Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of e-LKPD Based on Nyeruit Ethnoscience to Train Science Literacy on Additives and Addictive Substances

This study aims to develop an e-LKPD Based on the Nyeruit Ethno-science, to describe its validity, practicality, and effectiveness to train Science Literacy on additives and addictive substances. Research and Development (R&D) is used as a research method based on Thiagarajan’s four-dimensional model (Deﬁne, Design, Develop, Disseminate). 30 students participated as research subjects. Questionnaires were used to obtain validation data, learning practices, student response tests, and teacher responses. Efﬁcacy is measured by pretests and posttests. The data analysis method used SPSS 24.0. As a result of this research and development, the development of an e-LKPD based on Nyeruit Ethnoscience has proven the effectiveness of the materials and media with a very high category of 84.7%. The utility of e-LKPD reaches 91.1% which is a very high standard. The effectiveness of the e-LKPD in teaching science literacy to students in the experimental class achieved a mean N-gain of 0.72, which was highly rated compared to the control class. The average N-gain is 0.54, indicating a moderate rating. Therefore, the development of an ethnoscience-based e-LKPD provides a large category effect size for improving students’ science literacy.
SCHENGEN MEMBERSHIP - A DOOR FOR EMIGRATION? LESSONS FOR ROMANIA AND BULGARIA

: The Schengen project is one of Europe’s most important accomplishments as it facilitates the free movement of goods and people. Currently, Romania and Bulgaria are on the verge of obtaining their Schengen membership and, to our knowledge, not enough emphasis has been placed on the emigration and labour market implications for aspiring candidates. This research aims to empirically evaluate the liaison between Schengen Area and labour migration. In order to achieve this objective, we construct a difference-in-differences research design using data from the European Labour Force Survey. The treatment is represented by the Schengen enlargement of 2007 with Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia constructing the treatment group and Romania and Bulgaria the control group. The main results show that Schengen Membership led to increased probabilities of working abroad one year after treatment occurred as well as three years after treatment occurred. Also, we are able to identify the demographic category most likely to emigrate as young males in search for seasonal full-time jobs.
White Paper Heuristic Modeling of Transmission Lines due to Mixed Reference Plane Foil Roughness in Printed Circuit Board Stackups

: Designing the right printed circuit board stackup can make or break your product performance. If the product has circuitry that is impedance and transmission loss sensitive, then paying attention to conductor surface roughness is paramount. But sometimes the roughness of adjacent reference plane(s) is overlooked. If the adjacent high-speed signal layer is using smoother copper than one or both reference planes, a higher insertion loss than expected for that layer will occur and possibly cause your product to fail compliance. So how do we know this before finalizing the stackup? Since we do not have any empirical data to go by, we rely on heuristic modeling methods that rely solely on published parameters found in manufacturer’s data sheets.
Efﬁcient and Portable ALS Matrix Factorization for Recommender Systems

— Alternating least squares (ALS) has been proved to be an effective solver of matrix factorization for recommender systems. To speedup factorizing performance, various parallel ALS solvers have been proposed to leverage modern multi-core CPUs and many-core GPUs/MICs. Existing implementations are limited in either speed or portability (constrained to certain platforms). In this paper, we present an efﬁcient and portable ALS solver for recommender systems. On the one hand, we diagnose the baseline implementation and observe that it lacks the awareness of the hierarchical thread organization on modern hardware. To achieve high performance, we apply the thread batching technique and three architecture-speciﬁc optimizations. On the other hand, we implement the ALS solver in OpenCL so that it can run on various platforms (CPUs, GPUs, and MICs). Based on the architectural speciﬁcs, we select a suitable code variant for each platform to efﬁciently mapping it to the underlying hardware. The experimental results show that our implementation performs 5.5 × faster on a 16-core CPU and 21.2 × faster on K20c than the baseline implementation. Our implementation also outperforms cuMF on various datasets.
The Inﬂuence of Fermentation Vessels on Yeast Microbiota and Main Parameters of Sauerkraut

