Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using the Hexagonal Layout Style for MOSFETs to Boost the Device Matching in Ionizing Radiation Environments

Digital Object Identifier 10.29292/jics.v15i2. 185 Abstract— This paper describes an experimental comparative study of the mismatching between the Diamond (hexagonal gate geometry) and Conventional (rectangular gate shape) n-channel Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) Field Effect Transistors (MOSFETs), which were manufactured in an 130 nm Silicon-Germanium Bulk Complementary MOS (CMOS) technology and exposed to different X-rays Total Ionizing Doses (TIDs). The results indicate that the Diamond layout style with an alpha () angle equal to 90 ̊ for MOSFETs is capable of reducing the device mismatching by at least 17% regarding the electrical parameters studied as compared to the Conventional MOSFET (CnM) counterparts. Therefore, the Diamond layout style can be considered an alternative hardness-by-design (HBD) layout strategy to boost the electrical performance and TID tolerance of MOSFETs.
Clinical features and mortality-related factors of extensive burns among young adults: the Kunshan disaster experience

Background The aim of the study was to identify the clinical features and the factors associated with burn induced mortality among young adults after exposure to indoor explosion and fire. Methods This is an observational study which included burn patients who were admitted to eighteen ICUs after a fire disaster. Epidemiologic and clinical characteristics, as well as therapy were recorded. The primary outcome was 90-day mortality. The mortality-related factors were also analyzed. Results There were 167 burn patients enrolled in the study, the median age was 38 years, 62 (37.1%) patients died within 90 days. Seventy-one percent of patients had a burn size ≥90% TBSA, and 73.7% of patients had a full-thickness burn area above 50% TBSA. The survivors had lower Baux scores, and received earlier escharectomy and autologous skin grafts. The 50% mortality rates (LA50s) for burn size and full-thickness burn area were 95.8% and 88.6% TBSA, respectively. The multivariate analysis showed that full-thickness burn area over 50% TBSA and residual burned surface area (RBSA)/TBSA at 28 days were strong predictors of mortality among burn patients (odds ratio 2.55; 95% CI, 1.01 to 6.44, P=0.047; odds ratio 1.07; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.09, P<0.001). The ROC curve-based cut-off values of RBSA/TBSA at 28 days for predicting 90-day mortality were 62.5%. Conclusions Burn size and full-thickness burn area were the main risk factors for poor outcome in patients with extensive burns. Earlier escharectomy and autologous skin grafts may improve outcomes.
Solving Combinatorial Optimization Problems on Quantum Computers

Introduction. Quantum computers provide several times faster solutions to several NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems in comparison with computing clusters. The trend of doubling the number of qubits of quantum computers every year suggests the existence of an analog of Moore's law for quantum computers, which means that soon they will also be able to get a significant acceleration of solving many applied large-scale problems. The purpose of the article is to review methods for creating algorithms of quantum computer mathematics for combinatorial optimization problems and to analyze the influence of the qubit-to-qubit coupling and connections strength on the performance of quantum data processing. Results. The article offers approaches to the classification of algorithms for solving these problems from the perspective of quantum computer mathematics. It is shown that the number and strength of connections between qubits affect the dimensionality of problems solved by algorithms of quantum computer mathematics. It is proposed to consider two approaches to calculating combinatorial optimization problems on quantum computers: universal, using quantum gates, and specialized, based on a parameterization of physical processes. Examples of constructing a half-adder for two qubits of an IBM quantum processor and an example of solving the problem of finding the maximum independent set for the IBM and D-wave quantum computers are given. Conclusions. Today, quantum computers are available online through cloud services for research and commercial use. At present, quantum processors do not have enough qubits to replace semiconductor computers in universal computing. The search for a solution to a combinatorial optimization problem is performed by achieving the minimum energy of the system of coupled qubits, on which the task is mapped, and the data are the initial conditions. Approaches to solving combinatorial optimization problems on quantum computers are considered and the results of solving the problem of finding the maximum independent set on the IBM and D-wave quantum computers are given. Keywords: quantum computer, quantum computer mathematics, qubit, maximal independent set for a graph.
Development of a Testing Funnel for Identification of Small-Molecule Modulators Targeting Secretin Receptors

