Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mg, Zn Substituted Calcium Phosphates—Thermodynamic Modeling, Biomimetic Synthesis in the Presence of Low-Weight Amino Acids and High Temperature Properties

The preparation of specially doped calcium phosphates (CaPs) is receiving a great deal of attention from researchers due to CaPs’ enhanced capabilities for application in medicine. Complexation and precipitation in a complicated electrolyte system including simulated body fluids that are enriched with Mg2+ and Zn2+ ions and modified with glycine, alanine and valine were first evaluated using a thermodynamic equilibrium model. The influence of the type and concentration of amino acid on the incorporation degree of Mg and Zn into the solid phases was predicted. Experimental studies, designed on the basis of thermodynamic calculations, confirmed the predictions. Amorphous calcium phosphates double-doped with Mg and Zn were biomimetically precipitated and transformed into Mg, Zn-β—tricalcium phosphates (TCP) upon calcination. The Rietveld refinement confirmed that Mg2+ and Zn2+ substituted Ca2+ only at the octahedral sites of β-TCP, and in some cases, fully displacing the Ca2+ from them. The resulting Mg, Zn-β–TCP can serve as a reservoir for Mg and Zn ions when included in the formulation of a biomaterial for bone remodeling. The research conducted reveals the effect of combining mathematical models with experimental studies to pre-evaluate the influence of various additives in the design of materials with predetermined properties.
Efficacy of Prophylactic Anti-VEGF in Preventing Radiation Retinopathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background In patients predisposed to radiation retinopathy (RR), administration of therapy after apparent clinical signs and symptoms are considered too late, resulting in substantial vision loss and blindness. Early initiation of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) might serve as a strategy to slow disease progression and prolong good eyesight. Objective To evaluate the efficacy of prophylactic anti-VEGF in preventing RR and preserving vision in patients at high risk of radiation-induced vision loss. Methods A systematic literature search was performed from inception to 4 June 2023 using Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PubMed (MEDLINE), and Scopus. Eligible studies were clinical trials and observational studies investigating the incidence of radiation maculopathy (RM), radiation optic neuropathy (RON), moderate vision loss (loss of more than or equal to 3 lines of baseline visual acuity [VA]) and final VA, whether good (20/40 or better) or poor (20/200 or worse), following prophylactic anti-VEGF. Three reviewers independently conducted article screening, data extraction and risk of bias assessment. Random effects models were used to determine the cumulative effects of each outcome. Results Four studies (one clinical trial and three observational studies), involving 2109 patients, were included in our analysis. Across all studies, there were significant reductions in the events of RM (pooled odds ratio [OR] 0.50; 95% CI, 0.34–0.74; p = 0.001), RON (pooled OR 0.62; 95% CI, 0.42–0.90; p = 0.012) and poor final VA (pooled OR 0.50; 95% CI, 0.37–0.68; p = 0.003). The association of moderate vision loss and good final VA with the use of prophylactic anti-VEGF between the groups was unclear owing to the high level of heterogeneity. Conclusion Prophylactic anti-VEGF therapy might delay RM and RON, preventing high-risk patients from developing poor VA by approximately 50%. However, this evidence should be interpreted with caution because of its low level of certainty. Future robust studies are warranted to confirm this finding.
“It’s Just Something That You Have to Do as a Teacher”

School systems have taken on greater roles in guiding and supporting classroom instruction by redesigning their educational infrastructure—the coordinated resources, structures, and norms that support teachers’ work and drive instructional improvement. However, teachers often adapt or resist common instructional approaches, citing students’ unique needs. Drawing on data from a qualitative, comparative study, I examine how different types of public school systems (charter, suburban, and urban) redesigned their educational infrastructures and how teachers used system-provided educational infrastructure when constructing their practice. I found that teachers experienced their educational infrastructure as providing both affordances and constraints around their instructional decisions, particularly how they responded to their perceptions of students’ needs. Despite differences in each system’s educational infrastructure arrangements, teachers faced a common challenge related to differentiating instruction in diverse classrooms. Findings suggest the need for educational infrastructure redesign efforts to include professional learning around asset-based differentiation strategies and culturally responsive pedagogy.
Integrated analysis of the oral and intestinal microbiome and metabolome of elderly people with more than 26 original teeth: a pilot study

