Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spin-Label Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Reveals Effects of Wastewater Filter Membrane Coated with Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles on Bovine Serum Albumin

The accumulation of proteins in filter membranes limits the efficiency of filtering technologies for cleaning wastewater. Efforts are ongoing to coat commercial filters with different materials (such as titanium dioxide, TiO2) to reduce the fouling of the membrane. Beyond monitoring the desired effect of the retention of biomolecules, it is necessary to understand what the biophysical changes are in water-soluble proteins caused by their interaction with the new coated filter membranes, an aspect that has received little attention so far. Using spin-label electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), aided with native fluorescence spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering (DLS), here, we report the changes in the structure and dynamics of bovine serum albumin (BSA) exposed to TiO2 (P25) nanoparticles or passing through commercial polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes coated with the same nanoparticles. We have found that the filtering process and prolonged exposure to TiO2 nanoparticles had significant effects on different regions of BSA, and denaturation of the protein was not observed, neither with the TiO2 nanoparticles nor when passing through the TiO2-coated filter membranes.
Cardiac magnetic resonance assessment of cardiac involvement in autoimmune diseases

Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is emerging as the modality of choice to assess early cardiovascular involvement in patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARDs) that often has a silent presentation and may lead to changes in management. Besides being reproducible and accurate for functional and volumetric assessment, the strength of CMR is its unique ability to perform myocardial tissue characterization that allows the identification of inflammation, edema, and fibrosis. Several CMR biomarkers may provide prognostic information on the severity and progression of cardiovascular involvement in patients with ARDs. In addition, CMR may add value in assessing treatment response and identification of cardiotoxicity related to therapy with immunomodulators that are commonly used to treat these conditions. In this review, we aim to discuss the following objectives: • Illustrate imaging findings of multi-parametric CMR approach in the diagnosis of cardiovascular involvement in various ARDs;• Review the CMR signatures for risk stratification, prognostication, and guiding treatment strategies in ARDs;• Describe the utility of routine and advanced CMR sequences in identifying cardiotoxicity related to immunomodulators and disease-modifying agents in ARDs;• Discuss the limitations of CMR, recent advances, current research gaps, and potential future developments in the field.
Hess Deep Rift Valley Structure from Seismic Tomography

The Hess Deep rift valley, at approximately 2° 14' N, 101° 33' W, displays exposures of young, lower crustal and upper mantle rocks formed at the nearby, fast­ spreading East Pacific Rise. A seismic refraction experiment was conducted across the Hess Deep rift valley to provide p-wave travel times between sea floor explosives and Ocean Bottom Seismometers. These travel time data were processed with an iterative, damped least-squares, inverse method to produce a velocity model of the subsurface structure. The resulting velocity contrasts were interpreted as lithologies originating at different depths and/or alteration of the preexisting rock units. Petrologic and bathymet­ric data from previous studies were used, along with the seismic interpretation, to pro­duce a geologic model. The model supports low-angle detachment faulting with serpentinization of peridotite as the preferred mechanism for creating the distribution and exposure of lower crustal and upper mantle rocks within the Hess Deep. In addition to the geologic information gained from this study, linearity limita­tions of the tomographic inversion have been shown to be dependent on topography. Topography on the scale of the ray paths has been shown to effectively increase or decrease the velocity gradient, as does the Earth-flattening approximation. Valleys decrease the apparent velocity gradient; whereas, the converse is true for hills. If the velocity gradient is already weak (ie. at depths > 500 m in oceanic crust), then further decrease in gradient beneath a valley produces an environment where ray paths are highly sensitive to model change. Consequently, to avoid violating the linearity assump­tion, model changes beneath a valley must be smaller than for a hill or flat topography.
A Journey to Identify Users' Classification Strategies to Customize Game-Based and Gamified Learning Environments

Game designers and researchers have sought to create gameful environments that consider user preferences to increase engagement and motivation. In this sense, it is essential to identify the most suitable game elements for users' profiles. Designers and researchers must choose strategies to classify users into predefined profiles and select the most appropriate game elements for each user. This activity may challenge designers, learning designers, and researchers since they must base their choice on personal aspects that require a deep understanding. Therefore, this article aims to assist game designers, learning designers, and researchers in selecting user classification strategies to customize and personalize game-based and gamified learning environments. By conducting systematic literature mapping, we consolidate the most common strategies and explore their applications in games and gamification. Our analysis, based on 25 publications, reveals that we can classify the strategies according to user interaction, user personality, learning style, and motivation for learning. Strategies based on user interactions emerge as the most popular, while questionnaires and log data systems are commonly used instruments for identifying user profiles. The findings of this SLM offer valuable knowledge for game designers and researchers to define the criteria that will be used to evaluate the effect of games and gamified environments in educational contexts.
Determination of Oleanolic Acid Content in <i>Radix Polysciacis</i> in Tra Vinh Province