The secretin receptor (SCTR), a prototypical class B G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), exerts its effects mainly by activating Gαs proteins upon binding of its endogenous peptide ligand secretin. SCTRs can be found in a variety of tissues and organs across species, including the pancreas, stomach, liver, heart, lung, colon, kidney, and brain. Beyond that, modulation of SCTR-mediated signaling has therapeutic potential for the treatment of multiple diseases, such as heart failure, obesity, and diabetes. However, no ligands other than secretin and its peptide analogs have been described to regulate SCTRs, probably due to inherent challenges in family B GPCR drug discovery. Here we report creation of a testing funnel that allowed targeted detection of SCTR small-molecule activators. Pursuing the strategy to identify positive allosteric modulators (PAMs), we established a unique primary screening assay employing a mixture of three orthosteric stimulators that was compared in a screening campaign testing 12,000 small-molecule compounds. Beyond that, we developed a comprehensive set of secondary assays, such as a radiolabel-free target engagement assay and a NanoBiT (NanoLuc Binary Technology)-based approach to detect β-arrestin-2 recruitment, all feasible in a high-throughput environment as well as capable of profiling ligands and hits regarding their effect on binding and receptor function. This combination of methods enabled the discovery of five promising scaffolds, four of which have been validated and further characterized with respect to their allosteric activities. We propose that our results may serve as starting points for developing the first in vivo active small molecules targeting SCTRs.
Variation in Atmospheric Precipitation in Poland in the Years 2001–2018

Climate change scenarios are in agreement as to the direction of air temperature changes in global warming, although the magnitude of the warming depends on the scenario adopted. In contrast, projections of changes in precipitation totals in Poland are not clear and obvious. Analysis of long-term observational series reveals no clear significant trends in levels of precipitation, despite periods of fluctuation, as well as an upward trend reported in the annual amount of precipitation, especially in northern Poland. However, the increasing variability of annual rainfall totals is commonly highlighted. In the years 1861–1990, the coefficient of variation of annual precipitation totals increased from about 10% to 16%. In the years 1971–2000, this coefficient for Poland increased to 17%, and in the period of 2001–2018, which is the subject of the present study, to 19%. Despite the lack of clear trends in annual totals, the increase in the coefficient of variation results in an increase in the frequency of both drought and floods. This unfavorable situation is exacerbated by the downward trend observed in the share of summer rainfall in the annual total. In urban areas with increasing surface sealing, the share of surface runoff in the water balance increases, and in this situation short-term rainfall will cause local flooding.
Pollinators and herbivores interactively shape selection on strawberry defence and attraction

Abstract Tripartite interactions between plants, herbivores, and pollinators hold fitness consequences for most angiosperms. However, little is known on how plants evolve in response—and in particular what the net selective outcomes are for traits of shared relevance to pollinators and herbivores. In this study, we manipulated herbivory (“presence” and “absence” treatments) and pollination (“open” and “hand pollination” treatments) in a full factorial common‐garden experiment with woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca L.). This design allowed us to quantify the relative importance and interactive effects of herbivore‐ and pollinator‐mediated selection on nine traits related to plant defence and attraction. Our results showed that pollinators imposed stronger selection than herbivores on traits related to both direct and indirect (i.e., tritrophic) defence. However, conflicting selection was imposed on inflorescence density: a trait that appears to be shared by herbivores and pollinators as a host plant signal. However, in all cases, selection imposed by one agent depended largely on the presence or ecological effect of the other, suggesting that dynamic patterns of selection could be a common outcome of these interactions in natural populations. As a whole, our findings highlight the significance of plant‐herbivore‐pollinator interactions as potential drivers of evolutionary change, and reveal that pollinators likely play an underappreciated role as selective agents on direct and in direct plant defence.
How do offshoring-related changes in job characteristics affect onshore managers’ affective organizational commitment? The moderating role of perceived organizational valence

Offshoring—the transfer of work activities to providers in offshore countries—has for some time affected the nature of work in onshore locations. Not much is however known about the reactions of onshore job incumbents to such changes. In this article, we use a survey of UK firms to examine the relationship between perceived changes in onshore managers’ work characteristics induced by information systems offshoring and managers’ affective organizational commitment. We found that a perceived increase in onshore managers’ job complexity was associated with higher affective organizational commitment only if managers also perceived organizational valence, that is, only if they believed that information systems offshoring benefited their organization. A perceived increase in cross-cultural work was associated with higher affective organizational commitment, and this association was positively moderated by managers’ perceptions of organizational valence. Using the offshoring context, our findings provide insights into consequences of contemporary changes in the nature of work in developed countries and to explain the diverse reactions of onshore job incumbents to such changes.
Conditioned integration during security crises: the role of Israeli sports media from 1996 to 2014

