Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Interconnected Surface Waters as Affected by Agricultural Activities

Pastures have become one of the most important sources of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) pollution, bringing risks to human health through the environment and the food that is grown there. Another significant source of food production is greenhouse horticulture, which is typically located near pastures. Through waterways, pasture-originated ARGs may transfer to the food in greenhouses. However, how these pasture-originated ARGs spread to nearby waterways and greenhouses has been much less investigated, while this may pose risks to humans through agricultural products. We analyzed 29 ARGs related to the most used antibiotics in livestock in the Netherlands at 16 locations in an agricultural area, representing pastures, greenhouses and lakes. We found that ARGs were prevalent in all surface waters surrounding pastures and greenhouses and showed a similar composition, with sulfonamide ARGs being dominant. This indicates that both pastures and greenhouses cause antibiotic resistance pressures on neighboring waters. However, lower pressures were found in relatively larger and isolated lakes, suggesting that a larger water body or a non-agricultural green buffer zone could help reducing ARG impacts from agricultural areas. We also observed a positive relationship between the concentrations of the class 1 integron (intl1 gene)—used as a proxy for horizontal gene transfer—and ARG concentration and composition. This supports that horizontal gene transfer might play a role in dispersing ARGs through landscapes. In contrast, none of the measured four abiotic factors (phosphate, nitrate, pH and dissolved oxygen) showed any impact on ARG concentrations. ARGs from different classes co-occurred, suggesting simultaneous use of different antibiotics. Our findings help to understand the spatial patterns of ARGs, specifically the impacts of ARGs from pastures and greenhouses on each other and on nearby waterways. In this way, this study guides management aiming at reducing ARGs′ risk to human health from agricultural products.
Tracking Multiple Persons under Occlusion Using Appearance Model Based on Attributed Relational Graph

Appearance features are important for tracking persons in stationary scenes. The proposed algorithm was based on appearance mold built by attributed relational graph (ARG). The ARG was used for modeling human appearance features containing color and spatial information. The matching degree of the ARGs was utilized for analyzing tracking situations in current frame. For tracking persons under occlusion, multiple feature patches were generated and the genetic algorithm was used for finding optimal labels of patches. Experiments showed the utility and performance of the proposed approach.
A Review of 3D Printed Gradient Refractive Index Lens Antennas

Gradient index lens antennas find their application in modern wireless communication including radar systems, satellite communication, etc. They can ensure highly directional beamforming, support multibeam operations and beam steering capabilities within a wide angle of view. The development of 3D printing technologies enables the implementation of complex gradient refractive index distribution with high accuracy as well as obtaining a significant reduction in the production time and cost. This paper presents the state of the art in gradient refractive index lens antenna design using different types of additive manufacturing processes. It shows the applicability of 3D printing to a wide range of operational frequency bands from microwave to sub-THz and THz.
The dynamics of shell formation

The paper investigates the dynamics of shell formation, addressing issues such as general requirements for shell formation systems, expected sharpness of shells, longevity of shell systems, and comparison of the competing models for the origin of the shell-forming stars. Shell formation is studied first in a one-dimensional potential, which gives new insights into the formation of shear shells, and then in an integrable three dimensional potential, which can cause an initially localized particle distribution to produce shells. The sharpness of shells is governed by the extent of the initial particle distribution in the angular dimensions. Approximate analytical expressions for shell thickness and spacing are derived in terms of the three frequencies which govern particle motions in the potential. The expressions apply to the limit when the initial particle distribution has become well sheared in phase space. Tightly wrapped shells make the invariant surfaces of a galaxy's potential visible and will provide valuable information concerning the structure of elliptical galaxies. 42 refs.
Unconscious Processing of Greenery in the Tourism Context: A Breaking Continuous Flash Suppression Experiment

Both tourism and nature have been proven to contribute to people’s physical and mental health. Most studies have discussed their positive effects at the conscious level, but the unconscious mechanisms underlying these effects remain under-investigated, especially in the tourism context. Using a psychological experimental paradigm called breaking continuous flash suppression (b-CFS), this study tested how the proportion of greenery in an environment influences people’s perceptions of tourism sites and compared the effects of different proportions of greenery on participants’ unconscious responses to tourism sites. The results suggest that the presence of greenery improves the participants’ unconscious perceptions, and that this effect is due to greenery as an element of the natural world, rather than to green as a color. These findings enhance the understanding of the role that the unconscious response plays in the effect of nature on human health and may have managerial implications for the tourism industry.
Dynamic Event-Triggered Reinforcement Learning Control of Stochastic Nonlinear Systems

