Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recent advances in ECE imaging performance

ECE Imaging (ECEI) systems have been installed and are presently operating on the KSTAR, DIII-D, ASDEX-UG, and HT-7 tokamaks. All are inherently 2-D systems, collect-ing second harmonic ECE radiation to form temporally-resolved localized Te images. System resolutions range from 16 × 8 (HT-7 and ASDEX-UG) to 20 × 16 (DIII-D) to 24 × 16 (KSTAR), with a spatial resolution as low as 1.0 cm (vertical) by 0.9 cm (radial), and with video bandwidths up to 400 kHz. Noise and drift performance of ECEI systems installed on KSTAR and DIII-D were significantly improved in 2011 with new zero bias detectors. This higher level of performance has resulted in new physics advances as ECEI is employed to visualize high temperature plasmas from the plasma edge (pedestal region) through the plasma core, with examples presented herein. In addition to these systems, a new expanded view ECEI system has been developed for the EAST tokamak that produces 24 × 16 Te images from a single imaging array and which is currently being commissioned.
The Role of Heart Rate Variability (HRV) in Different Hypertensive Syndromes

Cardiac innervation by the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) modulates the heart rate (HR) (chronotropic activity) and the contraction of the cardiac muscle (inotropic activity). The peripheral vasculature is controlled only by the SNS, which is responsible for peripheral vascular resistance. This also mediates the baroreceptor reflex (BR), which in turn mediates blood pressure (BP). Hypertension (HTN) and the autonomic nervous system (ANS) are closely related, such that derangements can lead to vasomotor impairments and several comorbidities, including obesity, hypertension, resistant hypertension, and chronic kidney disease. Autonomic dysfunction is also associated with functional and structural changes in target organs (heart, brain, kidneys, and blood vessels), increasing cardiovascular risk. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a method of assessing cardiac autonomic modulation. This tool has been used for clinical evaluation and to address the effect of therapeutic interventions. The present review aims (a) to approach the heart rate (HR) as a CV risk factor in hypertensive patients; (b) to analyze the heart rate variability (HRV) as a “tool” to estimate the individual risk stratum for Pre-HTN (P-HTN), Controlled-HTN (C-HTN), Resistant and Refractory HTN (R-HTN and Rf-HTN, respectively), and hypertensive patients with chronic renal disease (HTN+CKD).
Modified Sequential Organ Failure Assessment Score vs. Early Warning Scores in Prehospital Care to Predict Major Adverse Cardiac Events in Acute Cardiovascular Disease

(1) Background: The Modified Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (mSOFA) is an Early Warning Score (EWS) that has proven to be useful in identifying patients at high risk of mortality in prehospital care. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the predictive validity of prehospital mSOFA in estimating 2- and 90-day mortality (all-cause) in patients with acute cardiovascular diseases (ACVD), and to compare this validity to that of four other widely-used EWS. (2) Methods: We conducted a prospective, observational, multicentric, ambulance-based study in adults with suspected ACVD who were transferred by ambulance to Emergency Departments (ED). The primary outcome was 2- and 90-day mortality (all-cause in- and out-hospital). The discriminative power of the predictive variable was assessed and evaluated by the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC). (3) Results: A total of 1540 patients met the inclusion criteria. The 2- and 90-day mortality rates were 5.3% and 12.7%, respectively. The mSOFA showed the highest AUC of all the evaluated scores for both 2- and 90-day mortality, AUC = 0.943 (0.917–0.968) and AUC = 0.874 (0.847–0.902), respectively. (4) Conclusions: The mSOFA is a quick and easy-to-use EWS with an excellent ability to predict mortality at both 2 and 90 days in patients treated for ACVD, and has proved to be superior to the other EWS evaluated in this study.
Diffuse interface model for electromigration and stress voiding

