Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Advanced materials foresight: research and innovation indicators related to advanced and smart nanomaterials

Background: Advanced materials are most likely to bring future economic, environmental and social benefits. At the same time, they may pose challenges regarding their safety and sustainability along the entire lifecycle. This needs to be timely addressed by the stakeholders (industry, research, policy, funding and regulatory bodies). As part of a larger foresight project, this study aimed to identify areas of scientific research and technological development related to advanced materials, in particular advanced nanomaterials and the sub-group of smart nanomaterials. The study identified and collected data to build relevant research and innovation indicators and analyse trends, impact and other implications. Methods: This study consisted of an iterative process including a documentation phase followed by the identification, description and development of a set of core research and innovation indicators regarding scientific publications, EU projects and patents. The data was extracted mainly from SCOPUS, CORDIS and PATSTAT databases using a predefined search string that included representative keywords. The trends, distributions and other aspects reflected in the final version of the indicators were analysed, e.g. the number of items in a period of time, geographical distribution, organisations involved, categories of journals, funding programmes, costs and technology areas. Results: Generally, for smart nanomaterials the data used represent around 3.5% of the advanced nanomaterials data, while for each field analysed, they represent 4.4% for publications, 13% for projects and 1.1% for patents. The study shows current trends for advanced nanomaterials at a top-level information that can be further extended with sub-indicators. Generally, the results indicated a significant growth in research into advanced nanomaterials, including smart nanomaterials, in the last decade, leading to an increased availability of information. Conclusion: These indicators identify trends regarding scientific and technological achievements and represent an important element when examining possible impacts on society and policy implications associated to these areas.
Real-Time Monitoring of the Atrazine Degradation by Liquid Chromatography and High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry: Effect of Fenton Process and Ultrasound Treatment

High resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) was coupled with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (uHPLC) to monitor atrazine (ATZ) degradation process of Fenton/ultrasound (US) treatment in real time. Samples were automatically taken through a peristaltic pump, and then analysed by HPLC-HRMS. The injection in the mass spectrometer was performed every 4 min for 2 h. ATZ and its degradation metabolites were sampled and identified. Online Fenton experiments in different equivalents of Fenton reagents, online US experiments with/without Fe2+ and offline Fenton experiments were conducted. Higher equivalents of Fenton reagents promoted the degradation rate of ATZ and the generation of the late-products such as Ammeline (AM). Besides, adding Fe2+ accelerated ATZ degradation in US treatment. In offline Fenton, the degradation rate of ATZ was higher than that of online Fenton, suggesting the offline samples were still reacting in the vial. The online analysis precisely controls the effect of reagents over time through automatic sampling and rapid detection, which greatly improves the measurement accuracy. The experimental set up proposed here both prevents the degradation of potentially unstable metabolites and provides a good way to track each metabolite.
Microbiota of the Colonic Diverticula in the Complicated Form of Diverticulitis: A Case Report

Intestinal microbiota appears to be implicated in the pathogenesis of diverticular disease. We present the case of a patient with diverticular colon disease complicated by a pelvic abscess. During the successful surgical treatment, two specimens were taken from the resected colon segment for the microbiota analysis: an inflamed and perforated diverticulum and a diverticulum without signs of inflammation. Culturing and 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed significant changes in the microbial community structure and composition associated with the acute inflammation and perforation of the colonic diverticulum. The characteristics that are usually associated with the inflammatory process in the gut, namely reduced microbial diversity and richness, decreased Firmicutes-to-Bacteroidetes (F/B) ratio, depletion of butyrate-producing bacteria, and Enterobacteriaceae blooming, were more pronounced in the non-inflamed diverticulum rather than in the adjacent inflamed and perforated one. This is the first study of the intraluminal microbiota of the diverticular pockets, which is more relevant to the etiology of diverticular disease than mucosa-associated microbiota via biopsies and luminal microbiota via fecal samples.
Comparison of Chemical Characteristics of Various Commercial Animal Skin Crackers

: This study aims to compare the data on chemical characteristics (protein content, fat, ash, moisture, Free Fatty Acid (FFA), Thiobarbituric Acid (TBA), and total energy) of commercial skin crackers made from various kinds of animal skin. Four categories of commercial animal skin crackers from the same producer were assigned as treatments, including cowhide crackers, buffalo askin crackers, fish skin crackers, and chicken skin crackers. The data showed that the type of animal skin as the raw material for crackers had a significant effect on the levels of protein, fat, ash, free fatty acid value, and total energy of the final product. However, the type of animal skin did not significantly affect of moisture content of the product. The highest protein content was shown in cowhide crackers and buffalo skin crackers, where cowhide crackers also showed the lowest fat content and free fatty acid value but high ash content (p<0.05). Descriptively, the thiobarbituric acid value of cowhide crackers is also low. Meanwhile, the highest total energy was owned by chicken skin crackers (p<0.05). Thus, among commercial animal skin crackers products, cowhide crackers have the best chemical characteristics because they contain higher protein and ash with a lower fat content, free fatty acid value, thiobarbituric acid value, and total energy so they can be recommended as a quality.
Neuropharmacological Activities of Ceiba aesculifolia (Kunth) Britten & Baker f (Malvaceae)