This article investigates the event-triggered optimized tracking control problem for stochastic nonlinear systems based on reinforcement learning (RL). By using the backstepping strategy, an adaptive RL algorithm is performed under the identifier-critic-actor architecture to achieve event-triggered optimized control (ETOC). Moreover, a novel dynamically adjustable event-triggered mechanism is delicately designed, which adjusts the triggering threshold online to economize communication resources and reduce the computation burden. To overcome the difficulty that the virtual control signals are discontinuous due to the state-triggering, the virtual controllers are designed with the continuous sampling states signals, and the actual optimal controller is redesigned by using the triggered states in the last step. Furthermore, the proposed ETOC in this article has significant advantages in terms of saving network resources because the event-triggered mechanism is employed in the sensor-to-controller channel and the event-sampled states are utilized to directly activate the control actions. Finally, it can be guaranteed that all signals of the stochastic system are bounded under the presented ETOC method. A simulation example is carried out to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed ETOC algorithm.
Regular embeddings which preserve lattice structure

A lattice L is said to be regularly embedded in a complete lattice K if there exists an isomorphic mapping of L into K which preserves all least upper and greatest lower bounds that exist in L. With the MacNeille completion by cuts every lattice can be regularly embedded in a complete lattice. And if the lattice is a Boolean algebra, then its completion by cuts is also a Boolean algebra. In general, however, this embedding does not preserve lattice structure; there are examples of distributive lattices whose completions by cuts are not even modular. On the other hand every lattice L can be embedded in the complete lattice of its ideals which satisfies every identity that holds in L. This embedding preserves greatest lower bounds but does not preserve infinite least upper bounds. Recently A. Horn has asked whether or not any distributive lattice can be regularly embedded in some complete distributive lattice. Here this question is answered in the negative. We show with an example that there exists a distributive lattice which cannot be regularly embedded in a complete modular lattice. What appears to be most important in the example is the lack of certain continuity laws. If we impose such a law on a lattice, then a structure preserving regular embedding is possible. Following [2] let us define a subset A of a lattice L to be a complete ideal if for every element aEL and every subset SCA for which US exists in L we have
Isolation and Characterization of Prophylactic Antimalarial Agents from Ochna kibbiensis Leaves

Ochna kibbiensis (Family: Ochnaceae) has been employed in ethnomedicine for the treatment of malaria and inflammation, among others. The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize prophylactic antimalarial agents from the leaves of O. kibbiensis against Plasmodium berghei, in vivo and in silico. The median lethal dose (LD50) of the methanol extract and its fractions (hexane, dichloromethane, ethylacetate and butanol) was determined according to Lorke’s method while the antimalarial effect of the extract and its fractions was investigated according to the method described by Peters prophylactic test using Chloroquine-sensitive Plasmodium berghei (NK65). All the extract/fractions exhibited LD50 values ≥ 5000 mg/kg with the exception of the n-butanol fraction (1702.94 mg/kg), which indicate that the plant is non-toxic. Dichloromethane fraction exhibited a significant (p < 0.05) and dose-dependent prophylactic effect with 47.62, 85.12, and 100.0% prophylaxis (at 500, 250, and 125 mg/kg), while the least effect was observed by the butanol fraction with a percentage prophylaxis of 64.29 and 76.19, respectively; the standard drug, pyrimethamine, had 95.24% prophylaxis. Based on the results obtained, dichloromethane fraction of O. kibbiensis was subjected to chromatographic purification, which led to the isolation of a mixture of two compounds identified as stigmasterol and β-sitosterol by analysis of the NMR spectral data and comparison with existing literature; the compounds exhibited good binding affinities (−5.129 and −4.889 kcal/mol) against pfLDH and a favorable ADMET profile. In conclusion, the leaves of O. kibbiensis have demonstrated a significant prophylactic antimalarial activity and the two known steroids (stigmasterol and β-sitosterol) were isolated from the dichloromethane fraction for the first time.
Scanned electrostatic force microscope for noninvasive high frequency potential measurement

This letter presents a technique for performing localized noncontact measurements of high frequency signals on integrated circuits using a scanned force microscope. The technique extracts the amplitude and phase of the signal voltage at a point on the circuit by nulling the electrostatic force interaction between a small driven probe and the test point. A heterodyne approach is used to enable the measurement of high frequency signals, including frequencies which are much greater than the mechanical resonance of the probe mechanism. Accurate measurements can be performed without complex calibration requirements and are not sensitive to dc offset effects.
Learning one-to-many mapping functions for audio-visual integrated perception

In noisy environment the human speech perception utilizes visual lip-reading as well as audio phonetic classification. This audio-visual integration may be done by combining the two sensory features at the early stage. Also, the top-down attention may integrate the two modalities. For the sensory feature fusion we introduce mapping functions between the audio and visual manifolds. Especially, we present an algorithm to provide one-to-many mapping function for the videoto- audio mapping. The top-down attention is also presented to integrate both the sensory features and classification results of both modalities, which is able to explain McGurk effect. Each classifier is separately implemented by the Hidden-Markov Model (HMM), but the two classifiers are combined at the top level and interact by the top-down attention.
He ion irradiation damage in Al∕Nb multilayers

