout the restoration process.ObjectivesTo to analyse the spatial and temporal dynamics in ecosystem services before and after the implementation of the land restoration project, and to understand trade-offs and synergies between multiple ecosystem services. MethodsWe used InVEST model and statistical yearbook data to quantify the ecosystem, the concept of ecosystem service bundles was applied to understand the dynamics of ecosystem services.ResultsA significant increase of fruit production, sediment retention, habitat quality, aesthetic landscape value, learning and inspiration value was found overtime in Yan’an area, while a decrease of timber production and water yield was also observed. The majority of ecosystem services bundles area were transformed from having a focus on timber production to aesthetic landscape value. The dynamics of ecosystem services change by land restoration was discovered, to start with increasing regulating services at expense of provisioning services, cultural services exceeding regulating services and occupied the main proportion subsequently.ConclusionBoth trade-offs and synergies were found between provisioning, regulating and cultural services, implementation of the large-scale restoration project is recognized as a key driving force inducing change of ecosystem services.