Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dual-Band Coradiator Antenna Employing Cascaded Triangular Cavities With a Steerable Beam in the Millimeter-Wave Band

A dual-band coradiator antenna with a beam-scanning capability for the sub-6 GHz and millimeter-wave (mm-wave) bands is proposed in this article. First, four subarrays based on cascaded triangular cavities are arranged using a mirror operation to form the mm-wave antenna array. Then, four mm-wave subarrays are connected at the position where the electric field is at a minimum on their edges. Finally, the entire mm-wave array structure resonates in the microwave band, which can be equivalent to a shorted quarter-wavelength patch antenna in the sub-6 GHz band. Hence, the same radiator can work as both a sub-6 GHz antenna and an mm-wave antenna array with broadside patterns in both cases. Attributed to the novel co-radiator structure, the proposed design is simple and compact. An interdigital coupled line with a high-pass filtering characteristic is inserted into each mm-wave feeding line to enhance the isolation. Besides, two parasitic patches are loaded to increase the microwave bandwidth. The experimental results show that the peak gain at 2.56 GHz is 3.2 dBi and at 28 GHz is 14.3 dBi for the sub-6 GHz and mm-wave bands, respectively. The isolation among different feeding ports is greater than 15 dB and the mm-wave array also provides ±38° beam-scanning performance.
Development of pH-Responsive N-benzyl-N-O-succinyl Chitosan Micelles Loaded with a Curcumin Analog (Cyqualone) for Treatment of Colon Cancer

This work aimed at preparing nanomicelles from N-benzyl-N,O-succinyl chitosan (NBSCh) loaded with a curcumin analog, 2,6-bis((3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenyl) methylene) cyclohexanone, a.k. a. cyqualone (CL), for antineoplastic colon cancer chemotherapy. The CL-loaded NBSCh micelles were spherical and less than 100 nm in size. The entrapment efficiency of CL in the micelles ranged from 13 to 39%. Drug release from pristine CL was less than 20% in PBS at pH 7.4, whereas the release from CL-NBSCh micelles was significantly higher. The release study of CL-NBSCh revealed that around 40% of CL content was released in simulated gastric fluid at pH 1.2; 79 and 85% in simulated intestinal fluids at pH 5.5 and 6.8, respectively; and 75% in simulated colonic fluid at pH 7.4. CL-NBSCh showed considerably high selective cytotoxicity towards mucosal epithelial human colon cancer (HT-29) cells and lower levels of toxicity towards mouse connective tissue fibroblasts (L929). CL-NBSCh was also more cytotoxic than the free CL. Furthermore, compared to free CL, CL-NBSCh micelles were found to be more efficient at arresting cell growth at the G2/M phase, and induced apoptosis earlier in HT-29 cells. Collectively, these results indicate the high prospective potential of CL-loaded NBSCh micelles as an oral therapeutic intervention for colon cancer.
Ubiquitin Is Not a Blood Biomarker of an Early Cognitive Decline in the Polish Elderly

Together with development of new pharmaceutical interventions, as well as the introduction of the concept of initial dementia phase, the demand for early diagnosis has been growing. Research on potential blood biomarkers, amazingly attractive, mainly due to the facility of deriving the material, has provided ambiguous results throughout. The existence of an association between ubiquitin and Alzheimer’s disease pathology suggests that it could be a potential neurodegeneration biomarker. The present study aims to identify and assess the relationship between ubiquitin with regard to the adequacy as a biomarker of an initial dementia and cognitive decline in the elderly. Method: The study sample was composed of 230 participants: 109 women and 121 men aged 65 and older. The relationships of plasma ubiquitin levels with cognitive performance, gender, and age were analyzed. The assessments were performed in three groups of cognitive functioning level: cognitively normal, mild cognitive impairment, and mild dementia, of which the subjects were divided with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Results: No significant disparities in plasma ubiquitin levels for various levels of cognitive functioning were identified. Significantly higher plasma ubiquitin levels in women were found in comparison to men. No significant differences were found in ubiquitin concentrations based on age. Results suggest that ubiquitin does not meet the requirements for qualification as a blood biomarker of an early cognitive decline. In order to thoroughly evaluate the potential of research on ubiquitin in connection to an early neurodegenerative process, further studies are needed.
Assessing sustainable economic development efficiency: A DEA approach