: Polyscias fruticosa (L.) Harms is a traditional medicine, which is planted widely in Tra Vinh province of Vietnam. It is used for nourishing the body, curing asthenia, emaciation, fatigue, poor digestion, poor metabolism, enhance working capacity and brain activity. Oleanolic acid (OA), a marker, is a sapogenin in radix polysciacis. Quantification of OA by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) makes an important contribution to the quality assessment of the medicinal plant of Polyscias fruticosa (L.) Harms. In order to develop and apply a method to evaluate the content OA in radix polysciacis, planted in Tra Vinh province, many conditions for extracting OA from radix polysciacis were investigated; many HPLC testing conditions were performed find a simple, accurate and fast analytical procedure for the quantification of OA in extract solution of radix polysciacis. As a result, the optimum extraction procedure of OA from the roots of Polyscias fruticosa (L.) Harms was found out; a simple, accurate and fast analytical procedure for the quantification of OA in radix polysciacis’s extract solution was developed, evaluated and applied to assets the OA content of 05 samples of radix polysciacis collected in different regions of Tra Vinh province. This developed method can control the quality of medicinal materials of Polyscias fruticosa (L.) Harms and its preparation effectively.
Spectral characteristics of the 1983 Japan Sea tsunami observed in Japan

In order to explain the observed predominant frequencies of the 1989 Japan Sea Tsunami, a one-dimensional propagation model for an outer Sea Tsunami is established. It is found that the theoritical spectrum of the model can account for most of the observed predominant frequencies, except for the longest predominent period which are considered to be related to the shelf oscillation
Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Influenza

Despite the significant amount of research conducted on the epidemiology of seasonal influenza, the patterns in the annual oscillations of influenza epidemics have not been fully described or understood. Furthermore, the current understanding of the intrinsic properties of influenza epidemics is limited by the geographic scales used to evaluate the data. Analyses conducted at larger spatial scales may potentially conceal local trends in disease structure which may reveal the effect of population structure or environmental factors on disease spread. By using influenza incidence data from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and United States influenza mortality data, this dissertation characterizes seasonal influenza epidemics, evaluates factors that drive local influenza epidemics, and provides an initial assessment in how administrative borders influence surveillance for local and regional influenza epidemics.Evidence of spatial heterogeneity existed in the distribution of influenza epidemics for Pennsylvania counties resulting in a cluster of elevated incidence in the South Central region of the state that persisted during the entire study period (2003-2009). Lower monthly precipitation levels during the influenza season (OR = 0.52, p = 0.0319), fewer residents over age 64 (OR = 0.27, p = 0.01) and fewer residents with more than a high school education (OR = 0.76, p = 0.0148) were significantly associated with membership in this cluster. In addition, significant synchrony in the timing of epidemics existed across the entire state and decayed with distance (regional correlation r = 62%). Synchrony as a function of population size displayed evidence of hierarchical spread with more synchronized epidemics occurring among the most populated counties. A gravity model describing movement between two populations was the best predictor of influenza spread suggesting that non-routine and leisure travel drive local epidemics. Within the United States, clusters of epidemic synchronization existed, most notably in densely populated regions where connectivity is stronger. Observation of county and state epidemic clusters highlights the importance and necessity of correctly identifying the ontologic unit of epidemicity for influenza and other diseases. Recognition of the appropriate geographic unit to implement effective surveillance and prevention methods can strengthen the public health response and minimize inefficient mechanisms.
EgoActive: Integrated Wireless Wearable Sensors for Capturing Infant Egocentric Auditory–Visual Statistics and Autonomic Nervous System Function ‘in the Wild’

There have been sustained efforts toward using naturalistic methods in developmental science to measure infant behaviors in the real world from an egocentric perspective because statistical regularities in the environment can shape and be shaped by the developing infant. However, there is no user-friendly and unobtrusive technology to densely and reliably sample life in the wild. To address this gap, we present the design, implementation and validation of the EgoActive platform, which addresses limitations of existing wearable technologies for developmental research. EgoActive records the active infants’ egocentric perspective of the world via a miniature wireless head-mounted camera concurrently with their physiological responses to this input via a lightweight, wireless ECG/acceleration sensor. We also provide software tools to facilitate data analyses. Our validation studies showed that the cameras and body sensors performed well. Families also reported that the platform was comfortable, easy to use and operate, and did not interfere with daily activities. The synchronized multimodal data from the EgoActive platform can help tease apart complex processes that are important for child development to further our understanding of areas ranging from executive function to emotion processing and social learning.
Dispersion and Chemical Evolution Of Ship Plumes In The Marine Boundary Layer

