Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High‐performance activated carbons for electrochemical double layer capacitors: Effects of morphology and porous structures

In this work, we prepare a series of activated carbons (ACs) from xylose with different combinations of hydrothermal synthesis (HTS) and chemical activation with KOH. The prepared ACs exhibit a variety of morphologies and porous structures, which depend on the conditions used in the hydrothermal synthesis and the chemical activation. The largest surface area (SBET) of the prepared ACs, which is calculated by the Brunauere Emmette Teller (BET) method, is ~3500 m2/g, and the largest volume fraction of mesopores of the prepared ACs is 60%. The correlations between the specific electrochemical properties of the ACs and the structures of the ACs (ie, porous structures and morphologies) are discussed. Spherical ACs exhibit superior rate performance with low impedance. The ACs with three‐dimensional interconnected network of large surface area and porosity possess high specific capacitance. The largest specific capacitance reaches 340 F/g at a current density of 0.5 A/g and 220 F/g at a current density of 50 A/g, which are superior or comparable to those of similar systems. The long‐term capacitance retention is ~86.8% after 10 000 cycles at a current density of 50 A/g. The energy density reaches 48 Wh/kg at a power density of 13.6 kW/kg.
Pilot study: deficiency of mannose-binding lectin-dependent lectin pathway, a novel modulator in outcome from pancreatic islet auto-transplantation

Background Numerous factors influence pancreatic islet survival following auto-transplantation. Of these, the host immune response in the early peri-operative period is one of the most important. In this study we investigated the role of the mannose-binding lectin (MBL)-dependent pathway in a group of total pancreatectomy (TP) islet auto-transplantation (TPIAT) patients and classified them as competent or deficient in MBL activity. Complement pathway activities, MBL protein and inflammatory cytokine concentrations were evaluated from eleven pancreatic islet auto-transplant patients from two institutions. Methods Eleven patients from two institutions were prospectively recruited. Serum was screened at different time points for 29 different cytokines and compared according to their MBL deficient or competent status. Twelve patients from previous TPIAT patients also underwent screening of MBL pathway activity. Results A total nine of twenty three patients (39%) were MBL pathway deficient. MCP-1, IL-7 and IL-1a concentrations were significantly lower in the MBL deficient cohort compared to the normal MBL group (P=0.0237, 0.0001 and 0.0051 respectively). IL-6 and IL-8 concentrations were significantly raised in the normal MBL group. MBL functional activity was lower in insulin-independent group compared to the insulin-dependent group. Conclusions Complement activation is an important, possibly damaging response during intra-portal islet infusion. MBL pathway deficiency appears common in this population and the cytokine response was attenuated in MBL pathway deficient patients. Therapeutic MBL pathway blockade during and following islet auto-transplantation (IAT) may improve islet survival and function and thereby clinical outcome.
A Deep Transfer Learning Framework for Seismic Data Analysis: A Case Study on Bright Spot Detection

Bright spots, strong indicators of the existence of hydrocarbon accumulations, have been primarily used by geophysicists in oil and gas exploration. Recently, machine-learning algorithms, adopted to automate bright spot detection, have mainly relied on feature extraction and shallow classification workflows to achieve an 85.4% F1 score at best, on 2-D seismic data. Deep neural networks have proved their effectiveness in image classification applications, outperforming humans in some instances, but have not been applied to bright spot detection yet. However, their data-hungry nature poses a challenge in domains suffering from expensive data acquisition, such as seismic data analysis problems; they generally require millions of training samples before achieving good performance. In this article, we implement SeisNet, a convolutional neural network with a “butterfly” architecture that overcame the limited data challenge by implementing data augmentation and inductive transfer-learning techniques. Moreover, we adopt a novel formulation that allows us to detect bright spots and estimate their volume. Our approach was tested against different pretraining and transfer-learning methods and was shown to outperform other approaches in the literature by achieving a 95.6% F1 score on bright spot detection. Our model accurately predicted the volume of the bright spot with an average absolute error that is not more than 0.04% of the total volume of the seismic image. This article is an important step in establishing pretrained networks for other seismic applications such as earthquake prediction; our domain-specific pretrained network, proven to outperform state-of-the-art pretrained networks on bright spot detection, may be used to jump-start the training of deep models on other seismic problems.
Proposição de uma escala de avaliação da qualidade de parques públicos verdes urbanos