Background: Widely used in efficiency analysis, data envelopment analysis (DEA) found its use in country efficiency measurement concerning the achievement of desired values of macroeconomic indicators, most often the goals from the category of economic growth. Purpose: The objective of the paper is to examine the possibility of DEA application in sustainable development research. Methodology: The analysis was conducted using a non-oriented DEA model with variable return-to-scale in a group of 26 EU countries and Serbia, as a membership candidate. Four variables were used as input variables: inflation rate, unemployment rate, poverty rate and ecological footprint per capita. Three variables were used on the outputs side: inequality-adjusted human development index, GDP per capita and ecological deficit or reserve per capita. The annual data was collected for the time period of eight years, form 2010 until 2017. Findings: Results show that Finland is the only country efficient throughout the entire period. Average efficiency close to maximum was achieved by the Netherlands. Significant efficiency was achieved by Luxembourg, Germany and Sweden among countries that were EU members before 1995. Among other EU countries, Slovenia and Hungary achieved efficiency on a nearly maximum level. Also, efficient in more than half of the observed years were Cyprus and Romania. The most inefficient countries were the three Baltic countries: Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Among the EU member countries before 1995, Italy and Portugal were the most inefficient. Concerning EU candidate Serbia, the efficiency achieved was generally close to average. Limitations: The performed analysis can answer the question of which country is the most efficient on the way to sustainability. However, the DEA method cannot show whether a country is developing absolutely sustainably or unsustainably, because DEA is a relative method and can only measure efficiency compared to the other units.
Use of the list Viterbi algorithm to compute the distance spectrum of trellis codes and ISI channels

We propose to compute the distance spectrum of arbitrary trellis codes (including convolutional codes, trellis-coded modulation, continuous phase modulation, etc.) and intersymbol-interference (ISI) channels by means of a modified list Viterbi algorithm (LVA). This search procedure is (i) computationally efficient, (ii) is applicable to linear as well as nonlinear codes, (iii) can be applied to arbitrary distance measures, (iv) can be used for MLSE as well as RSSE or related techniques, and (v) guarantees that an ordered list of the N nearest error paths is produced. A sample results illustrates the distance spectra of linear ISI channels, both for MLSE and ideal RSSE receivers.
Sodium Ion Pre-Intercalation of δ-MnO2 Nanosheets for High Energy Density Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries

With the merits of low cost, environmental friendliness and rich resources, manganese dioxide is considered to be a promising cathode material for aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs). However, its low ion diffusion and structural instability greatly limit its practical application. Hence, we developed an ion pre-intercalation strategy based on a simple water bath method to grow in situ δ-MnO2 nanosheets on flexible carbon cloth substrate (MnO2), while pre-intercalated Na+ in the interlayer of δ-MnO2 nanosheets (Na-MnO2), which effectively enlarges the layer spacing and enhances the conductivity of Na-MnO2. The prepared Na-MnO2//Zn battery obtained a fairly high capacity of 251 mAh g−1 at a current density of 2 A g−1, a satisfactory cycle life (62.5% of its initial capacity after 500 cycles) and favorable rate capability (96 mAh g−1 at 8 A g−1). Furthermore, this study revealed that the pre-intercalation engineering of alkaline cations is an effective method to boost the properties of δ-MnO2 zinc storage and provides new insights into the construction of high energy density flexible electrodes.
Mass Data Partition for Rough Set on Attribute Reduction Algorithm