[1] The dispersion and chemical evolution of NOx in ship plumes has been investigated for marine boundary layer (MBL) conditions. This effort has involved combining a plume dispersion algorithm with a time-dependent photochemical box model. The analysis has considered several factors, all of which can influence the net impact of NOx on the background environment. These include the following: season of the year, latitude of point of release, meteorological setting, and ship NOx emission rate. Reaction rates within a plume were shown to be a nonlinear function of the levels of NOx, leading to relative estimates of ship plume NOx lifetimes that were factors of 2.5–10 times shorter than for ambient marine conditions. The shortened ship-plume NOx lifetime reflects both elevated daytime levels of OH and nighttime levels of NO3 and N2O5, all of which were estimated to be several times larger than those typical of ambient marine conditions. During daylight hours, elevated ship plume OH resulted in the net photochemical production of O3, with peak concentrations being 5–65% higher than background values, depending on latitude. The areal integrated O3 effect, however, is estimated to be quite small due to further plume dilution. In addition, because of the shorter estimated lifetime for NOx, it would seem reasonable that the integrated O3 production from the current Lagrangian modeling effort would be significantly lower than that predicted by global 3-D grid models. The current predicted shortened lifetime for NOx is quite significant in terms of assessing a ship plume's impact on background marine levels of NOx. In fact, these results would seem to explain a significant fraction of the overprediction of NOx levels in and near shipping lanes recently estimated using 3-D Eulerian global models.
Satisfied with Life? The Protective Function of Life Satisfaction in the Relationship between Perceived Stress and Negative Mental Health Outcomes

Life satisfaction is a key index of well-being, yet few studies have examined its role as a protective factor in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study expands the research in this area through an examination of the role of life satisfaction in the relationship between perceived stress and negative indices of mental health. Participants were university students (N = 322) who completed the Perceived Stress Scale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and short forms of the trait scale of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Center for Epidemiological Depression Scale, and the Beck Hopelessness Scale. The results indicate that life satisfaction had a health-sustaining effect on indices of well-being. It also moderated the relationship between perceived stress, on the one hand, and anxiety and hopelessness, on the other hand. Further, life satisfaction played a partial mediating role in the relationship between perceived stress and indices of mental health. The findings suggest that life satisfaction could be a protective factor in the context of stressful life events. Cultivating life satisfaction through mindfulness training and the enhancement of gratitude could potentially sustain mental health.
Inhibitory effects of Lactobacillus fermentii and Lactococcus lactis against Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms

Probiotics and their derivatives are becoming increasingly popular in the fight against pathogenic biofilms. This research work explores the use of probiotic bacteria and their potential as antimicrobial agents against Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms and the infections they cause. P. aeruginosa strains were grown on LB (Lysogeny Broth) for 24 hours and characterized using biochemical tests. The biofilm-forming strains were quantified using polystyrene microtiter-plates in a spectrophotometric assay supplemented with M63 minimal media. LAB (Lactobacillus fermentii and Lactococcus lactis) were isolated from fermented maize paste (ogi), Cheese (Waara), Fura and fermented milk (Nunu) on Skim milk agar and were characterized based on colony morphology, cell morphology and biochemical tests. From the isolates, two strains of LAB were selected as probiotics. They were tested for their inhibitory potential against biofilm-forming P. aeruginosa using liquid co-culture assay. The Lactic acid content and Hydrogen Peroxide was estimated by titration for three days. Lactococcus lactis had more stable lactic acid production than Lactobacillus fermentii (2.70 g/L) although both peaked on Day 2 with Lactococcus lactis producing slightly more lactic acid (2.72 g/L). With liquid co-culture assay, there was a 63% decrease observed in the optical density of biofilms. Keywords: Probiotics, Lactic Acid Bacteria, Biofilm, Lactic acid, Lactobacillus fermentii, Lactococcus lactis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa
3D building modeling and reconstruction using photometric satellite and aerial imageries