We investigate the evolution of microstructure and mechanical properties of sputter-deposited Al∕Nb multilayers with miscible fcc/bcc type interface and individual layer thickness, h, of 1–200nm, subjected to helium ion irradiations: 100keV He+ ions and a fluence of 6×1016∕cm2. Helium bubbles, 1–2nm in diameter, are observed. When h is greater than 25nm, hardnesses of irradiated multilayers barely change, whereas radiation hardening is more significant at smaller h. Transmission electron microscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy studies reveal the formation of a thin layer of Nb3Al intermetallic phase along the Al∕Nb interface as a consequence of radiation induced intermixing. The dependence of radiation hardening on h is interpreted by using a composite model considering the formation of the hard Nb3Al intermetallic layer.
A projection neural network and its application to constrained optimization problems

In this paper, we present a recurrent neural network for solving the nonlinear projection formulation. It is shown here that the proposed neural network is stable in the sense of Lyapunov and globally convergent, globally asymptotically stable, and globally exponentially stable, respectively under different conditions. Compared with the existing neural network for solving the projection formulation, the proposed neural network has a single-layer structure and is amenable to parallel implementation. Moreover, the proposed neural network has no Lipschitz condition, and, thus can be applied to solve a very broad class of constrained optimization problems that are special cases of the nonlinear projection formulation. Simulation shows that the proposed neural network is effective in solving these constrained optimization problems.
Weighted Logrank Statistics in Sequential Tests

Abstract Fully sequential generalization of some group sequential tests currently in use in clinical trials are considered. The model is censored data with random staggered entry, and it is used for the comparison of two treatments. Results show that the sequential tests can outperform group sequential tests and provide more information about the nature of relationship of the two treatments. Furthermore, they allow complete freedom in scheduling data evaluation.
Analysis of Sleep Quality in People With Dementia: A Preliminary Study

Background: Between 25% and 60% of subjects with dementia have shown sleep disturbances. Causes are diverse and seem to be related to factors such as aging, the presence of psychiatric diseases, or the consumption of drugs. This study aims to determine the influence of dementia on sleep quality and to analyze the factors that influence sleep quality in subjects ≥65 years. Methods: Thirty-one subjects were studied (15 living with dementia). PSQI was administered and statistical analysis compared the results among categories of other variables (age, gender, coffee consumption, drugs, BMI, psychiatric diseases). This study took place in Spain. Results: A prevalence of 46.7% of sleep disturbances was found in subjects with dementia. No significant differences were observed in the total score obtained in the PSQI between the dementia group (6.06 ± 3.78 points) and the group without dementia (7 ± 5.65 points). A significant inverse relationship was found between the sleep quality and the number of daily drugs and the presence of psychiatric diseases. Conclusion: Poor sleep quality affects people with dementia, however, we cannot affirm that dementia is the cause of it. Consumption of daily drugs and psychiatric diseases are factors that influence the sleep quality in subjects aged ≥65 years.
Non-Union of Isolated Medial Condyle of Femur Hoffa Fracture: Case Report

Isolated non-united Hoffa fracture of the femur is a rare finding. They are often missed due to the nature of the fracture and when not assessed appropriately. This is a case report of a 40-year-old male who encountered a high-velocity trauma; the fracture was probably missed on plain radiographs following the trauma. The patient presented to us eight months following the trauma with complaints of pain and decreased range of motion of his right knee (10 to 80 degrees of flexion) and the patient was unable to bear weight on the affected limb. On evaluation, the patient was found to have a non-united Hoffa fracture involving the medial condyle. The patient was treated with freshening of fracture followed by rigid fixation with cancellous screws and reconstruction plate. Postoperatively by week six, the patient achieved full range of motion and was able to walk without assistance with evidence of union on plain radiographs.
Performance Measurements of Multicycle Pulse-Detonation-Engine Exhaust Nozzles

Performance measurements of multicycle pulse-detonation-engine (PDE) exhaust nozzles were obtained using a damped thrust stand. A pulse detonation engine of 1.88 m length was operated on a cycle frequency of 30 Hz at stoichiometric conditions. Both converging and diverging bell-shaped exhaust nozzles were tested for PDE fill-fractions ranging from 0.4 to 1.1. The area ratios of the nozzles were varied from 0.25 converging to 4.00 diverging. The nozzle length was negligible compared to the overall length of the PDE. The feasibility of normalizing the PDE nozzle thrust data was investigated by testing two different PDE combustion chamber diameters (2.54 and 5.08 cm) with the same nozzle area ratios. The optimum nozzle area ratio was found to be a function of the PDE fill-fraction. For fill-fractions at or below 0.5, the optimum configuration was a PDE without an exhaust nozzle. However, as the operating fill-fraction was increased to values close to or above one, thrust enhancement was obtained with a converging nozzle. The diverging nozzles also showed a relative increase in their performance with increased fill-fraction. Unlike the converging nozzles, the diverging nozzles and baseline configuration were observed to be sensitive to the ignition delay.
Modeling electromigration‐induced stress evolution in confined metal lines