An effective rough-set-based method is developed to study the key problem of process distributed mass data,which is the problem of segment massive dataset.Most other rough-set-based algorithms are designed only for memory-resident data,so it is hard for these algorithms to deal with mass data set.On the base of definition of best partition,and combined with the idea of attribute reduction,a mass data partition for rough set on attribute reduction algorithm is developed for processing mass data sets directly.It is proved by simulation experiments that the MDPRS-AR method presented is faster than original rough-set-based algorithms by about 70%,while its performance is close to those algorithms that process the original data set as a whole.
A strong controllability and observability in linear multivariable control

A particular family of strong controllability and observability properties is shown to be relevant to problems in linear multivariable control. Explicit interrelations are established between these system properties and several approaches to multivariable control: in particular, the abstract vector-space approach of Wonham and Morse, and the explicit algorithm approach of Silverman. The results are valid for systems over an arbitrary field.
Canada west coast topo-bathymetric digital elevation model, British Columbia

The joint Natural Resources Canada/Department of Fisheries and Oceans Marine Spatial Planning Program requires the highest resolution bathymetric elevation data and adjacent land-based topographic elevation data that are available. This digital elevation model of Canada's west coast compiles the best data available from multiple government agencies to create a regional model gridded at 10 metre spacing. The transitions between the marine and terrestrial areas are near-seamless creating a surface of elevations for non-navigational scientific research, cartographic, and general marine spatial planning use. The product is available on the Federal Geospatial Platform at: https://open.canada. ca/data/en/dataset/e6e11b99-f0cc-44f7-f5eb-3b995fb1637e
METTL3-Mediated LncRNA EN_42575 m6A Modification Alleviates CPB2 Toxin-Induced Damage in IPEC-J2 Cells

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) modified by n6-methyladenosine (m6A) have been implicated in the development and progression of several diseases. However, the mechanism responsible for the role of m6A-modified lncRNAs in Clostridium perfringens type C piglet diarrhea has remained largely unknown. We previously developed an in vitro model of CPB2 toxin-induced piglet diarrhea in IPEC-J2 cells. In addition, we previously performed RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (MeRIP-seq), which demonstrated lncRNA EN_42575 as one of the most regulated m6A-modified lncRNAs in CPB2 toxin-exposed IPEC-J2 cells. In this study, we used MeRIP-qPCR, FISH, EdU, and RNA pull-down assays to determine the function of lncRNA EN_42575 in CPB2 toxin-exposed IPEC-J2 cells. LncRNA EN_42575 was significantly downregulated at different time points in CPB2 toxin-treated cells. Functionally, lncRNA EN_42575 overexpression reduced cytotoxicity, promoted cell proliferation, and inhibited apoptosis and oxidative damage, whereas the knockdown of lncRNA EN_42575 reversed these results. Furthermore, the dual-luciferase analysis revealed that METTL3 regulated lncRNA EN_42575 expression in an m6A-dependent manner. In conclusion, METTL3-mediated lncRNA EN_42575 exerted a regulatory effect on IPEC-J2 cells exposed to CPB2 toxins. These findings offer novel perspectives to further investigate the function of m6A-modified lncRNAs in piglet diarrhea.
Experiments on the Cloud Droplet Collision Efficiency of Cylinders

Abstract The theory of Langmuir and Blodgett for the droplet collision efficiency was verified by growing rime ice accretions on rotating cylinders in a wind tunnel. The results show that the theory is in excellent agreement with the experimental data in the studied range of mean cylinder collision efficiency from 0.07 to 0.63.
A study on SSD calculation between input image and subpixel-translated template images and its applications to a subpixel image matching problem