Elderly subjects with more than 20 natural teeth have a higher healthy life expectancy than those with few or no teeth. The oral microbiome and its metabolome are associated with oral health, and they are also associated with systemic health via the oral-gut axis. Here, we analyzed the oral and gut microbiome and metabolome profiles of elderly subjects with more than 26 natural teeth. Salivary samples collected as mouth-rinsed water and fecal samples were obtained from 22 healthy individuals, 10 elderly individuals with more than 26 natural teeth and 24 subjects with periodontal disease. The oral microbiome and metabolome profiles of elderly individuals resembled those of subjects with periodontal disease, with the metabolome showing a more substantial differential abundance of components. Despite the distinct oral metabolome profiles, there was no differential abundance of components in the gut microbiome and metabolomes, except for enrichment of short-chain fatty acids in elderly subjects. Finally, to investigate the relationship between the oral and gut microbiome and metabolome, we analyzed bacterial coexistence in the oral cavity and gut and analyzed the correlation of metabolite levels between the oral cavity and gut. However, there were few associations between oral and gut for bacteria and metabolites in either elderly or healthy subjects. Overall, these results indicate distinct oral microbiome and metabolome profiles, as well as the lack of an oral-gut axis in elderly subjects with a high number of natural teeth.
Avalanches on the northwestern slope of peak Todorka (Pirin Mts, SW Bulgaria) and their influence on forests

We studied the avalanche activity on the northwestern slope of peak Todorka in the Pirin Mts (SW Bulgaria) and its influence on forests. The terrain was mapped by building a digital elevation model (DEM) from the topographical maps and with the help of aerial photographs. The terrain characteristics of the slope were found suitable for the formation of big avalanches and over 30 % of the potential forest area was seriously affected by avalanches. Seven percents of the forests were destroyed by avalanches repeatedly or during the last 50 years. The total area of the avalanche paths into the forests was 4.7 ha. The structure and composition of the forest community in a representative runout zone was highly dependent on avalanche frequency. The author maintains that, despite their high ecological role and threat to human health and life, avalanches on the NW slope of peak Todorka are neglected and studied inadequately.
Response of soil microbial α‐diversity to grazing in grassland ecosystems: A meta‐analysis

Grazing is one of the most important forms of terrestrial use, and the soil microbial community plays an important role in nutrient cycling and biodiversity maintenance of grazing grassland, but the response of soil bacterial and fungal communities α‐diversity to grazing and the potential mechanisms of grazing‐induced soil microbial change have not been well synthesized. We conducted a meta‐analysis of 87 pairs of globally distributed observations from 35 published papers to investigate the response of the soil microbial community to grazing and the underlying mechanisms. Our results showed that light grazing increased the soil bacterial community Shannon index by 2.4%, but the soil fungal Shannon index decreased by 21.4%. Yak (Bos grunniens) grazing significantly increased the soil bacterial and fungal Shannon index by 1.5% and 11.3%, respectively. Grazing duration of 5–10 years increased the soil bacterial Chao1 index by 9.1% and fungal Chao1 and evenness indexes by 11.3% and 30.4%, respectively. In areas with <400 mm of precipitation, grazing decreased the soil bacterial Simpson index, and in areas of ≥400 mm, grazing also reduced the soil bacterial Simpson and increased the fungal richness and evenness. A linear analysis between soil microbial α‐diversity indexes and other related variables showed that soil bacterial and fungal communities α‐diversity and abundance under grazing conditions were significantly and positively correlated with grassland vegetation, soil pH, soil water content (SWC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), organic carbon (SOC), and nitrate nitrogen (NO3−‐N), suggesting that changes in microbial communities were the combined result of grazing‐induced vegetation and soil changes. Our results revealed the effects of grazing on soil bacterial and fungal α‐diversity and their underlying mechanisms, which provide a basis for advocating moderate grazing and studying grassland management practices.
Wrong landing on a non‐host occurs under the canopy of a host: The presumed path of the ambrosia beetle Platypus quercivorus to approach its host

The ambrosia beetle Platypus quercivorus is a vector of a pathogenic fungus that causes Japanese oak wilt. Its host is Fagaceae trees; however, these beetles also erroneously bore into unsuitable, non‐host tree species, which can be affected by neighbouring host tree species and the size of the non‐host. We attached sticky sheets to the host and non‐host tree species of P. quercivorus and counted the number of beetles that landed weekly, in a season of beetle dispersal. We quantified the density of the host canopy above, the basal area of surrounding hosts and the diameter at breast height (DBH) of each non‐host tree. The host canopy density affected the probability of beetles landing on non‐hosts, and the host basal area and non‐host DBH affected the number of beetles landing on non‐hosts. Thus, P. quercivorus is probably initially attracted to a dense host canopy, secondly attracted to the high density of the host and thereafter aggregate onto thick trees, including non‐host species. The number of beetles landing on the surrounding host also affected beetle landing on the non‐hosts, suggesting that landing on non‐hosts is an error that occurs in high frequency during the seasons when many beetles land on the hosts.
The Progress in the Application of Dissolving Microneedles in Biomedicine

