Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Processing of AlGaAs/GaAs quantum-cascade structures for terahertz laser

Abstract. We report research results with regard to AlGaAs/GaAs structure processing for THz quantum-cascade lasers (QCLs). We focus on the processes of Ti/Au cladding fabrication for metal–metal waveguides and wafer bonding with indium solder. Particular emphasis is placed on optimization of technological parameters for the said processes that result in working devices. A wide range of technological parameters was studied using test structures and the analysis of their electrical, optical, chemical, and mechanical properties performed by electron microscopic techniques, energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry, secondary ion mass spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and circular transmission line method. On that basis, a set of technological parameters was selected for the fabrication of devices lasing at a maximum temperature of 130 K from AlGaAs/GaAs structures grown by means of molecular beam epitaxy. Their resulting threshold-current densities were on a level of 1.5 kA/cm2. Furthermore, initial stage research regarding fabrication of Cu-based claddings is reported as these are theoretically more promising than the Au-based ones with regard to low-loss waveguide fabrication for THz QCLs.
Sexual and Sexist Violence in the Universities of Southern Spain

Situations of sexual and sexist harassment are the result of daily and widespread practices that also occur in universities. This study aims to investigate experienced and perceived situations of sexual and sexist violence in universities in southern Spain. The methodology consists of a review of the literature and the production of primary data using the quantitative method and the questionnaire technique. The sample consisted of 1,583 members of the university community of one of the ten universities in southern Spain, with a total population of 23,500 people. The results, in terms of harassment experienced (real or technical), reveal that the main victims of sexual and sexist harassment in the universities of southern Spain are women and people with different sexual identities (more than 83% of cases), between 19 and 50 years, and belonging to the student, teaching and research staff, and administration and services staff, without a permanent position. Female students are the most vulnerable, while men, in any of the categories, are victims in less than 17% of cases. Likewise, in 86% of the cases the harasser is a male, while women are harassers in 10.5% of the cases and people with diverse sexual identity are harassers in 3.5% of the situations. With regard to perceived (declared) harassment, the study concludes that the sex of the people surveyed, their level of studies, the university campus to which they belong and gender stereotypes are determining factors in the degree of perception of harassment situations. On the other hand, age, status, and employment status do not play a significant role in the respondents’ perceptions.
The effect of physical exercise on fatigue in systemic lupus erythematosus: a systematic review

ABSTRACT Objective Fatigue is a prominent and disabling manifestation that impairs the quality of life of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) patients both physically and mentally. The majority of SLE patients reports fatigue as an unmet need. Physical exercise could help SLE patients to reduce fatigue and improve quality of life. Methods A systematic review was conducted to analyse the effectiveness of physical exercise interventions to reduce fatigue in SLE patients. PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science: Core Collection, the Cochrane Library, CINAHL via EBSCO, and PEDro were searched (March 2021 to October 2021). Studies were included if they fulfilled prespecified criteria and were assessed for quality using the PEDro risk of bias tool. Results A total of 17 studies (11 RCTs, 3 non-RCTs, 2 one-group pretest-posttest designs, and 1 cross-sectional study) were included in this review. They compared exercise treatment with standard care, alternative treatment, or a different type of exercise. Most of the included studies reported significant improvement in fatigue after exercise therapy. However, study heterogeneity is an important methodological limitation. Exercise interventions did not cause disease flare-ups in patients with low to moderate disease activity. Conclusion Studies are heterogeneous, precluding firm conclusions. In general, 10 out of 17 studies showed statistically significant but rarely clinically relevant improvement in fatigue after exercise treatment. However, results were not always consistent across different instruments used to assess fatigue. More multi-centred randomised controlled trials are needed to find the best type of physical activity that is both safe and effective for SLE patients.
Equivalence Principle for Analyzing Steady-State Heat Conduction Problems

This article presents the concept of equivalence principle in the analysis of steady-state heat conduction problems. A surface integral equation formulation is established for homogeneous thermal media and a volume integral equation formulation for inhomogeneous isotropic/anisotropic thermal media. These formulations are analogous to those commonly used in electromagnetic scattering problems and can be solved with the same numerical algorithms used for electromagnetic analysis. This feature makes the proposed theory useful for simultaneous analysis of electromagnetic fields and heat conduction in an electronic system.
Synapse-Specific Modulation of Synaptic Responses by Brain States in Hippocampal Pathways