Pattern matching between input and template images, which is carried out using Sum of Squared Differences (SSD), a similarity value, has been widely used in various computer vision applications such as stereo measurements and superresolution image syntheses. The crucial process in the pattern matching problem is estimating the translation of the input image to match both images; a technique exists for improving the accuracy of the translation estimation at the subpixel level. In addition, subpixel estimation accuracy is improved by synthetic template images that are assumed to represent subpixel translated images using linear interpolation. However, calculation cost increases because the technique necessitates additional SSD calculations for the synthetic template images. To eliminate the need for additional SSD calculations, we found that we can obtain additional SSD values for the synthetic subpixel translated images by calculating just the SSD values for the original template images: we never need additional SSD calculations. Moreover, based on this knowledge, we proposed a novel algorithm for speeding up the estimation error cancellation (EEC) method that was developed for estimating subpixel displacements in pattern matching. Experimental results demonstrated the advantages of the proposed algorithm.
Differences in food consumption of the Brazilian population by race/skin color in 2017–2018

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To evaluate food consumption in Brazil by race/skin color of the population. METHODS Food consumption data from the Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares (POF – Household Budget Survey) 2017–2018 were analyzed. Food and culinary preparations were grouped into 31 items, composing three main groups, defined by industrial processing characteristics: 1 – in natura/minimally processed, 2 – processed, and 3 – ultra-processed. The percentage of calories from each group was estimated by categories of race/skin color – White, Black, Mixed-race, Indigenous, and Yellow– using crude and adjusted linear regression for gender, age, schooling, income, macro-region, and area. RESULTS In the crude analyses, the consumption of in natura/minimally processed foods was lower for Yellow [66.0% (95% Confidence Interval 62.4–69.6)] and White [66.6% (95%CI 66.1–67.1)] groups than for Blacks [69.8% (95%CI 68.9–70.8)] and Mixed-race people [70.2% (95%CI 69.7–70.7)]. Yellow individuals consumed fewer processed foods, with 9.2% of energy (95%CI 7.2–11.1) whereas the other groups consumed approximately 13%. Ultra-processed foods were less consumed by Blacks [16.6% (95%CI 15.6–17.6)] and Mixed-race [16.6% (95%CI 16.2–17.1)], with the highest consumption among White [20.1% (95%CI 19.6–20.6)] and Yellow [24.5% (95%CI 20.0–29.1)] groups. The adjustment of the models reduced the magnitude of the differences between the categories of race/skin color. The difference between Black and Mixed-race individuals from the White ones decreased from 3 percentage points (pp) to 1.2 pp in the consumption of in natura/minimally processed foods and the largest differences remained in the consumption of rice and beans, with a higher percentage in the diet of Black and Mixed-race people. The contribution of processed foods remained approximately 4 pp lower for Yellow individuals. The consumption of ultra-processed products decreased by approximately 2 pp for White and Yellow groups; on the other hand, it increased by 1 pp in the consumption of Black, Mixed-race, and Indigenous peoples. CONCLUSION Differences in food consumption according to race/skin color were found and are influenced by socioeconomic and demographic conditions.
Applying Few-Shot Learning in Classifying Pedestrian Crash Typing

Pedestrian deaths account for 23% of all road traffic fatalities worldwide. After declining for three decades, pedestrian fatalities in the United States have been increasing with 6,941 fatalities in 2020, the highest number for more than two decades, impeding progress toward a zero-deaths transportation system. The Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash Analysis Tool (PBCAT) was developed to describe the pre-crash actions of the parties involved to better define the sequence of events and precipitating actions that lead to crashes involving motor vehicles and pedestrians or cyclists. Undoubtedly, police crash data influence decision-making processes in the transportation agencies. Using crash data from three major cities in Texas (during the period from 2018 to 2020), this study assessed the data quality of police-reported crash narratives on pedestrian-involved traffic crashes. As the pedestrian crash typing involves many categories, conventional machine-learning algorithms will not be sufficient in solving the classification problem from narrative texts. This study used few-shot learning (FSL), an advanced machine learning, to solve this issue. Using the pre-knowledge obtained from five different crash types and a few labeled data points of three unseen new crash types, the proposed model achieved roughly 40% overall accuracy. Also, four different configurations of crash types were formed and tested which indicates that the model is robust.
Towards Regenerative Audiology: Immune Modulation of Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Cells Preconditioned with Citric Acid-Coated Antioxidant-Functionalized Magnetic Nanoparticles