A model for stress evolution in confined metal interconnects due to electromigration was proposed recently by M. A. Korhonen, P. Borgesen, K. N. Tu, and C. ‐Y. Li [J. Appl. Phys. 73, 3790 (1993)], in which interconnect failure is associated with the buildup of stress to a critical level. We show that the analytic solution for a semi‐infinite line with a blocking boundary given by Korhonen et al. is a good approximation only when the stress buildup is small. This is not usually the case for narrow, encapsulated interconnect lines in which the electromigration‐induced stress can be quite high prior to failure. A complete model description and a more accurate analytic solution to the differential equations describing the electromigration‐induced stress buildup at a blocking boundary is presented.
The Poisson Voronoi Tessellation III. Miles' Formula

This paper gives distributional properties of geometrical characteristics of a Voronoi tessellation generated by a stationary Poisson point process. The considerations are based on a well‐known formula given by [10] describing size and shape of a cell of the Delaunay tessellation and on the close connection between Delaunay and Voronoi tessellation. Several results are given for the two‐dimensional case, but the main part is the investigation of the three‐dimensional case. They include the density functions of the angles perpendicular to the ‘typical’ edge, spanned by two neighbouring Poisson points and that spanned by two neighbouring faces, the angle between two edges emanating from the ‘typical’ vertex, the distance of two neighbouring Poisson points, the angle between two edges emanating from the ‘typical’ vertex of the Poisson Voronoi tessellation and some others. These density functions are given partly explicitely and partly in integral form.
A Suggested Modification to FIGO Stage IV Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Simple Summary The identification of prognostic factors is important to improve the management of patients with ovarian cancer (OC). The staging classification of OC was revised in 2014 and 2018 by the FIGO (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics) Gynecological Oncology Committee and dichotomizes stages IV into stage IVA and IVB. The FIGO classification aims to establish a disease severity scale and to group patients with similar prognoses. The objective of our retrospective, multicenter study was to assess the prognostic impact of this dichotomization and of the initial metastatic localization of patients with FIGO stage IV OC. We showed that, among our 307 patients, FIGO stage IVA patients had a worse prognosis than FIGO stage IVB patients. The initial pleural effusion was a factor of poor prognosis in terms of overall survival. We suggest a modification of the current FIGO staging classification. Abstract International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) staging classification for stage IV epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) separates stages IVA (pleural effusion) and IVB (parenchymal and/or extra-abdominal lymph node metastases). We aimed to evaluate its prognostic impact and to compare survival according to the initial metastatic location. We conducted a multicenter study between 2000 and 2020, including patients with a FIGO stage IV EOC. Primary endpoint was overall survival (OS). The secondary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS) and recurrence rates. We included 307 patients: 98 (32%) had FIGO stage IVA and 209 (68%) had FIGO stage IVB. The median OS and PFS of stage IVA patients were significantly lower than those of stage IVB patients (31 versus 45 months (p = 0.02) and 18 versus 25 months (p = 0.01), respectively). Recurrence rate was higher in stage IVA than IVB patients (65% versus 47% (p = 0.004)). Initial pleural involvement was a poor prognostic factor with a median OS of 35 months versus 49 months for patients without initial pleural involvement (p = 0.024). Patients with FIGO stage IVA had a worse prognosis than patients with FIGO stage IVB EOC. Pleural involvement appears to be relevant for predicting survival. We suggest a modification of the current FIGO staging classification.
Using Evolutionary Algorithms to Target Complexity Levels in Game Economies

Game economies (GEs) describe how resources in games are created, transformed, or exchanged: They underpin most games and exist in different complexities. Their complexity may directly impact player difficulty. Nevertheless, neither difficulty nor complexity adjustment has been explored for GEs. Moreover, there is a lack of knowledge about complexity in GEs, how to define or assess it, and how it can be employed by automated adjustment approaches in game development to target specific complexity. We present a proof-of-concept for using evolutionary algorithms to craft targeted complexity graphs to model GEs. In a technical evaluation, we tested our first working definition of complexity in GEs. We then evaluated player-perceived complexity in a city-building game prototype through a user study and confirmed the generated GEs' complexity in an online survey. Our approach toward reliably creating GEs of specific complexity can facilitate game development and player testing but also inform and ground research on player perception of GE complexity.