Ceiba aesculifolia (Kunth) Britten & Baker f (Malvaceae) is used for the folk treatment of mood disorders. C. aesculifolia bark was extracted in ethanol, and the extract (CAE) was chemically standardized using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). This study evaluated the effects of CAE (10–100 mg/kg p.o.) on anxiolytic-like activity, sedation, locomotor activity, depression-like activity, and spatial working memory using in vivo rodent models. A possible mechanism for the anxiolytic-like and antidepressant-like actions induced by CAE was assessed using neurotransmission pathway inhibitors. Myristic acid was one of the compounds found in CAE using GC-MS. This study also evaluated the anxiolytic-like activity and the sedative actions of myristic acid and assessed a possible mechanism of action using neurotransmission pathway inhibitors and an in silico analysis. CAE elicited anxiolytic-like activity and antidepressant-like effects (ED50 = 57 mg/kg). CAE (10–100 mg/kg) did not affect locomotor coordination or induce sedation. The anxiolytic-like and antidepressant-like actions of CAE were reverted by prazosin, suggesting a possible participation of the noradrenergic system. The anxiolytic-like activity of myristic acid was reverted by the co-administration of prazosin and partially reverted by ketanserin. The docking study revealed that myristic acid can form favorable interactions within 5-HT2A and α1A-adrenoreceptor binding pockets.
Receding Horizon Cost-Aware Adaptive Sampling for Environmental Monitoring

In this letter, environmental monitoring by mobile robots is considered where expensive or time-consuming sampling has to be carried out in order to obtain a metamodel of the phenomenon investigated. Due to limited resources, often not only a limited number of samples can be taken, but also the cost and time of the traveled distance between the sample points must be considered. We present an adaptive sampling method that greatly reduces the robot’s travel costs for all common sampling criteria with minimal impact on model accuracy. This is achieved by predicting future sample points based on virtual sampling over a horizon in each iteration of the algorithm and suggesting a next sample point after a cost optimization. The algorithm is simulatively evaluated for application to global exploration and reconstruction of unknown phenomena on a variety of randomly generated phenomena. It is shown that our method vastly outperforms standard adaptive sampling.
A gain enhanced low SAR dual-band MIMO antenna integrated with AMC for wearable ISM applications

A dual-band MIMO antenna is proposed on the basis of artificial magnetic conductors (AMC). The MIMO antenna consists of two water lily shaped printed monopole antennas and an SRR isolation structure, operating at the ISM bands of 2.45GHz and 5.8GHz. A simple, compact double circle-based artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) reflector is introduced to decrease radiation exposure to people as well as increase forward gain. The antenna and the 4x4 AMC array are both printed on flexible substrate Rogers RO3003, thus the antenna system can follow the contours of the human body. According to the simulated results, the proposed antenna exhibits peak gains of 8.03 dBi and 8.43 dBi at 2.45GHz and 5.8GHz respectively. The SAR value of body tissue can be reduced by around 97% while the front-to-back ratio (FBR) is over 24.5dB. Its improved radiation characteristics compared to conventional monopole antennas make it a good candidate for WBAN and ISM applications.
Detection and Molecular Characterization of Canine Distemper Virus in Wildlife from Northern Italy

Canine distemper virus (CDV) is a fatal, highly contagious disease found in wild and domestic carnivores. Several outbreaks have occurred in wildlife in Italy in recent years. This study aims to detect CDV in wildlife following the increasing mortality of foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in the Emilia-Romagna region (northern Italy) observed in 2021. Sixty-seven foxes and one badger (Meles meles) were subjected to necropsy followed by histological examination and were analyzed with molecular techniques to detect the presence of CDV. Of the tested animals, 16% (nine foxes and one badger) were positive for CDV. Phylogenetic analysis showed two different lineages based on complete H gene sequences. The Europe/South America-1 lineage was detected in one fox from Modena, which resembled the CDV variant associated with a previous outbreak in northern Italy in 2018, while the European Wildlife lineage was detected in animals from the Rimini province. Amino acid analysis highlighted a Y549H mutation in all sequences collected, which is commonly associated with increased virulence.
Seasonal and Diurnal Changes in Cirrus Clouds as Seen in Four Years of Observations with the VAS