Introduction and Background: Based on stem cells, bioactive molecules and supportive structures, regenerative medicine (RM) is promising for its potential impact on field of hearing loss by offering innovative solutions for hair cell rescue. Nanotechnology has recently been regarded as a powerful tool for accelerating the efficiency of RM therapeutic solutions. Adipose-derived mesenchymal cells (ADSCs) have already been tested in clinical trials for their regenerative and immunomodulatory potential in various medical fields; however, the advancement to bedside treatment has proven to be tedious. Innovative solutions are expected to circumvent regulatory and manufacturing issues related to living cell-based therapies. The objectives of the study were to test if human primary ADSCs preconditioned with magnetic nanoparticles coated with citric acid and functionalized with antioxidant protocatechuic acid (MNP-CA-PCA) retain their phenotypic features and if conditioned media elicit immune responses in vitro. MNP-CA-PCA was synthesized and characterized regarding size, colloidal stability as well as antioxidant release profile. Human primary ADSCs preconditioned with MNP-CA-PCA were tested for viability, surface marker expression and mesenchymal lineage differentiation potential. Conditioned media (CM) from ADSCs treated with MNP-CA-PCA were tested for Il-6 and IL-8 cytokine release using ELISA and inhibition of lectin-stimulated peripheral blood monocyte proliferation. Results: MNP-CA-PCA-preconditioned ADSCs display good viability and retain their specific mesenchymal stem cell phenotype. CM from ADSCs conditioned with MNP-CA-PCA do not display increased inflammatory cytokine release and do not induce proliferation of allergen-stimulated allogeneic peripheral blood monocytes in vitro. Conclusions: While further in vitro and in vivo tests are needed to validate these findings, the present results indicated that CM from ADSCs preconditioned with MNP-CA-PCA could be developed as possible cell-free therapies for rescuing auditory hair cells.
Solving the Team Orienteering Problem with Particle Swarm Optimization

The team orienteering problem (TOP) or the multiple tour maximum collection problem can be considered as a generic model that can be applied to a number of challenging applications in logistics, tourism, and other fields. This problem is generally defined as the problem of determining P paths, in which the traveling time of each path is limited by T max that maximizes the total collected score. In the TOP, a set of N vertices i is given, each with a score Si. The starting point (vertex 1) and the end point (vertex N) of all paths are fixed. The time tij needed to travel from vertex i to j is known for all vertices. Some exact and heuristics approaches had been proposed in the past for solving the TOP. This paper proposes a new solution methodology for solving the TOP using the particle swarm optimization, especially by proposing a solution representation and its decoding method. The performance of the proposed algorithm is then evaluated using several benchmark datasets for the TOP. The computational results show that the proposed algorithm using specific settings is capable of finding good solution for the corresponding TOP instance.
Business Ethics and Erm Influence on SME Company Performance Moderated by Business Strategy

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are one of the sectors not affected by several financial crises. However, Covid 19 pandemic has affected business performance due to restrictions on business activities. This Study aims to see Business Ethics, Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) influence company performance with moderation by SME Business Strategy in Indonesia. The research was conducted on Performing Loan borrowers at Bank Mandiri who came from seven provinces in Indonesia. According to Slovin Formula, the minimum sample size required is 362 companies from a population of 3,777. They have at least three years of business experience and annual sales of more than 5 billion rupiahs to a maximum of 50 billion rupiahs. The Structural Equation Model (SEM) method is used in quantitative research, and SmartPLS 3.0 and SPSS 26 software are used in data processing and analysis. Study results indicate that Business Ethics and Enterprise Risk Management positively and significantly influence company performance. In contrast, Business Strategy does not have a moderate relationship between Business Ethics and Enterprise Risk Management Company Performance. Based on the findings, in facing the economic crisis, SMEs must continue to apply Business Ethics, Business Risk Management, and other variables that affect their business performance appropriately.