Áreas verdes urbanas são comumente avaliadas por duas perspectivas: a primeira aponta dimensões relacionadas com benefícios para os indivíduos e consequentemente para a população local e na segunda perspectiva relacionada com a atratividade turística com dimensões focadas em atrair investimento e renda para a população e para a cidade. Por meio de um aporte teórico fundamentado em marketing de serviços, este estudo propõe um avanço das escalas existentes como, por exemplo, a SERVIQUAL, SERVICESCAPE e a IQAVU. Com o objetivo de desenvolver uma escala para a avaliação da qualidade percebida pelos visitantes de parques verdes urbanos, na cidade de Belo Horizonte, MG - Brasil. Este trabalho aponta indicadores de qualidade em áreas verdes urbanas sinalizados por usuários locais e/ou por turistas. Para alcançar o objetivo foi realizada uma revisão bibliográfica, à 17 vistas sistemáticas aos parques na cidade de Belo Horizonte. Os dados obtidos, de caráter exploratório foram analisados a partir da técnica de análise de conteúdo, atingiram a saturação ao numero de 77 entrevistas e forneceram o subsidio necessário para a elaboração de um segundo método. Caracterizado por um estudo do tipo survey, com uma coleta de 737 questionários estruturados, analisados por Analise Fatorial Exploratórios (AFE) para confirmar que a qualidade percebida é um construto multidimensional, composto por (1) Aspectos Tangíveis, (2) Facilidade Avaliações de Acesso, (3) Avaliação Segurança, (4) Avaliação Beleza, (5) Avaliação Propensão a Integração. A escala proposta é adequada para a avaliação da qualidade dos espaços verdes, contribuindo para ações que visem maior motivação de visita e satisfação de seus usuários. Palavras-chave: Qualidade Percebida. Satisfação. Atitudes e Intenções. Comportamentais. Modelagem de Equações. Áreas Verdes Urbanas.
Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Patients' Adherence to Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in Finland: A Journey of Eighty-six Patients

dissertationes scholae doctoralis ad sanitatem investigandam universitatis helsinkiensis The establishment of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) has revolutionized the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) during the last fifteen years. This study explored the journey of 86 patients with CML using oral TKI treatment in Finland. The aim was to assess their adherence to TKIs and how the adherence, which is crucial for treatment outcomes, could be improved. This study applied quantitative and qualitative methods and a randomized controlled study design during 2012-2014. All patients participated in the in-person interview, which followed the idea of the patient's journey with CML from the time before diagnosis to the study point. Patient-reported adherence was evaluated using Morisky's 8-Item Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS) (I-IV). Physicians were also asked to assess their patients' adherence. Patient-reported adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and quality of life (QoL) were assessed during the interview using a structured questionnaire (II, III). The patient's knowledge of the disease and TKI treatment was evaluated by asking five key questions (I, III, IV). The intervention with 9-month follow-up in Study IV was based on tailored patient education combining nurse-conducted face-to-face counseling, educational video, patient booklet, website and text message reminders. The intervention material had the following learning objectives: CML as a disease, goals for TKI treatment, the importance of taking TKI medication as prescribed, and self-management of ADRs. A total of 86 patients participated in the study (approximately 20% of all Finnish CML patients). Of the patients enrolled, 43 were randomized into the intervention group and 43 into the control group (IV). A total of 68 patients completed the study. The results show that the response to TKI treatment was high (I), with 81% of the patients showing an optimal response to their treatment according to European LeukemiaNet 2013 recommendations. The CML patients' knowledge of the disease and its treatment was poor (I). Despite the high molecular response rates to TKIs, adherence was not good in most of the patients: less than a quarter (23%) showed high adherence, 56% medium adherence, and 21% low adherence (I). Adherence was not influenced by patients' gender, age, education, knowledge, time from diagnosis, ADRs, number of comorbidities or number of other medications. There was a considerable difference between observed and experienced adherence: 94% of the patients were highly adherent according to the physicians' assessment, compared to 23% (I). The most common reason for unintentional non-adherence was forgetting to …
Married Young Adults Living with Parents -- An Analysis of Regional Differences