Synaptic changes play a major role in memory processes. Modulation of synaptic responses by brain states remains, however, poorly understood in hippocampal networks, even in basal conditions. We recorded evoked synaptic responses at five hippocampal pathways in freely moving male rats. We showed that, at the perforant path to dentate gyrus (PP-DG) synapse, responses increase during wakefulness compared with sleep. At the Schaffer collaterals to CA1 (SC-CA1) synapse, responses increase during non-REM sleep (NREM) compared with the other states. During REM sleep (REM), responses decreased at the PP-DG and SC-CA1 synapses compared with NREM, while they increased at the fornix to nucleus accumbens synapse (Fx-NAc) during REM compared with the other states. In contrast, responses at the fornix to medial PFC synapse (Fx-PFC) and at the fornix to amygdala synapse (Fx-Amy) were weakly modulated by vigilance states. Extended sleep periods led to synaptic changes at PP-DG and Fx-Amy synapses but not at the other synapses. Synaptic responses were also linked to local oscillations and were highly correlated between Fx-PFC and Fx-NAc but not between Fx-Amy and these synapses. These results reveal synapse-specific modulations that may contribute to memory consolidation during the sleep–wake cycle. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Surprisingly, the cortical network dynamics remains poorly known at the synaptic level. We tested the hypothesis that brain states would modulate synaptic changes in the same way at different cortical connections. To tackle this issue, we implemented an approach to explore the synaptic behavior of five connections upstream and downstream the rat hippocampus. Our study reveals that synaptic responses are modulated in a highly synapse-specific manner by wakefulness and sleep states as well as by local oscillations at these connections. Moreover, we found rapid synaptic changes during wake and sleep transitions as well as synaptic down and upregulations after extended periods of sleep. These synaptic changes are likely related to the mechanisms of sleep-dependent memory consolidation.
Three dimensional flow structures in a moving droplet on substrate: A dissipative particle dynamics study

It is of both fundamental and practical interest to study the flow physics in the manipulation of droplets. In this paper, we investigate complex flow in liquid droplets actuated by a linear gradient of wettability using dissipative particle dynamics simulation. The wetting property of the substrate ranging from hydrophilic to hydrophobic is achieved by adjusting the conservative solid-liquid interactions which results in a variation of solid-liquid surface tension. The internal three-dimensional velocity field with transverse flow in droplet is revealed and analyzed in detail. When the substrate is hydrophobic, it is found that there is slight deformation but strong flow circulation inside the droplet, and the droplet rolling is the dominant mechanism for the movement. However, large deformation of the droplet is generated after the droplet reaches the hydrophilic surface, and a mechanism combining rolling and sliding dominates the transportation of the droplet. Another interesting finding is that the th.
Tomato SlGSTU38 interacts with the PepMV coat protein and promotes viral infection.

Pepino mosaic virus (PepMV) is pandemic in tomato crops, causing important economic losses worldwide. No PepMV resistant varieties have been developed yet. Identification of host factors interacting with PepMV proteins is a promising source of genetic targets to develop PepMV resistant varieties. The interaction between the PepMV coat protein (CP) and the tomato glutathione S-transferase SlGSTU38 was identified in a yeast-two hybrid (Y2H) screening and validated by directed Y2H and co-immunoprecipitation assays. SlGSTU38-knocked out Micro-Tom plants (gstu38) generated by the CRISPR/Cas9 technology together with live-cell imaging were used to understand the role of SlGSTU38 during infection. The transcriptomes of healthy and PepMV-infected wild type (WT) and gstu38 plants were profiled by RNA-seq analysis. SlGSTU38 functions as a PepMV-specific susceptibility factor in a cell autonomous manner and re-localizes to the virus replication complexes during infection. Besides, knocking out SlGSTU38 triggers ROS accumulation in leaves and the deregulation of stress-responsive genes. SlGSTU38 may play a dual role: on the one hand, SlGSTU38 may exert a proviral function depending on its specific interaction with the PepMV CP; and on the other hand, SlGSTU38 may delay sensing PepMV infection by participating in the redox intra-cellular homeostasis in a non-specific manner.
Constrained predictive control of nonlinear plants via polytopic linear system embedding

This paper considers nonlinear system control via robust predictive controllers developed for constrained LTV systems with polytopic model uncertainties. The nonlinear systems dealt with are the ones whose trajectories can be embedded within those of a polytopic LTV system. This condition can be satisfied in bounded regions of the state space for a large class of nonlinear systems. In particular, we focus our attention on a robust predictive control scheme similar to the one recently developed by two of the authors for input-saturated polytopic LTV discrete-time systems, here extended so as to take into account also state constraints. The solution is based on the minimization, at each time instant, of an upper bound of the ‘worst-case’ infinite horizon quadratic cost under the constraint of steering the convex hull of the predicted state set into a feasible and robust positive invariant region. A condition on the initial state is given that suffices to ensure problem solvability for all subsequent time instants. The proposed predictive controller is proved to robustly quadratically stabilize input and state-constrained LTV polytopic systems, as well as any other embedded nonlinear system. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
No conclusive evidence for number-induced attentional shifts in a temporal order judgement task

The Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect refers to the observation that relatively small (e.g., 1) and large numbers (e.g., 9) elicit faster left- and right-sided manual responses, respectively. In a variation known as the attentional SNARC effect, merely looking at numbers caused a left- or right-ward shift in covert spatial attention, depending on the number’s magnitude. In our study, we probed the notion that numbers induce shifts of spatial attention in accordance with their position on a mental number line (MNL). Critically, we removed any putative spatial response code that may contaminate the responses. We used a square and a tilted square as targets, thereby situating the decisive response dimension in the ventral, non-spatial processing stream. In two experiments where numbers were used as non-informative cues preceding a temporal order judgement (TOJ) task, we did not observe a deflection of the locus of spatial attention as a function of the numerical magnitude of the cue. In a third experiment, finding a significant modulation of TOJ performance as a function of the pointing direction of arrow cues allowed us to rule out the possibility that the absence of any significant modulation in Experiments 1 and 2 was due to a lack of sensitivity of our task set-up. We conclude from the current findings that the spatial codes that the perception and naming of numbers potentially elicit are not in and by themselves sufficient to elicit deflections of spatial attention.
The Apraxia of Speech Rating Scale: Reliability, Validity, and Utility

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the interrater reliability and validity of the Apraxia of Speech Rating Scale (ASRS-3.5) as an index of the presence and severity of apraxia of speech (AOS) and the prominence of several of its important features. Method: Interrater reliability was assessed for 27 participants. Validity was examined in a cohort of 308 participants (120 with and 188 without progressive AOS) through item analysis; item-Total score correlations; correlations among ASRS Total score and component subscores and independent clinical ratings of AOS, dysarthria and aphasia severity, intelligibility, and articulatory errors, as well as years postonset and age; and regression models assessing item and Total score prediction of AOS presence. Results: Interrater reliability was good or excellent for most items and excellent for the Total score. Item and Total score analyses revealed good separation of participants with versus without AOS. Inter-item and item-Total score correlations were generally moderately high as were correlations between the ASRS Total score and independent ratings of AOS severity, intelligibility, and articulatory errors. The Total score was not meaningfully correlated with ratings of aphasia and dysarthria severity, years postonset, or age. Total scores below 7 and above 10 revealed excellent diagnostic sensitivity and specificity for AOS. The presence of eight or more abnormal features was also highly predictive of AOS presence. Conclusions: The ASRS-3.5 is a reliable and valid scale for identifying the presence and severity of AOS and its predominant features. It has excellent sensitivity to AOS presence and excellent specificity relative to aphasia and dysarthria in patients with neurodegenerative disease. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21817584
A20 and the noncanonical NF-κB pathway are key regulators of neutrophil recruitment during fetal ontogeny

Newborns are at high risk of developing neonatal sepsis, particularly if born prematurely. This has been linked to divergent requirements the immune system has to fulfill during intrauterine compared with extrauterine life. By transcriptomic analysis of fetal and adult neutrophils, we shed new light on the molecular mechanisms of neutrophil maturation and functional adaption during fetal ontogeny. We identified an accumulation of differentially regulated genes within the noncanonical NF-κB signaling pathway accompanied by constitutive nuclear localization of RelB and increased surface expression of TNF receptor type II in fetal neutrophils, as well as elevated levels of lymphotoxin α in fetal serum. Furthermore, we found strong upregulation of the negative inflammatory regulator A20 (Tnfaip3) in fetal neutrophils, which was accompanied by pronounced downregulation of the canonical NF-κB pathway. Functionally, overexpressing A20 in Hoxb8 cells led to reduced adhesion of these neutrophil-like cells in a flow chamber system. Conversely, mice with a neutrophil-specific A20 deletion displayed increased inflammation in vivo. Taken together, we have uncovered constitutive activation of the noncanonical NF-κB pathway with concomitant upregulation of A20 in fetal neutrophils. This offers perfect adaption of neutrophil function during intrauterine fetal life but also restricts appropriate immune responses particularly in prematurely born infants.
Evaluation of Multiple Machine Learning Models for Predicting Number of Anti-VEGF Injections in the Comparison of AMD Treatment Trials (CATT)