We report a diffuse interface or phase field model for simulating electromigration and stress-induced void evolution in interconnect lines. Our approach is based on the introduction of an order parameter field to characterize the damaged state of the interconnect. The order parameter takes on distinct uniform values within the material and the void, varying rapidly from one to the other over narrow interfacial layers associated with the void surface. The evolution of this order parameter is shown to be governed by a form of the Cahn–Hilliard equation. An asymptotic analysis of the equation demonstrates, as intended, that the zero contour of the order parameter tracks the motion of a void evolving by diffusion under the coupled effects of stresses and the “electron wind” force. An implicit finite element scheme is used to solve the modified Cahn–Hilliard equation, together with equations associated with the accompanying mechanical and electrical problems. The diffuse interface model is applied to simulate a range of problems involving void evolution in interconnect lines. Results obtained are shown to be in excellent agreement with those computed previously using equivalent sharp interface models.
Group Inverse-Gamma Gamma Shrinkage for Sparse Linear Models with Block-Correlated Regressors

Heavy-tailed continuous shrinkage priors, such as the horseshoe prior, are widely used for sparse estimation problems. However, there is limited work extending these priors to predictors with grouping structures. Of particular interest in this article, is regression coefficient estimation where pockets of high collinearity in the covariate space are contained within known covariate groupings. To assuage variance inflation due to multicollinearity we propose the group inverse-gamma gamma (GIGG) prior, a heavy-tailed prior that can trade-off between local and group shrinkage in a data adaptive fashion. A special case of the GIGG prior is the group horseshoe prior, whose shrinkage profile is correlated within-group such that the regression coefficients marginally have exact horseshoe regularization. We show posterior consistency for regression coefficients in linear regression models and posterior concentration results for mean parameters in sparse normal means models. The full conditional distributions corresponding to GIGG regression can be derived in closed form, leading to straightforward posterior computation. We show that GIGG regression results in low mean-squared error across a wide range of correlation structures and within-group signal densities via simulation. We apply GIGG regression to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for associating environmental exposures with liver functionality.
Monitoring and Analyzing the Seasonal Wetland Inundation Dynamics in the Everglades from 2002 to 2021 Using Google Earth Engine

Inundation dynamics coupled with seasonal information is critical to study the wetland environment. Analyses based on remotely sensed data are the most effective means to monitor and investigate wetland inundation dynamics. For the first time, this study deployed an automated thresholding method to quantify and compare the annual inundation characteristics in dry and wet seasons in the Everglades, using Landsat imagery in Google Earth Engine (GEE). This research presents the long-term time series maps from 2002 to 2021, with a comprehensive spatiotemporal depiction of inundation. In this paper, we bridged the research gap of space-time analysis for multi-season inundation dynamics, which is urgently needed for the Everglades wetland. Within a GIS-based framework, we integrated statistical models, such as Mann–Kendall and Sen’s Slope tests, to track the evolutionary trend of seasonal inundation dynamics. The spatiotemporal analyses highlight the significant differences in wet and dry seasons through time and space. The stationary or permanent inundation is more likely to be distributed along the coastal regions (Gulf of Mexico and Florida Bay) of the Everglades, presenting a warning regarding their vulnerability to sea level rise.
Searching for optimal accident tolerant fuel for the VVER-1200 reactor from the neutronic point of view

ABSTRACT In an attempt to find an optimum fuel, which can withstand the harsh operation condition in the VVER-1200 reactor, different fuel types were investigated in this work. Uranium carbide and uranium nitride are proposed as alternative fuels to UO2. MCNPX 2.7 with cross-section library ENDF/B-VII was used to design 3D model of VVER-1200 to investigate the neutronic properties of the suggested fuel types. The output results of the burnup of the proposed fuels have been analyzed to determine which of them achieves the longest fuel cycle. It was found that UO2 and U12C achieved criticality till 35 GWD/MTHM, while U14N and U15N achieved criticality at 30 GWD/MTHM and 24 GWD/MTHM, respectively. The traditional method of reactivity management has been tested on the proposed fuel to determine to what extent it is valid for them. To ensure the operation safety of the proposed fuel, some safety factors such as moderator temperature coefficient (MTC‎), fuel temperature coefficient (FTC‎), and effective delayed neutron fraction (βeff) have been calculated. The distribution of the thermal neutron flux and normalized power has been displayed to give us a good insight view of the VVER-1200 assembly to determine which of the proposed fuels is optimum compared to UO2.
Experimental determination of electrical characteristics and circuit models of superconducting dipole magnets