Previous studies have rarely discussed the phenomenon of financially independent married young adults who live with their parents in Asia. This study examines the determinants of living with parents for married young adults who are the main financial provider by using samples of households at the national and regional levels (six municipal regions) in Taiwan. The empirical results reveal that housing affordability is a key factor for why married young adults continue to live with their parents. Due to concerns around housing affordability, married young adults are 1.3 times more likely to live with their parents in Taipei City which is the least affordable city in Taiwan, as opposed to those who do not have concerns around housing affordability as is the case for Tainan City, which is the most affordable region, in which the likelihood is only 1.07. While the education level of married young adults has a significantly positive effect on living with their parents in the Taipei metropolitan area, the opposite is true in the central and southern cities of Taiwan. An increase in the number of pre-school children will increase the likelihood of living with parents, except in Taipei City. The differences might be caused by the differences in the housing and labor markets in the examined cities. Furthermore, an increase in the number of co-residing grandparents or those who have more than one owner-occupied house will increase the probability of living with parents. The variables in this study might be also affected by the influence of traditional family culture and family wealth on the nest-leaving decision of married young adults.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging System–Driven Medical Robotics

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system–driven medical robotics is an emerging field that aims to use clinical MRI systems not only for medical imaging but also for actuation, localization, and control of medical robots. Submillimeter scale resolution of MR images for soft tissues combined with the electromagnetic gradient coil–based magnetic actuation available inside MR scanners can enable theranostic applications of medical robots for precise image‐guided minimally invasive interventions. MRI‐driven robotics typically does not introduce new MRI instrumentation for actuation but instead focuses on converting already available instrumentation for robotic purposes. To use the advantages of this technology, various medical devices such as untethered mobile magnetic robots and tethered active catheters have been designed to be powered magnetically inside MRI systems. Herein, the state‐of‐the‐art progress, challenges, and future directions of MRI‐driven medical robotic systems are reviewed.
A Bayesian ice thickness estimation model for large-scale applications

Abstract Accurate estimations of ice thickness and volume are indispensable for ice flow modelling, hydrological forecasts and sea-level rise projections. We present a new ice thickness estimation model based on a mass-conserving forward model and a Bayesian inversion scheme. The forward model calculates flux in an elevation-band flow-line model, and translates this into ice thickness and surface ice speed using a shallow ice formulation. Both ice thickness and speed are then extrapolated to the map plane. The model assimilates observations of ice thickness and speed using a Bayesian scheme implemented with a Markov chain Monte Carlo method, which calculates estimates of ice thickness and their error. We illustrate the model's capabilities by applying it to a mountain glacier, validate the model using 733 glaciers from four regions with ice thickness measurements, and demonstrate that the model can be used for large-scale studies by fitting it to over 30 000 glaciers from five regions. The results show that the model performs best when a few thickness observations are available; that the proposed scheme by which parameter-knowledge from a set of glaciers is transferred to others works but has room for improvements; and that the inferred regional ice volumes are consistent with recent estimates.
Mathematical modeling of molecular-genetic systems regulatory mechanisms activity in malignant neoplasms