This study examines peace journalism as manifested toward the Israeli Arab minority in a time of seven security crises from 1996 to 2014 in the Israeli Hebrew sports media. Studies of peace journalism in periods of crises focus mainly on political news and find that the media largely conform to alienation practices. This study argues that sports media encourage a ‘conditional integration’ of all actors that participate in the sport. The sports media have three strategies: acknowledging a notion of ‘normalcy’ in which Arabs encourage the maintenance of the sports season at the national and international levels, curtailing alienation practices such as condemning racism and objection to boycott of Arab teams, and encouraging integration that allows the Israeli-Arabs to have a unique voice, as long as they do not openly adopt anti-Israel political stances such as making pro-Hamas or Hezbollah statements. Therefore, sports sections in the news can deepen our understanding of the diverse role of media in times of security crises.
Intelligent virtual agent, learning how to reach a goal by making the least number of compromises

The learning process in the Q-learning algorithm is characterized by maximizing a single, numerical reward signal. However, there are tasks for which the requirements toward the way to reach a goal are complex. This paper proposes a modification to the Q-learning algorithm. In order to make the Q-learning agent find the optimal path to the goal by meeting particular complex criteria, the use of measures model (a model of environment criteria), represented as a new memory matrix, is introduced. If the goal cannot be reached by following the pre-set criteria, the learning agent can compromise a given criterion. The agent makes the least possible number of tradeoffs in order to reach the goal. If the criteria are arranged by their level of importance, then the agent can choose more in number and more acceptable compromises. The aim of the modification is to empower the learning agent to control the way of reaching a goal. The modified algorithm has been applied to training smart shopping-cart learning agents. The tests show improvement in their behaviour.
A Comparative Trend Analysis of Changes in Teacher Rate of Absenteeism in South Africa

The aim of this research was to analyze the changes in the rate of teacher absenteeism among South African provinces as a major in-class factor contributing to student performance and effective learning. Time series analysis of exponential smoothing, moving average, and seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average model (SARIMA) were applied to model and assess the designed hypothesis as a major factor for educational advancement using different provincial data input from the Department of Basic Education in South Africa. The performances of all the models were analyzed using statistical indexes: Mean Square Error (MSE) and Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE). The overall performance showed that the absence rate increased statistically significantly from 2011 to 2017. Thus, this opinion was held by more than half of the general populace depending on the province type. The findings of this research could assist the management of the basic education department in general, and in schools in particular, to understand the problem of absenteeism and thereby enabling the implementation of effective strategies that can be used to curb the practice.
Application of Enzymes in Regioselective and Stereoselective Organic Reactions

Nowadays, biocatalysts have received much more attention in chemistry regarding their potential to enable high efficiency, high yield, and eco-friendly processes for a myriad of applications. Nature’s vast repository of catalysts has inspired synthetic chemists. Furthermore, the revolutionary technologies in bioengineering have provided the fast discovery and evolution of enzymes that empower chemical synthesis. This article attempts to deliver a comprehensive overview of the last two decades of investigation into enzymatic reactions and highlights the effective performance progress of bio-enzymes exploited in organic synthesis. Based on the types of enzymatic reactions and enzyme commission (E.C.) numbers, the enzymes discussed in the article are classified into oxidoreductases, transferases, hydrolases, and lyases. These applications should provide us with some insight into enzyme design strategies and molecular mechanisms.
Poroelastic Solution for the Nonlinear Injectivity of Subsurface Rocks With Strain‐Induced Permeability Variations

Fluid injection in porous rock occurs in a variety of hydrogeological operations including wastewater disposal, CO2 sequestration, enhanced oil recovery, and geothermal energy extraction. Influx of fluid into the host rock is usually accompanied by induced permeability enhancement due to increased pore fluid pressure and consequent dilation of the pore volume. The effect would, in turn, enhance the well injectivity index. This paper presents an analytical solution to the nonlinear problem of underground fluid injection in a disk‐shaped reservoir while accounting for the induced permeability enhancement. The host rock permeability is considered to depend on the rock total stress and pore fluid pressure. For this purpose, the rock stress is formulated as a nonlocal function of disturbances in the pore fluid pressure using the fundamental solution for a nucleus of strain in an elastic half space. Alongside, the nonlinear fluid transport equation that incorporates stress‐sensitive rock permeability is analytically solved using a perturbation technique. The good match with finite difference solution to the same problem verifies the validity and accuracy of the perturbation solution. Parametric study on a test case problem is conducted to examine the influence of different parameters on well injectivity. Findings reveal the higher vulnerability of shallower host reservoirs to stress‐induced permeability variations. The effect of rock poroelastic properties on fluid transport process is discussed.
Stuck in the middle. A geographical appraisal of the oldest insectivores – and a marsupial – from the Vallès-Penedès Basin (early Miocene, Catalonia, Spain)