: The aim of this study was to compare the yeast microbiota occurring during cabbage fermentation, along with selected parameters important for the quality of sauerkraut, depending on the vessel used. For this purpose, glass jars were used, in which anaerobic conditions are quickly created, and stoneware vessels, whose appearance and characteristics are similar to tanks used on an industrial scale. WL nutrient agar with chloramphenicol and 10% NaCl was used to enumerate yeast. Isolates were differentiated using RAPD-PCR and identiﬁed by sequencing of the 5.8S-ITS rRNA gene region and PCR-RFLP. Selected organic acids, sugars, and polyols were analyzed using UHPLC-UV-Vis and -RI. Sauerkraut obtained in stoneware vessels was characterized by the presence of a larger amount of yeast, including those considered spoilage, such as Rhodotorula and Wickerhamomyces . It also contained 50% less lactic acid and a few times more acetic acids than that obtained using glass jars. A pH around 3.8 and 1.5% lactic acid, which are parameters indicating the end of fermentation of sauerkraut, were obtained in glass jars on the tenth day of fermentation. The yeast Wickerhamomyces anomalus may be an indicator of the presence of oxygen during sauerkraut fermentation, while Clavispora lusitaniae may indicate anaerobic conditions.
Noise-induced hearing loss and hearing protection: Attitudes at a South African coal mine

Background Negative attitudes and beliefs are major contributing factors to the rising numbers of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) cases in coal mines both locally and internationally. International literature confirms limited knowledge surrounding employees’ attitudes and beliefs regarding NIHL and hearing protection devices (HPDs), hence the need for the study. Objectives To ascertain the attitudes and beliefs about NIHL and HPD use among employees at a large scale underground coal mine in Mpumalanga. Method A descriptive and exploratory cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire, developed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) on Beliefs about Hearing Protection and Hearing Loss (BHPHL). Participants (n = 241) included employees from a coal mine in Mpumalanga, South Africa. Results Out of 241 completed surveys, this study found that 84% were aware of when to replace earmuffs; 95% believed wearing HPDs could prevent hearing loss in noisy environments; 83% felt their hearing was impacted by loud noise. Additionally, 86% mentioned discomfort from earmuff pressure; 95% emphasised HPD importance; and 95% used HPDs around loud sounds. Moreover, 98% knew how to properly wear earplugs, while lower education levels were linked to higher susceptibility to NIHL. Conclusion The study identified positive attitudes towards NIHL and HPD use, but existing NIHL cases must be acknowledged. Organisations can use the findings to develop tailored hearing conservation programmes (HCP), including education, involving employees in protection decisions and promoting diligent HPD usage. Contribution This study contributes to the limited literature on noise perceptions, NIHL, and HPD use in mining, emphasising the impact attitude has on HPD use and assessing the effect of miners NIHL knowledge on compliance. The findings, unique to coal mining, hold significance for enhancing hearing conservation and reducing NIHL.
Multiscale Superpixel-Guided Weighted Graph Convolutional Network for Polarimetric SAR Image Classification

Polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) has attracted more attentions because of its excellent observation ability, and PolSAR image classification has become one of the significant tasks in remote sensing interpretation. Various types and sizes of land cover objects lead to misclassification, especially in the boundaries of different categories. To solve these issues, a multiscale superpixel-guided weighted graph convolutional network (MSGWGCN) is proposed for classifying PolSAR images. In the proposed MSGWGCN, multiscale superpixel features are imported into the weighted graph convolutional network to obtain higher level representation, which can make full use of land cover object information in PolSAR images. Moreover, to fuse pixel-level features at different scales, a multiscale feature cascade fusion module is built, which plays an important role in preserving classification details. Experiments on three PolSAR datasets indicate that the proposed MSGWGCN performs better than other advanced methods on PolSAR classification task.
Telemedicine: An Evolving Field in Hepatology