In this thesis, the problem of three dimensional (3D) reconstruction of building models using photometric satellite and aerial images is investigated. Here, two systems are presented: 1) 3D building reconstruction using a nadir single-view image, and 2) 3D building reconstruction using slant multiple-view aerial images. The first system detects building rooftops in orthogonal aerial/satellite images using a hierarchical segmentation algorithm and a shadow verification approach. The heights of detected buildings are then estimated using a fuzzy rule-based method, which measures the height of a building by comparing its predicted shadow region with the actual shadow evidence in the image. This system finally generated a KML (Keyhole Markup Language) file as the output, that contains 3D models of detected buildings. The second system uses the geolocation information of a scene containing a building of interest and uploads all slant-view images that contain this scene from an input image dataset. These images are then searched automatically to choose image pairs with different views of the scene (north, east, south and west) based on the geolocation and auxiliary data accompanying the input data (metadata that describes the acquisition parameters at the capture time). The camera parameters corresponding to these images are refined using a novel point matching algorithm. Next, the system independently reconstructs 3D flat surfaces that are visible in each view using an iterative algorithm. 3D surfaces generated for all views are combined, and redundant surfaces are removed to create a complete set of 3D surfaces. Finally, the combined 3D surfaces are connected together to generate a more complete 3D model. For the experimental results, both presented systems are evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively and different aspects of the two systems including accuracy, stability, and execution time are discussed.
Factors Affecting Cloud Accounting Adoption In SMEs

This study aims to analyze the factors influencing the adoption of Cloud Accounting for SMEs. The sample size in this research is 276 respondents. The research method used is quantitative, where hypotheses are tested, and data is analyzedanalyzed using Smart PLS 3.00. The results of the study indicate that Complexity, Security, Top Management Support, Adequate Resources, Competitive Pressure, Pressure from Trading Partners, Coercive Pressure, Government Support, and Provider Support significantly influence the adoption of cloud accounting. On the other hand, Compatibility, Relative Advantage, and IT Competence do not significantly affect the adoption of cloud accounting.
Dielectric Characterization of Breast Biopsied Tissues as Pre-Pathological Aid in Early Cancer Detection: A Blinded Feasibility Study

Dielectric characterization has significant potential in several medical applications, providing valuable insights into the electromagnetic properties of biological tissues for disease diagnosis, treatment planning, and monitoring of therapeutic interventions. This work presents the use of a custom-designed electromagnetic characterization system, based on an open-ended coaxial probe, for discriminating between benign and malignant breast tissues in a clinical setting. The probe’s development involved a well-balanced compromise between physical feasibility and its combined use with a reconstruction algorithm known as the virtual transmission line model (VTLM). Immediately following the biopsy procedure, the dielectric properties of the breast tissues were reconstructed, enabling tissue discrimination based on a rule-of-thumb using the obtained dielectric parameters. A comparative analysis was then performed by analyzing the outcomes of the dielectric investigation with respect to conventional histological results. The experimental procedure took place at Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Toledo—Hospital Virgen de la Salud, Spain, where excised breast tissues were collected and subsequently analyzed using the dielectric characterization system. A comprehensive statistical evaluation of the probe’s performance was carried out, obtaining a sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 81.6%, 61.5%, and 73.4%, respectively, compared to conventional histological assessment, considered as the gold standard in this investigation.
Suicide Attempt Self-Injury Interview (SASII): Initiale Validierung einer deutschen Version

Hintergrund: Eine detaillierte Exploration suizidalen und nicht-suizidalen selbstverletzenden Verhaltens mittels spezifischer Interviewverfahren kann die Risikoabschätzung in der klinischen Praxis und Forschung unterstützen. Methode: In der vorliegenden Studie wurde die deutschsprachige Version des Suicide Attempt Self-Injury Interviews (SASII) in einer Stichprobe von N = 240 stationär psychiatrischen Patient:innen in Hinblick auf ihre psychometrischen Eigenschaften untersucht. Diese Arbeit orientiert sich dabei an der Faktorenstruktur der englischsprachigen Fassung des SASII. Ergebnisse und Schlussfolgerungen: Die konfirmatorische Faktorenanalyse zeigte eine gute Modellpassung, während die interne Konsistenz als gering einzustufen ist. Es zeigten sich wenige positive Zusammenhänge zu Maßen aktueller Theoriemodelle suizidalen Erlebens und Verhaltens. Angesichts der in dieser Studie ermittelten geringen Reliabilität der untersuchten Faktorenstruktur wird von einer Verwendung dieser in Forschungsarbeiten abgeraten. Jenseits einer solchen Verwendung kann das SASII in Forschung und klinischer Praxis gleichwohl gewinnbringend genutzt werden.
REDES NEURAIS CONVOLUCIONAIS NA DETECÇÃO E CLASSIFICAÇÃO DE PLACAS DE TRÂNSITO BRASILEIRAS

The objective of this paper is to study Deep Learning architectures using Convolutional Neural Networks models to maximize the ability to detect and classify traffic signs on highways. In addition to comparing results between models, it is intended to make the models capable of recognizing all Brazilian traffic plates by augmenting the training set with artificially generated labeled images