Abstract GOES VAS multispectral observations in the carbon dioxide absorption band at 15 μm have been used to compile cloud-cover statistics over the continental United States for the past 4 years. The CO2 technique calculates both cloud-top pressures and effective emissivities and reliably distinguishes semitransparent cirrus from opaque clouds. The frequency of semitransparent cirrus clouds exhibits small seasonal variation; they are generally present 25%–30% of the time in all seasons. Diurnal variations of semitransparent cirrus are found only in the summer months and correspond to diurnal variations in convection in the Rocky Mountains and southeastern United States, increases of 20% in cirrus are noted subsequent to the convective cloud activity. In the winter months, no diurnal change in semitransparent cirrus is detected. Attempts to correlate cirrus with some common atmospheric features reveal that a majority of cirrus occurred where dynamic parameters indicate rising vertical motion but that con.
The REBUS Experimental Programme for Burn-Up Credit

An international programme called REBUS for the investigation of the burn-up credit has been initiated by the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK-CEN and Belgonucleaire with the support of EdF and IRSN from France and VGB, representing German nuclear utilities and NUPEC, representing the Japanese industry. Recently also ORNL from the U.S. joined the programme. The programme aims to establish a neutronic benchmark for reactor physics codes in order to qualify the codes for calculations of the burn-up credit. The benchmark exercise investigates the following fuel types with associated burn-up: reference fresh 3.3% enriched UO2 fuel, fresh commercial PWR UO2 fuel and irradiated commercial PWR UO2 fuel (54 GWd/tM), fresh PWR MOX fuel and irradiated PWR MOX fuel (20 GWd/tM). The experiments on the three configurations with fresh fuel have been completed. The experiments show a good agreement between calculation and experiments for the different measured parameters: critical water level, reactivity effect of the water level and fission-rate and flux distributions. In 2003 the irradiated BR3 MOX fuel bundle was loaded into the VENUS reactor and the associated experimental programme was carried out. The reactivity measurements in this configuration with irradiated fuel show a good agreement between experimental and preliminary calculated values.Copyright © 2004 by ASME
The Mediating Role of Green Technology Innovation with Corporate Social Responsibility, Firm Financial, and Environmental Performance: The Case of Chinese Manufacturing Industries

This research aims to examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR), firm environmental performance (FEP), and firm financial performance (FFP), as well as how green technology innovation performs a mediating role in this relationship. The manufacturing firms listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchanges were selected as the representative sample for the study, and data were gathered from 470 managers and directors of manufacturing firms using a simple random sampling technique. The response rate was 87%. For hypothesis testing, PLS-SEM was used. In addition, green technology innovation is a positive and significant mediator between corporate social responsibility and firm financial and environmental performance. This research provides useful implications for manufacturing firms’ managers, directors, and policymakers to improve corporate social responsibility (CSR) and green technology innovation in measuring the firm’s financial and environmental performance. The results also have several practical implications that may benefit the management of firms. They urge all of the organization’s stakeholders to consider investing in organizational social behavior and green innovation to enhance the manufacturing firms’ overall performance.
Optimizing image normalization algorithm for shape distortions

In general, there are four basic forms of planar shape distortion caused by changes in viewer's location: rotation, scaling, translation and skewing. For a good shape descriptor should be invariant to these distortions, a shape can be normalized before feature extraction. Due to the drawbacks of the normalization algorithm, shape compacting proposed by J. G. Leu, which normalizes rotation and skewing distortions incompletely, an optimized shape normalization algorithm is proposed in this paper. The basic idea is first to get the compact shape which is invariant to translation and scaling distortions by the shape compacting. Then, on determining the principal axis of the object shape, we get the angle included between the x-axis and the principal axis, according to which the shape is rotated. Finally, the reversed object shape can be normalized by the signs of the original image's central moments. Therefore, we can normalize a shape and its distorted versions into a single one, with the following feature descriptor invariant to the above four distortions. The results of our experiments demonstrate that the optimal shape normalization algorithm outperforms the existing shape compacting.
Improving the Limit on the Electron EDM: Data Acquisition and Systematics Studies in the ACME Experiment

The ACME collaboration has completed a measurement setting a new upper limit on the size of the electron’s permanent electric dipole moment (EDM). The existence of the EDM is well motivated by theories extending the standard model of particle physics, with predicted sizes very close to the current experimental limit. The new limit was set by measuring spin precession within the metastable H state of the polar molecule thorium monoxide (ThO). A particular focus here is on the automated data acquisition system developed to search for a precession phase odd under internal and external reversal of the electric field. Automated switching of many different experimental controls allowed a rapid diagnosis of major systematics, including the dominant systematic caused by an imperfect reversal of electric fields coupled with laser polarization gradients. Polarimetry measurements made it possible to quantify and minimize the polarization gradients in our state preparation and probe lasers. Three separate measurements were used to determine the non-reversing electric field component which changes the field’s magnitude correlated with its direction. The new bound of |de| < 8.7 × 10−29 e · cm is over an order of magnitude smaller than previous limits, and strongly limits T-violating physics at TeV energy scales.
Amyloid Disassembly: What Can We Learn from Chaperones?