The paper presents the method for constructing systems of nonlinear functional-differential equations with delay of a cellular regulator in norm and in cancerous formations. The existence of stable stationary as well as self-oscillatory solutions to the regulator equations, chaotic solutions and the “black hole” effect is established. The results of the quantitative analysis of the developed equations show the possibility of existence of chaotic behavior (the emergence of various types of chromosomal aberrations), the effect of failure of solutions on the trivial attractor - the effect of “black hole” (metastasis). The opportunity for forecasting the basic modes characteristics allows establishing molecular-genetic bases in oncologic pathogenesis, carrying out diagnostics and predicting characteristic stages of malignant neoplasms current.
Effets simples et cumulés des perturbations humaines sur l'utilisation de l'habitat et la survie du caribou migrateur

vi Table des matières . viii Liste des tableaux . xi Liste des figures . xv Liste des annexes . xviii Remerciements . xx Avant-propos . xxv Introduction . 1 Contexte théorique . 1 Les sources des perturbations humaines et leurs conséquences sur la faune . 1 Les facteurs modulateurs des réponses aux perturbations humaines . 4 Les effets cumulés des perturbations humaines sur la faune . 9 Approches pour l’étude des effets des perturbations humaines . 13 Contexte de l’étude . 15 Le développement anthropique en milieu nordique . 15 La sensibilité du caribou aux perturbations humaines . 17 La situation du caribou migrateur au Québec et au Labrador . 21 Objectifs de la thèse . 22 Chapitre 1 – Human disturbance effects and cumulative habitat loss in endangered migratory caribou . 24 Résumé . 25 Abstract . 26 Introduction . 27 Study site . 29 Methods . 32 Caribou data . 32 Disturbance density in seasonal areas . 32 Assessment of the zones of influence . 33 Habitat selection model . 33 Zones of influence and cumulative habitat loss . 38 Effect of roads on movements . 39 Results . 40 Habitat selection by caribou . 40
Design of a Frequency Doubler Circuit for Suppressing Odd Harmonics

In this paper, a doubler circuit which can suppress odd harmonics is designed by using the non-linear characteristics of field effect transistor (FET) and bipolar junction transistor(BJT) devices. The frequency doubler consists of three parts: small signal full wave rectifier circuit, frequency doubler circuit and band-pass filter circuit. It realizes fundamental and third harmonics suppression by rectifying the input signal of single FET frequency doubler. Meanwhile, the output power is twice as high as that of single FET frequency doubler (3dB higher). Circuit simulation results indicate that when the input fundamental voltage amplitude is 0.5V, the output voltage amplitude of second harmonics is 0.342V, the fundamental suppression is greater than 48.85dBc, and the third harmonic suppression is greater than 34.39dBc. Compared with the traditional single FET frequency doubler, this design improves the frequency conversion efficiency.
Clinical and Genomic Epidemiology of Carbapenem-Nonsusceptible Citrobacter spp. at a Tertiary Health Care Center over 2 Decades

Carbapenem-nonsusceptible Citrobacter spp. (CNSC) are increasingly recognized as health care-associated pathogens. Information regarding their clinical epidemiology, genetic diversity, and mechanisms of carbapenem resistance is lacking. We examined microbiology records of adult patients at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UMPC) Presbyterian Hospital (PUH) from 2000 to 2018 for CNSC, as defined by ertapenem nonsusceptibility. Over this time frame, the proportion of CNSC increased from 4% to 10% (P = 0. ABSTRACT Carbapenem-nonsusceptible Citrobacter spp. (CNSC) are increasingly recognized as health care-associated pathogens. Information regarding their clinical epidemiology, genetic diversity, and mechanisms of carbapenem resistance is lacking. We examined microbiology records of adult patients at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UMPC) Presbyterian Hospital (PUH) from 2000 to 2018 for CNSC, as defined by ertapenem nonsusceptibility. Over this time frame, the proportion of CNSC increased from 4% to 10% (P = 0.03), as did daily defined carbapenem doses/1,000 patient days (6.52 to 34.5; R2 = 0.831; P < 0.001), which correlated with the observed increase in CNSC (lag = 0 years; R2 = 0.660). Twenty CNSC isolates from 19 patients at PUH and other UPMC hospitals were available for further analysis, including whole-genome short-read sequencing and additional antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Of the 19 patients, nearly all acquired CNSC in the health care setting and over half had polymicrobial cultures containing at least one other organism. Among the 20 CNSC isolates, Citrobacter freundii was the predominant species identified (60%). CNSC genomes were compared with genomes of carbapenem-susceptible Citrobacter spp. from UPMC and with other publicly available CNSC genomes. Isolates carrying genes encoding carbapenemases (blaKPC-2, blaKPC-3, and blaNDM-1) were also long-read sequenced, and their carbapenemase-encoding plasmid sequences were compared with one another and with publicly available sequences. Phylogenetic analysis of 102 UPMC Citrobacter genomes showed that CNSC from our setting did not cluster together. Similarly, a global phylogeny of 64 CNSC genomes showed a diverse population structure. Our findings suggest that both local and global CNSC populations are genetically diverse and that CNSC harbor carbapenemase-encoding plasmids found in other Enterobacterales.
Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria from Juan Fernández archipelago improve germination rate of endangered plant Solanum fernandezianum Phil.