In recent years, microneedle technology has been widely used for the transdermal delivery of substances, showing improvements in drug delivery effects with the advantages of minimally invasive, painless, and convenient operation. With the development of nano- and electrochemical technology, different types of microneedles are increasingly being used in other biomedical fields. Recent research progress shows that dissolving microneedles have achieved remarkable results in the fields of dermatological treatment, disease diagnosis and monitoring, and vaccine delivery, and they have a wide range of application prospects in various biomedical fields, showing their great potential as a form of clinical treatment. This review mainly focuses on dissolving microneedles, summarizing the latest research progress in various biomedical fields, providing inspiration for the subsequent intelligent and commercial development of dissolving microneedles, and providing better solutions for clinical treatment.
Preparation of β-Cyclodextrin Functionalized Platform for Monitoring Changes in Potassium Content in Perspiration

The monitoring of potassium ion (K+) levels in human sweat can provide valuable insights into electrolyte balance and muscle fatigue non-invasively. However, existing laboratory techniques for sweat testing are complex, while wearable sensors face limitations like drift, fouling and interference from ions such as Na+. This work develops printed electrodes using β-cyclodextrin functionalized reduced graphene oxide (β-CD-RGO) for selective K+ quantification in sweat. The β-CD prevents the aggregation of RGO sheets while also providing selective binding sites for K+ capture. Electrodes were fabricated by screen printing the β-CD-RGO ink onto conductive carbon substrates. Material characterization confirmed the successful functionalization of RGO with β-CD. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) showed enhanced electrochemical behavior for β-CD-RGO-printed electrodes compared with bare carbon and RGO. Sensor optimization resulted in a formulation with 30% β-CD-RGO loading. The printed electrodes were drop-casted with an ion-selective polyvinyl chloride (PVC) membrane. A linear range from 10 μM to 100 mM was obtained along with a sensitivity of 54.7 mV/decade. The sensor showed good reproducibility over 10 cycles in 10 mM KCl. Minimal interference from 100 mM Na+ and other common sweat constituents validated the sensor’s selectivity. On-body trials were performed by mounting the printed electrodes on human subjects during exercise. The K+ levels measured in sweat were found to correlate well with serum analysis, demonstrating the sensor’s ability for non-invasive electrolyte monitoring. Overall, the facile synthesis of stable β-CD-RGO inks enables the scalable fabrication of wearable sensors for sweat potassium detection.
Two dimensional stratospheric aerosol distributions during EASOE

LIDAR data of stratospheric aerosol layers from the Mount Pinatubo eruption, taken on long range flights with a Transall aircraft, have been investigated to study the exchange of air-masses across the polar vortex boundary. From these measurements we found that the center region of the stratospheric polar vortex was free of volcanic aerosol above PT values of 485 K throughout the whole winter, with the exception of small isolated clouds appearing at the end of Jan. 92. Below 420 K the aerosol layers are very homogeneous on an isentropic surface and do not show much correlation with the vortex.
Multi-Granularity Matching Transformer for Text-Based Person Search

Text-based person search aims to retrieve the most relevant pedestrian images from an image gallery based on textual descriptions. Most existing methods rely on two separate encoders to extract the image and text features, and then elaborately design various schemes to bridge the gap between image and text modalities. However, the shallow interaction between both modalities in these methods is still insufficient to eliminate the modality gap. To address the above problem, we propose TransTPS, a transformer-based framework that enables deeper interaction between both modalities through the self-attention mechanism in transformer, effectively alleviating the modality gap. In addition, due to the small inter-class variance and large intra-class variance in image modality, we further develop two techniques to overcome these limitations. Specifically, Cross-modal Multi-Granularity Matching (CMGM) is proposed to address the problem caused by small inter-class variance and facilitate distinguishing pedestrians with similar appearance. Besides, Contrastive Loss with Weakly Positive pairs (CLWP) is introduced to mitigate the impact of large intra-class variance and contribute to the retrieval of more target images. Experiments on CUHK-PEDES and RSTPReID datasets demonstrate that our proposed framework achieves state-of-the-art performance compared to previous methods.
Exploring the Linguistic and Cultural Identities of Transnational Background Children in Catalonia, Spain