Protein aggregation and subsequent accumulation of insoluble amyloid fibrils with cross-β structure is an intrinsic characteristic of amyloid diseases, i.e., amyloidoses. Amyloid formation involves a series of on-pathway and off-pathway protein aggregation events, leading to mature insoluble fibrils that eventually accumulate in multiple tissues. In this cascade of events, soluble oligomeric species are formed, which are among the most cytotoxic molecular entities along the amyloid cascade. The direct or indirect action of these amyloid soluble oligomers and amyloid protofibrils and fibrils in several tissues and organs lead to cell death in some cases and organ disfunction in general. There are dozens of different proteins and peptides causing multiple amyloid pathologies, chief among them Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and several other neurodegenerative diseases. Amyloid fibril disassembly is among the disease-modifying therapeutic strategies being pursued to overcome amyloid pathologies. The clearance of preformed amyloids and consequently the arresting of the progression of organ deterioration may increase patient survival and quality of life. In this review, we compiled from the literature many examples of chemical and biochemical agents able to disaggregate preformed amyloids, which have been classified as molecular chaperones, chemical chaperones, and pharmacological chaperones. We focused on their mode of action, chemical structure, interactions with the fibrillar structures, morphology and toxicity of the disaggregation products, and the potential use of disaggregation agents as a treatment option in amyloidosis.
GHASP: an Hα kinematic survey of spiral and irregular galaxies – IV. 44 new velocity fields. Extension, shape and asymmetry of Hα rotation curves

We present Fabry-Perot observations obtained in the frame of the GHASP survey (Gassendi HAlpha survey of SPirals). We have derived the Halpha map, the velocity field and the rotation curve for a new set of 44 galaxies. The data presented in this paper are combined with the data published in the three previous papers providing a total number of 85 of the 96 galaxies observed up to now. This sample of kinematical data has been divided into two groups: isolated (ISO) and softly interacting (SOFT) galaxies. In this paper, the extension of the Halpha discs, the shape of the rotation curves, the kinematical asymmetry and the Tully-Fisher relation have been investigated for both ISO and SOFT galaxies. The Halpha extension is roughly proportional to R25 for ISO as well as for SOFT galaxies. The smallest extensions of the ionized disc are found for ISO galaxies. The inner slope of the rotation curves is found to be correlated with the central concentration of light more clearly than with the type or the kinematical asymmetry, for ISO as well as for SOFT galaxies. The outer slope of the rotation curves increases with the type and with the kinematical asymmetry for ISO galaxies but shows no special trend for SOFT galaxies. No decreasing rotation curve is found for SOFT galaxies. The asymmetry of the rotation curves is correlated with the morphological type, the luminosity, the (B-V) colour and the maximal rotational velocity of galaxies. Our results show that the brightest, the most massive and the reddest galaxies, which are fast rotators, are the least asymmetric, meaning that they are the most efficient with which to average the mass distribution on the whole disc. Asymmetry in the rotation curves seems to be linked with local star formation, betraying disturbances of the gravitational potential. The Tully-Fisher relation has a smaller slope for ISO than for SOFT galaxies.
Targeting a Silent Disease: Vascular Calcification in Chronic Kidney Disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients have a higher risk of developing early cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although vascular calcification (VC) is one of the strongest predictors of CVD risk, its diagnosis among the CKD population remains a serious clinical challenge. This is mainly due to the complexity of VC, which results from various interconnected pathological mechanisms occurring at early stages and at multiples sites, affecting the medial and intimal layers of the vascular tree. Here, we review the most used and recently developed imaging techniques, here referred to as imaging biomarkers, for VC detection and monitoring, while discussing their strengths and limitations considering the specificities of VC in a CKD context. Although imaging biomarkers have a crucial role in the diagnosis of VC, with important insights into CVD risk, circulating biomarkers represent an added value by reflecting the molecular dynamics and mechanisms involved in VC pathophysiological pathways, opening new avenues into the early detection and targeted interventions. We propose that a combined strategy using imaging and circulating biomarkers with a role in multiple VC molecular mechanisms, such as Fetuin-A, Matrix Gla protein, Gla-rich protein and calciprotein particles, should represent high prognostic value for management of CVD risk in the CKD population.