Robinson Crusoe Island, Chile, has one of the highest densities of endemic plants in the world, however many of its native and endemic species, such as Solanum fernandezianum Phil., are currently declared endangered. Coating the seeds of native plants with locally sourced plant-growth-promoting bacteria can be used as a tool for conservation programs of endangered plant species. Isolation and screening of rhizosphere bacteria from Robinson Crusoe Island resulted in the selection of three bacteria: Serratia sp. RGM 2525, Raoultella sp. RGM 2526, and Pseudomonas sp. RGM 2607, due to their capacity of producing indole compounds (30-45 μL mL -1 ) and indoleacetic acid (IAA) (5-10 μg mL -1 ). The effect of these strains on the seed germination rate of S. fernandezianum was evaluated under five treatments: individual inoculation of each bacteria, inoculation of a mixture of the three bacteria and a treatment without bacteria (control). Inoculation of bacteria improved the seed germination rate of S. fernandezianum compared to the control treatment, with the bacterial mix as the best treatment with 26.9% germination ( p < 0.05), 10.2% higher than control. Bioinoculants formulated with bacteria isolated from rhizosphere soils could improve the seed germination rate of the endangered plant S. fernandezianum
Fast and efficient upgrading of levulinic acid into long-chain alkyl levulinate fuel additives with a tungsten salt catalyst at low temperature

Levulinic acid (LA) is a promising renewable platform compound derived from biomass for the manufacture of various valuable chemicals, among which levulinate esters have been demonstrated to be good fuel additives. Many previous studies have focused on the production of short-chain levulinates for biofuels such as methyl and ethyl levulinates, but these esters suffer from some essential issues including a high oxygen content, low energy density (or heating value) and water solubility. Long-chain levulinate esters have similar structures to biodiesel. The long carbon chain may provide a higher carbon content and strong hydrophobicity, therefore improving the energy density and water insolubility. In this work, the synthesis of a long-chain levulinate ester, n-hexyl levulinate (HL), has been fast and efficiently achieved by the catalytic esterification of LA and 1-hexanol at low temperature. Tungsten hexachloride (WCl6) showed the most superior activity among the tested metal salt catalysts under mild conditions. A HL yield of ∼85% with almost complete LA conversion could be obtained at 50 °C after only 30 min. Other hexanols that have larger steric hindrances, such as 2-ethyl-1-butanol, 2-hexanol, 3-hexanol and cyclohexanol, could also promote efficient esterification with LA over the WCl6 catalyst, resulting in excellent product yields of ∼82–91%. The strategy applies to the efficient synthesis of longer chain levulinate esters such as n-octyl levulinate (OL) as well. The WCl6 catalyst was reusable several times in a consecutive batch reaction mode. The method reported herein offers a strategy for the efficient production of liquid fuels from LA, potentially bridging raw biomass feedstocks and terminal utilization of biobased products.