Purpose To apply machine learning models for predicting the number of pro re nata (PRN) injections of antivascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) in two years in the Comparison of AMD (age-related macular degeneration) Treatments Trials. Methods The data from 493 eligible participants randomized to PRN treatment of ranibizumab or bevacizumab were used for training (n = 393) machine learning models including support-vector machine (SVM), random forest, and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) models. Model performances of prediction using clinical and image data from baseline, weeks 4, 8, and 12 were evaluated by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for predicting few (≤8) or many (≥19) injections, by R2 and mean absolute error (MAE) for predicting the total number of injections in two years. The best model was selected for final validation on a test dataset (n = 100). Results Using training data up to week 12, the models achieved AUCs of 0.79–0.82 and 0.79–0.81 for predicting few and many injections, respectively, with R2 of 0.34–0.36 (MAE = 4.45–4.58 injections) for predicting total injections in two years from cross-validation. In final validation on the test dataset, the SVM model had AUCs of 0.77 and 0.82 for predicting few and many injections, respectively, with R2 of 0.44 (MAE = 3.92 injections). Important features included fluid in optical coherence tomography, lesion characteristics, and treatment trajectory in the first three months. Conclusions Machine learning models using loading dose phase data have the potential to predict two-year anti-VEGF demand for nAMD and quantify feature importance for these predictions. Translational Relevance Prediction of anti-VEGF injections using machine learning models from readily available data, after further validation on independent datasets, has the potential to help optimize treatment protocols and outcomes for nAMD patients in an individualized manner.
Diagnostic accuracy of circulating-free DNA for the determination of hepatocellular carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT Introduction Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is a good diagnostic tool for hepatocellular carcinoma as it can comprehensively reflect the heterogeneity of tumors and aid in their early detection. This study aimed to assess the diagnostic value of circulating cfDNA for hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Scopus databases were searched to identify all relevant literature from their dates of establishment to 6 April 2022, and a total of 2,467 articles were found. Methodological quality assessment was performed using QUADAS-2. Results Fifteen articles with 3,686 patients were included in this study after screening. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio, and area under the curve were 0.83 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.78, 0.87), 0.90 (95% CI: 0.86, 0.93), 8.4 (95% CI: 5.9, 12.0), 0.19 (95% CI: 0.15, 0.24), 44 (95% CI: 30, 66), and 0.93 (95% CI: 0.90, 0.95), respectively. Deek’s funnel plot test did not show significant publication bias (P = 0.28). Conclusions Results of this meta-analysis suggest that circulating cfDNA has moderate sensitivity and excellent specificity for the detection of hepatocellular carcinoma as a noninvasive test (0.83 and 0.90, respectively).
Whispering gallery resonances in semiconductor micropillars

In this letter, the authors observe high quality (Q up to 20 000) whispering gallery modes (WGMs) with small modal volumes V∼0. 3μm3 in 4–5μm Al(Ga)As∕GaAs micropillars by employing an experimental geometry in which both excitation and collection of emission are in a direction normal to the sidewalls of the pillars. They show that WGMs provide at least two times larger values of the figure of merit for strong coupling applications Q∕V compared to “photonic dot” states in pillars with comparable size.
Newcomer Women's Experiences with Perinatal Care During the Three-Month Health Insurance Waiting Period in Ontario, Canada

Background The three-month health insurance waiting period in Ontario reinforces health inequities for newcomer women and their babies. Little is known about the systemic factors that shape newcomer women's experiences during the OHIP waiting period. Purpose To examine the factors that shaped newcomer women's experiences with perinatal care during the three-month health insurance waiting period in Ontario, Canada. Methods This qualitative study was informed by an intersectional framework, and guided by a critical ethnographic method. Individual interviews were conducted with four newcomer women and three perinatal healthcare professionals. Participant observations at recruitment and interview sites were integral to the study design. Results The key systemic factors that shaped newcomer women's experiences with perinatal care included social identity, migration, and the healthcare system. Social identities related to gender, race, and socio-economic status intersected to form a social location, which converged with newcomer women's experiences of social isolation and exclusion. These experiences, in turn, intersected with Ontario's problematic perinatal health services. Together, these factors form systems of oppression for newcomer women in the perinatal period. Conclusions Given the health inequities that can result from these systems of oppression, it is important to adopt an upstream approach that is informed by the Human Rights Code of Ontario to improve accessibility to and the experiences of perinatal care for newcomer women.