Healthcare delivery has been dramatically changing in recent times with advances in technology. One area of expansion has been the use of telemedicine due to progression in communication technologies. Telemedicine offers the opportunity to overcome barriers of access, improve patient satisfaction, improve healthcare outcomes and streamline communication between patients and providers. The primary modalities of telemedicine can be grouped into categories of ‘remote monitoring,’ ‘store and forward’ and ‘interactive telemedicine. ’ These modalities of telemedicine have been practiced and explored within the scope of hepatology such as in liver transplantation, hepatocellular carcinoma and management of chronic hepatitis C (CHC). There are numerous telemedicine‐based CHC management studies and programs that have developed in New Mexico, the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as globally in Australia and Canada. In Northern California, the University of New Mexico telemedicine‐based model of ‘ECHO’ has been extended to develop community‐based champions to screen‐link‐treat CHC patients with the goal to eliminate hepatitis C. Despite the advantages to telemedicine, there are still many barriers to seamless integration due to reimbursement and up‐front cost. Nevertheless, it remains an essential part in providing world‐class care to liver patients across geographic and economic barriers.
Application of Structured Light 3D Reconstruction Technology in Industrial Automation Scenarios in the Context of Digital Transformation

In this work, a dynamic structured light 3D reconstruction method adapted to random phase shift step size is proposed for the problem of dynamic workpiece 3D reconstruction in industrial manufacturing scenes. The method firstly utilizes a structured light sinusoidal grating pattern to match the relative phase shift of the workpieces moving along the perpendicular direction of the stripes on the conveyor belt. Secondly, in order to solve the problem of non-uniform phase shift step length due to external vibration, electromagnetic radiation and other disturbing factors of the conveyor belt and other mechanical devices, the method proposes a dynamic structured light 3D reconstruction model based on RPSNet, which is based on the CycleGAN network model, and uses the AIR2U-net model proposed in this paper as the generator, and the multilayer convolutional neural network CNN as the discriminator to realize the grating map. discriminator to realize the conversion of raster map to depth map. Finally, for the problem that the network model needs a large amount of data for training and it is difficult to collect data in the actual industrial scene, this paper uses the Thing10k dataset, and the dataset made by Blender simulation software for model training. Finally, a higher quality 3D reconstruction of the workpiece is realized.
Effects of Descemet Stripping Automated Endothelial Keratoplasty on Corneal Densitometry of Cases with Long-Standing Pseudophakic Bullous Keratopathy

Purpose: To quantify the effects of Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK) on corneal clarity and densitometry of patients with long-standing pseudophakic bullous keratopathy (PBK) complicated with subepithelial fibrosis. Methods: Thirty-four eyes with PBK complicated with corneal edema for more than 6 months and subepithelial fibrosis were enrolled. All subjects underwent complete ophthalmic examination and corneal densitometry module of Pentacam HR, before and 1, 3, and 6 months after DSAEK. Results: Thirteen patients were excluded due to postoperative complications or missed to follow-up visits. Finally, twenty-one patients’ data were analyzed. Corneal densitometry measures significantly decreased in all three layers (anterior, central, and posterior) 3 and 6 months after surgery compared to preoperative values; however, the differences did not reach statistical significance in the 1st month. Moreover, densitometry measurements were significantly lower at month 6 compared to month 1, but not at month 3 compared to month 1. Corneal densitometry of the anterior layer was significantly higher than central and posterior layers in 2 mm and 6 mm zones preoperatively and at all postoperative visits. Corneal light backscatter of each three layers was not statistically different between 0–2 mm and 2–6 mm in all pre- and postoperative visits. Conclusions: Corneal densitometry in cases of PBK begins to improve after DSAEK in different layers in a slow and continued trend which takes up to 6 months for an effect to be seen. Interestingly, this improvement is possible even in complicated corneas with long-standing edema. Hence, corneal densitometry can be used as an objective method for quantification of the outcome of DSAEK in complicated cases of PBK.
Dual generative adversarial networks based on regression and neighbor characteristics