Due to the effects of eddy currents and parasitic capacitance, the electrical characteristics of superconducting magnets are not completely inductive; instead, they are frequency dependent functions. This paper develops a method of accurately measuring the ac characteristics and determining the circuit models of superconducting magnets that characterize the eddy currents and the parasitic capacitance. This measurement method can be used to analyze eddy currents and the resulting circuit model can be used to study the transmission line effect of long magnet strings. >
Using specially designed exponential families for density estimation

i this paper have Y being portions of the real line or of the plane, but the methodology applies just as well to higher dimensionalities and to more complicated spaces. Estimates of g y are traditionally constructed in two quite different ways: by maximum likelihood fitting within some parametric family such as the normal or by nonparametric methods such as kernel density estimation. These two methods can be combined by putting an exponential family ''through'' a nonparametric estimator. The resulting hybrid estimators are the specially designed exponential families of the title. Figure 1 shows a simple example of this methodology. The y are pain i scores for n s 67 women, each obtained by averaging the results from a questionnaire administered after an operation. The scale runs from y s 0 s w x
Multilevel Toxicity Evaluations of Polyethylene Microplastics in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Microplastics in freshwater environments pose a serious threat to living beings. Polyethylene microplastics (PE-MP) are the type most used around the world as microbeads in personal care products, and they have been found in aquatic organisms. The behavior and toxicity of fluorescent PE-MP spheres with an average diameter of 58.9 μm were studied in adult, juvenile and embryo zebrafish (Danio rerio). The adults were studied for genotoxicity, cytotoxicity, histology and biochemical markers. Juveniles underwent a follow-up in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract with histologic observations, and embryos were studied for embryotoxicity with the FET-test. In adults, micronucleus test and comet assays found neither genotoxicity after acute exposure for 96 h at concentrations of 0.0, 12.5, 50 and 100 mg.L−1, nor cytotoxicity through the nuclear abnormalities test. Acetylcholinesterase (AChE), Glutathione-S-Transferase (GST) and Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) activities were measured in adults exposed for 96 h. The AChE and GST activities were significantly changed, while no changes occurred for LDH. In conclusion, these PE-MP spheres did not cause serious toxic effects in zebrafish because there was no internalization. The observed biochemical changes in AChE and GST may be associated with GI microbiological dysbiosis, previously reported. The PE-MP spheres in the intestine of juveniles remained present for 12–15 days on average after the post-exposure clearance study, showing a slow depuration. The histological analysis, in adults, found no internalization of these microbeads, with complete depuration. The PE-MP spheres did not cross the chorion barrier, showing no embryotoxic effects after exposures at 0.0, 6.25, 12.5, 50.0 or 100.0 mg.L−1 for 96 h.
Healthcare Providers’ Perceptions and Experiences of Training to Respond to Violence against Women: Results from a Qualitative Study

Healthcare providers (HCPs) can support women affected by violence, providing a safe way for women to disclose experiences of violence and mitigating violence against women (VAW) through the identification of cases in routine clinical practice. We conducted in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with HCPs in three tertiary facilities in Maharashtra, India, who had participated in training using the World Health Organization curriculum, adapted for the Indian context. n = 21 HCPs participated in in-depth interviews and n = 10 nurses participated in two focus group discussions. The respondents indicated that the training approach and content were acceptable and that the skills learned during the training were feasible to implement. A shift in perspective from viewing VAW as a private issue to understanding it as a health issue facilitated HCPs’ response. The training enabled HCPs to recognize barriers faced by women in disclosing violence and their role in supporting disclosure. HCPs reported barriers to providing care for survivors of violence, including a lack of human resources, the time during regular clinical practice, and a lack of strong referral networks. These data can be utilized to inform other efforts to train HCPs in facilities in this setting and provide evidence for ways to improve health systems’ responses to VAW in low-and middle-income country settings.
Ferroptosis Inducers Kill Mesenchymal Stem Cells Affected by Neuroblastoma