The Vallès-Penedès Basin in Catalonia (NE Spain) forms a biogeographically important connection between central Europe and the Iberian Peninsula. Whereas this is well documented for the late middle and early late Miocene, the early Miocene sequence has received far less attention. New excavations yielded micromammal assemblages from the Ramblian and early Aragonian. Among the euliphotyhplans and metatherian studied, we recognize seven non-soricid species (Amphiperatherium frequens von Meyer, 1846, Galerix symeonidisi Doukas, 1986 and Galerix remmerti van den Hoek Ostende, 2003, Desmanodon daamsi van den Hoek Ostende, 1997, Heterosorex neumayrianus Schlosser, 1887, Chainodus sp., Plesiodimylus sp.) and six species of shrews (Paenelimnoecus sp., Miosorex sp., cf. Clapasorex, cf. Oligosorex, cf. Florinia sp. and Soricinae indet.). They confirm the intermediate position of the Vallès-Penedès also at the time of the older faunas, but show that differences with the Iberian inland were less pronounced. These differences can be explained by higher humidity in the coastal region, as indicated by the presence of dimylids. The differences between this coastal area and inland basin confirm the potential of coastal regions as migration corridors.
Grain‐Boundary Diffusion Creep of Olivine: 2. Solidus Effects and Consequences for the Viscosity of the Oceanic Upper Mantle

In Part 1 of this study (Yabe et al., 2020, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JB019415), we established an olivine grain‐boundary diffusion creep law that incorporates the chemically induced enhancement of creep rates, which becomes significant with increasing temperature. The effect was attributed to grain‐boundary disordering that starts at ~0.92 × solidus (bulk eutectic temperature). In this study, we estimated solidus temperatures of the samples used in the previous diffusion creep experiments. These temperatures were used to compare previously reported diffusion creep rates for olivine with our established diffusion creep law. We found that the law explains a difference of up to 2 orders of magnitude in olivine creep rates at the same temperatures, stresses, grain sizes, and water contents in the previous studies. The geotherm normalized by the mantle solidus was calculated for the upper mantle with water contents ranging from 0 to 300 μg/g, which predicts depths where grain‐boundary diffusion creep is enhanced due to grain‐boundary disordering. Constructed viscosity‐depth profiles reveal a very thin mantle lithosphere beneath mid‐ocean ridges, with development of the lithosphere away from the ridge, leaving a low‐viscosity region below. Given a grain size of 1 mm and depending on the water content, a viscosity of 2–5 × 1019 Pa·s is predicted for the low‐viscosity mantle beneath 50‐million‐year‐old seafloor.
Social construction of house size expectations: testing the positional good theory and aspiration spiral theory using UK and German panel data

ABSTRACT This paper examines the social construction of house size expectations in two national panel datasets: German Socio Economic Panel Study (GSOEP) and the British Household Panel Study (BHPS). More specifically, it tests the aspiration spiral theory and positional good theory using data on housing/life satisfaction and house size judgements. In both countries, it finds substantial evidence that the current space expectations of individuals who have ‘upsized’ depends on the level of living space they experienced in the past year. For downsizers, however, the evidence in support of the aspiration spiral theory is weaker. In terms of the positional good theory, this paper finds no consistent evidence that an individual’s space expectations are influenced by those around them. In both countries, the paper tests for two reference groups – the average level of living space in the region, and the mean size of the largest decile of houses in the region – and neither are found to be significant.
Estimating soil salinity with different fractional vegetation cover using remote sensing

Soil salinization is a serious restrictive factor affecting sustainable agricultural development. In order to explore the effect of Fractional Vegetation Cover (FVC), we monitored soil salinization in sites different vegetation coverage in Jiefangzha Irrigation District in Inner Mongolia using satellite remote sensing. From May to August 2018, we carried out field sampling at different depths in each month, and calculated FVC and spectral covariates using GF‐1 satellite images in the corresponding sampling period. Based on the FVC division criteria for Inner Mongolia, we took the following steps: (a) setting up a control treatment A (the full data with undivided FVC, TA) and experimental treatments B (bare land, TB), C (mid‐low FVC, TC), D (mid FVC, TD) and E (high FVC, TE); (b) conducting the Best Subset Selection (BSS) for all spectral covariates at different depths of each treatment; and (c) constructing the Soil Salt Content (SSC) inversion models using partial least square regression (PLSR), Cubist, and Extreme Learning Machine (ELM). The results indicated that (a) classifying FVC could improve the stability and predictive ability of the models; (b) the performance of the three modeling methods were different (Cubist was the best, ELM next and PLSR the poorest); (c) the optimal inversion models for TB, TC and TE were constructed by Cubist at 0–20, 0–40 and 0–20 cm, and for TD was constructed by ELM at 0–60 cm, respectively. The results can provide references for soil salinization prevention and agricultural production in Jiefangzha Irrigation District and other areas with the similar vegetation cover.