Imbalanced data is a problem in that the number of samples in different categories or target value ranges varies greatly. Data imbalance imposes excellent challenges to machine learning and pattern recognition. The performance of machine learning models leans to be partially towards the majority of samples in the imbalanced dataset, which will further affect the effect of the model. The imbalanced data problem includes an imbalanced categorical problem and an imbalanced regression problem. Many studies have been developed to address the issue of imbalanced classification data. Nevertheless, the imbalanced regression problem has not been well-researched. In order to solve the problem of unbalanced regression data, we define an RNGRU model that can simultaneously learn the regression characteristics and neighbor characteristics of regression samples. To obtain the most comprehensive sample information of regression samples, the model uses the idea of confrontation to determine the proportion between the regression characteristics and neighbor characteristics of the original samples. According to the regression characteristics of the regression samples, an index ccr (correlation change rate) is proposed to evaluate the similarity between the generated samples and the original samples. And on this basis, an RNGAN model is proposed to reduce the similarity between the generated samples and the original samples by using the idea of confrontation.
Femicide, intimate partner femicide, and non-intimate partner femicide in South Africa: An analysis of 3 national surveys, 1999–2017

Background In most countries, reliable national statistics on femicide, intimate partner femicide (IPF), and non-intimate partner femicide (NIPF) are not available. Surveys are required to collect robust data on this most extreme consequence of intimate partner violence (IPV). We analysed 3 national surveys to compare femicide, IPF, and NIPF from 1999 to 2017 using age-standardised rates (ASRs) and incidence rate ratios (IRRs). Methods and findings We conducted 3 national mortuary-based retrospective surveys using weighted cluster designs from proportionate random samples of medicolegal laboratories. We included females 14 years and older who were identified as having been murdered in South Africa in 1999 (n = 3,793), 2009 (n = 2,363), and 2017 (n = 2,407). Further information on the murdered cases were collected from crime dockets during interviews with police investigating officers. Our findings show that South Africa had an IPF rate of 4.9/100,000 female population in 2017. All forms of femicide among women 14 years and older declined from 1999 to 2017. For IPF, the ASR was 9.5/100,000 in 1999. Between 1999 and 2009, the decline for NIPF was greater than for IPF (IRR for NIPF 0.47 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.42 to 0.53) compared to IRR for IPF 0.69 (95% CI 0.63 to 0.77). Rates declined from 2009 to 2017 and did not differ by femicide type. The decline in IPF was initially larger for women aged 14 to 29, and after 2009, it was more pronounced for those aged 30 to 44 years. Study limitations include missing data from the police and having to use imputation to account for missing perpetrator data. Conclusions In this study, we observed a reduction in femicide overall and different patterns of change in IPF compared to NIPF. The explanation for the reductions may be due to social and policy interventions aimed at reducing IPV overall, coupled with increased social and economic stability. Our study shows that gender-based violence is preventable even in high-prevalence settings, and evidence-based prevention efforts must be intensified globally. We also show the value of dedicated surveys in the absence of functional information systems.
Compound heterozygous mutations in CFTR causing congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens in a Chinese pedigree