Simple Summary Bone marrow metastasis represents poor prognosis in neuroblastoma, and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells play an important role in this progression. There is no effective way to intervene in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. We attempt to find one way to effectively kill these cells. We found that ferroptosis induction might be an recommended approach. Our findings provide new strategies for therapy of neuroblastoma patients with bone marrow metastasis. Abstract Bone marrow (BM) is the most common site of neuroblastoma (NB) metastasis, and its involvement represents poor patient prognosis. In accordance with the “seed and soil” theory of tumor metastasis, BM provides a favorable environment for NB metastasis while bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) have been recognized as a central part of tumor stroma formation. Yet, there is currently no effective method for intervening these BMSCs. We found that BMSCs affected by NB (NB-BMSCs) could significantly promote NB growth and migration. Additionally, tumor cell-endowed BMSCs showed stronger resistance to several chemotherapeutic agents. Surprisingly, NB-BMSCs were more sensitive to ferroptosis than normal BMSCs. NB-BMSCs had lower levels of intracellular free iron while synthesizing more iron-sulfur clusters and heme. Moreover, the Xc−/glutathione/glutathione peroxidase 4 (Xc−/GSH/GPX4) pathway of the anti-ferroptosis system was significantly downregulated. Accordingly, ferroptosis inducers erastin and RAS-selective lethal 3 (RSL3) could significantly kill NB-BMSCs with limited effects on normal BMSCs. BMSCs from NB patients with BM metastasis also showed poor anti-ferroptosis ability compared with those from NB patients without BM metastasis. In vivo studies suggested that co-injection of mice with BMSCs and NB cells could significantly promote the growth of tumor tissues compared with injecting NB cells alone. However, treatment with erastin or RSL3 resulted in the opposite effect to some extent. Our results revealed that NB-BMSCs were vulnerable to ferroptosis from downregulation of the Xc−/GSH/GPX4 pathway. Ferroptosis inducers could effectively kill NB-BMSCs, but not normal BMSCs. This study provides possible new ideas for the treatment of tumor-associated BMSCs in NB patients.
Wogonin, a Bioactive Ingredient from Huangqi Guizhi Formula, Alleviates Discogenic Low Back Pain via Suppressing the Overexpressed NGF in Intervertebral Discs

Purpose To investigate whether wogonin, a key bioactive ingredient of Huangqi Guizhi formula (HQGZ formula; a Traditional Chinese Medicine herbal formula) according to network pharmacology analysis, has analgesic effects on discogenic low back pain (LBP) via regulating the nerve growth factor (NGF) in intervertebral discs (IVDs). Methods The lumbar IVDs of rats were punctured to discogenic LBP, and the therapeutic effect of orally administrated HQGZ for discogenic LBP was investigated by measuring mechanical and cold allodynia and histological analysis. A network pharmacology analysis was conducted to search for bioactive ingredients from the HQGZ formula, and wogonin was suggested to be the most possible bioactive ingredient for LBP treatment. Subsequently, the analgesic effect of wogonin was investigated in the LBP model, and the gene expression of propain peptides in the bilateral dorsal root ganglia was analyzed using RT-PCR. Finally, immunohistochemical staining was performed for NGF expression of NGF in the IVDs to determine whether wogonin treatment would ameliorate NGF-induced LBP. Results Oral administration of HQGZ for two weeks significantly ameliorated puncture-induced IVD degeneration (IDD) and LBP. In addition, the network pharmacology analysis revealed that wogonin, quercetin, and kaempferol were the potential candidate components of HQGZ for LBP treatment. Furthermore, we proved that wogonin had significant analgesic effects in the LBP model. Finally, wogonin was demonstrated to suppress the upregulated NGF in the IVD and ameliorate NGF-induced LBP in rats. Conclusions The HQGZ formula has significant analgesic effects for LBP. In addition, the bioactive ingredient of wogonin was extracted from HQGZ and ameliorated LBP by suppressing the overexpressed NGF in degenerated IVDs. Therefore, wogonin has potential to be alternative treatment for LBP in clinical.
Acoustic Radiation by Point- or Line-Excited Laminated Plates