This article explores linguistic and cultural identities as they emerge in ethnographic data from plurilingual children with transnational and ethnic minority backgrounds in Catalonia, Spain. The particular sociolinguistic and multicultural context where these young people currently live, characterised by the coexistence of local, national and heritage languages with unequal social status, as well as their own trajectories and experiences of socialisation, implies that they often forge complex “in-between” linguistic and cultural identities and senses of belonging. To reflect on these complexities, we analyse multimodal data from transnational- and minority-background children as they participate in an autobiographical activity aimed at promoting linguistically and culturally inclusive pedagogical approaches and participatory action research (PAR). The analysis shows that children’s identity constructions fluently intertwine elements from their “home” and “host” languages and cultures with features characteristic of child/youth popular cultures, and with adscriptions to diverse real and imagined communities. These hybrid articulations, which can be described as plurilingual and transcultural, foreground how identity is both an individual and a social process, transversed by different axes, including cultural and ethnic referents, linguistic repertoires, historic, family and personal trajectories, urban cultures and the influence of friends and peers, among others. The identification of these emergent traits in our data foregrounds both the particularities and commonalities of pupils’ identity construction, which challenges and reshapes traditional understandings of identity. Finally, this work aims to illustrate how transnational children’s complex senses of being and belonging can be recognised and supported through inclusive pedagogical proposals as the one described herein.
Balance between microbial calcification and metazoan bioerosion in modern stromatolitic oncolites

Stromatolites date back some 3.5 billion years and constitute the most common and conspicuous fossils through the Proterozoic. These organosedimentary structures decreased dramatically in diversity and abundance by the late Neoproterozoic, a phenomenon often ascribed to destructive grazing by newly evolved metazoans. We investigated the concurrent processes of microbial calcification and metazoan bioerosion in one of the few locations (Rio Mesquites, Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila, Mexico) where living freshwater stromatolites, formed by cyanobacteria and diatoms, coexist with significant populations of metazoan grazers. We used microsensor chemical profiling and monitoring of bulk water Ca2+ concentrations to determine calcification rates and their dependence on microbial metabolism. The bioerosive impact resulting from grazing by endemic hydrobiid gastropods was assessed by gravimetric quantification of carbonaceous faecal pellet production. Calcification was clearly light‐dependent, reaching maximal rates (saturation) at low incident light intensity, and was surprisingly efficient, with O2/Ca2+ exchange ratios well above unity, and with absolute rates similar to those found in corals. However, the erosive action of grazing snails removed most of these carbonate inputs from the oncolites. Thus, a precarious balance between constructive and destructive geobiological processes was at play in the system. The fact that accretion barely exceeded bioerosion in an environment highly conducive to calcification supports the potential impact of faunal grazing as causal agent in the demise of stromatolites in the late Proterozoic. Our findings indicate that a search for fossil evidence of bioerosive grazing in the form of carbonaceous faecal pellets associated with fossil stromatolites may provide a means to test that hypothesis directly.
The youngest giant: Discovery and significance of the remains of a giant moa (Dinornis giganteus) near Turangi, in central North Island, New Zealand

Abstract A partial skeleton of Dinornis giganteus, radiocarbon dated to 683–651 CAL yr BP, is reported from a pumice pitfall trap near Turangi, close to Lake Taupo, North Island, New Zealand. A review of other, mostly unpublished, moa discoveries from the Volcanic Plateau region indicates that all seven North Island species formerly occurred there in the late Holocene.
A wavelet transform method to merge Landsat TM and SPOT panchromatic data

Abstract To take advantage of the high spectral resolution of Landsat TM images and the high spatial resolution of SPOT panchromatic images (SPOT PAN), we present a wavelet transform method to merge the two data types. In a pyramidal fashion, each TM reflective band or SPOT PAN image was decomposed into an orthogonal wavelet representation at a given coarser resolution, which consisted of a low frequency approximation image and a set of high frequency, spatially-oriented detail images. Band-by-band, the merged images were derived by performing an inverse wavelet transform using the approximation image from each TM band and detail images from SPOT PAN. The spectral and spatial features of the merged results of the wavelet methods were compared quantitatively with those of intensity-hue-saturation (IHS), principal component analysis (PCA), and the Brovey transform. It was found that multisensor data merging is a trade-off between the spectral information from a low spatial-high spectral resolution sensor an.
Towards Flight Delays Reduction: The Effect of Aircraft Type and Part of Day on Arrival Delays Prediction

—The basic objective of this study is to develop a model that analyzes and predicts the occurrence of flight arrival delays in the United States. Macroscopic and microscopic delay factors are discussed. In this research, we proposed new features that, to the best of our knowledge, were never used in previous studies, namely departure Part and Arrival Part of the day (Mornings, Afternoons, Evenings, Nights) and type of aircraft. U.S. domestic flight data for the year 2018, extracted from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), were adopted in order to train the predictive model. We used efficient Machine Learning classifiers such as Decision Trees, K-Nearest Neighbors, Random Forest and Multilayer Perceptron. To overcome the issue of imbalanced data, sampling techniques were performed. We chose Grid Search technique for best parameters selection. The performance of each classifier was compared in terms of evaluation metrics, parameters tuning, data sampling and features selection. The experimental results showed that tuning and sampling techniques have successfully generated the best classifier which is Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) with an accuracy of 98.72% and a higher number of correctly classified flights.