Abstract Background Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an autosomal recessive disorder rarely found in Asian populations. Most males with CF are infertile because of obstructive azoospermia (OA) caused by congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens (CBAVD). Compound heterozygous mutations of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) are among the most common pathogenic factors in CBAVD. However, few genealogical analyses have been performed. Methods In this study, whole‐exome sequencing and cosegregation analysis were performed in a Chinese pedigree involving two siblings with CBAVD. Moreover, in vitro gene expressions were used to analyze the pathogenicity of a novel CFTR mutation. Results We identified compound heterozygous mutations of CFTR comprising the known disease‐causing variant c.1210‐11T>G (also known as IVS9‐5 T) and c.2144delA;p.q715fs in two siblings with CBAVD. To verify the effects in vitro, we transfected vectors expressing wild‐type and mutated CFTR into 293T cells. The results showed that the CFTR protein containing the frameshift mutation (c.2144delA) was 60 kD smaller. With testicular sperm aspiration/intracytoplasmic sperm injection‐embryo transfer (TESA/ICSI‐ET), both CBAVD patients fathered healthy offspring. Conclusion Our study revealed that compound heterozygous mutations of CFTR are involved in CBAVD, expanding the known CFTR gene mutation spectrum of CBAVD patients and providing more evidence that compound heterozygous mutations can cause familial CBAVD.
MPPT control of a solar pumping system based five-phase impedance source inverter fed induction motor

This paper presents a control method for a system composed of a photovoltaic (PV) array, five-phase impedance source inverter, five-phase induction motor and centrifugal pump. This method is based on controlling the motor speed to control the pump power as the insolation level or temperature change to attain the maximum power extraction from the PV-array. The motor speed is controlled by using artificial neural network (ANN) which is trained to provide the desired inverter frequency and modulation index at any insolation level and temperature to attain the maximum PV operating power. The data of the neural network are based on the operation of the induction motor at constant air gap flux and perturb and observe method for maximum power point tracking. Simulation results are obtained using MATLAB Simulink to verify the proposed control method.
The Ability of Antibody against Truncated Matrix Metalloproteinase 9 Peptide to Evaluate the Native Protein on Tear Drops of Dry Eye Disease Patients by a Point-of-Care Diagnostic System

Purpose: To obtain a reactive and specific antibody against truncated matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9), that has reactivity toward the native protein. Precision, accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity were evaluated using a point-of-care test. Methods: An in silico study was used to confirm the anti peptide truncated MMP-9 is against native MMP-9. After an antibody titer assessment, purification, and characterization, the anti MMP-9 was assessed. The cut-off value was determined using the purified gelatinases of the supernatant HCT 116 cell line. The supernatant was purified by preparative native-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis based on charge and size of the proteins. Furthermore, quality control (QC) of the results were performed following standard densitometry methods. Results: A truncated MMP-9 is the major epitope peptide that can trigger the immune system to scavenge for a specific and reactive antibody against the native MMP-9. The MMP-9 native protein is purified from the supernatant of the HCT 116 cell line and the commercially available, full-length MMP-9. The cut-off value was estimated at 30 μg/mL. QC results indicated that the specificity was 80%, sensitivity was 96.7%, accuracy was 91%, and precision was 91.66%. The area under curve was 0.827 (P < 0.001). The positive predictive value was 83%, and the negative predictive value was 96%. Conclusions: The antibody against the synthetic epitope peptide can detect the native MMP-9. Native MMP-9 is considered the main biomarker in an immunoassay POCT and is used to diagnose dry eye disease (DED). In accordance with QC results, MMP-9 point of care test can be utilized for screening patients suffering from DED.
Identification and interruption of inheritance of familial cryptic translocations: A case report

Abstract Background Cryptic translocations can be identified via genetic analysis of aborted tissues or malformed infants, but it is difficult to deduce the parental origins of the translocations. In the absence of such information, it is not easy to distinguish translocations from normal embryos during pre‐implantation genetic testing, that seeks to block familial transmission of translocations. Methods Here, we present a new method that detects cryptic translocations and blocks familial transmission thereof. Whole‐genome, low‐coverage mate‐pair sequencing (WGLMPS) revealed chromosome breakpoint sequences, and preimplantation genetic haplotyping (PGH) was then used to discard embryos with cryptic translocations. Results Cryptic translocations were found in all four families, and familial transmission was successfully blocked in one family. Conclusion Whole‐genome, low‐coverage mate‐pair sequencing combined with preimplantation genetic haplotyping methods powerfully and practically identify cryptic translocations and block familial transmissions.