This paper presents an elasticity theory solution for computation of acoustic radiation by a point- or line-excited fluid-loaded laminated plate, which may consist of a stack of an arbitrary number of different isotropic material layers. A one-side water-loaded three-layer sandwich plate, which consists of a hard rubber core sandwiched between two steel plates of equal thickness, was used as an example of the laminated plates. The approximated equivalent sandwich plate solutions were compared with the elasticity theory solutions. These results show that the approximated solutions are, as expected, valid only at frequencies much lower than the coincidence frequency. The numerical result also shows that, even at about one-tenth of the coincidence frequency, the approximated solutions suffer substantial error. The differences between the dry-side- and the wet-side-excited radiated fields of a single-layer uniform plate and a sandwich plate were investigated and compared, and found to be significantly different at frequencies above the coincidence frequency.
Longitudinal changes in participant and informant reports of subjective cognitive complaints are associated with dementia risk

Background Individuals with subjective cognitive complaints (SCCs) are at an increased risk of dementia. Questions remain about participant-reported versus informant-reported SCCs as indicators of future dementia and about longitudinal changes in participant-and informant-reported SCCs and risk of incident dementia. Method Participants were 873 older adults (M = 78.65-years; 55% female) and 849 informants from the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study. Comprehensive assessments occurred biennially, and clinical diagnoses were made by expert consensus for 10-years. SCCs were participants’ and informants’ responses to a single binary question concerning their/the participant’s memory decline (Yes/No) over the first 6-years. Categorical latent growth curve analyses, using the logit transformation, were used to model SCC change over time. Associations of initial propensity to report SCCs at baseline, and change in propensity to report SCCs over time, with dementia risk were examined using Cox regression. Results 70% of participants reported SCCs at baseline, with a proportional increase in the odds of reporting by 11% for each additional year in the study. In contrast, 22% of informants reported SCCs at baseline, with a proportional increase by 30% in the odds of reporting per year. Participants’ initial level of (p = 0.007), but not change in SCC reporting (p = 0.179), was associated with risk of dementia controlling for all covariates. Both informants’ initial level of (p < 0.001), and change in (p < 0.001), SCCs significantly predicted incident dementia. When modelled together, informants’ initial level of, and change in, SCCs were still independently associated with increased dementia risk (p’s < 0.001). Conclusion These data suggest that informants’ initial impressions, and increased reporting, of SCCs appear to be uniquely prognostic of future dementia compared to participants’, even based on a single SCC question.
Cooper-Pair Radiative Recombination in Semiconductor Heterostructures: Impact on Quantum Optics and Optoelectronics

The injection of Cooper pairs into a normal medium such as a semiconductor is known as the proximity effect at the superconductor/normal interface. We confirm this injection as well as the contribution of Cooper pairs to a drastic enhancement of inter-band optical transitions in semiconductor heterostructures. In this paper we investigate and clarify the relation of internal quantum efficiencies and radiative lifetimes in Cooper-pair light emitting diodes (CP-LEDs). A quantitative description of the dynamic photon generation processes is given, and the contribution of the Cooper-pair recombination relative to normal-electron recombination in CP-LEDs is discussed in detail.
Efficiency versus linearity trade-off in an S-band class-AB power amplifier

This paper presents a design strategy to simultaneously optimize the efficiency and linearity of a single-device class-AB power amplifier, given minimum output power and gain requirements. The adopted linearity metric is the highest inter-modulation distortion in a two-tone test with 20 MHz spacing. The simultaneous selection of optimum source and load terminations that provide the best trade-off among all of the requirements is described in detail, and the synthesis of the matching networks is then presented. A prototype is developed based on a 6 W packaged GaN device around 3.5 GHz, manufactured and measured. According to the measured results, the amplifier achieves output power higher than 38 dBm with associated gain higher than 12 dB and saturated power-added efficiency in excess of 73% in a single-tone test at 3.25 GHz, while providing a 33% power-added efficiency and -30 dBc inter-modulation distortion in the 20 MHz two-tone test.