Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Advances in Struvite Precipitation Technologies for Nutrients Removal and Recovery from Aqueous Waste and Wastewater

The abatement of nutrient compounds from aqueous waste and wastewater is currently a priority issue. Indeed, the uncontrolled discharge of high levels of nutrients into water bodies causes serious deteriorations of environmental quality. On the other hand, the increasing request of nutrient compounds for agronomic utilizations makes it strictly necessary to identify technologies able to recover the nutrients from wastewater streams so as to avoid the consumption of natural resources. In this regard, the removal and recovery of nitrogen and phosphorus from aqueous waste and wastewater as struvite (MgNH4PO4·6H2O) represents an attractive approach. Indeed, through the struvite precipitation it is possible to effectively remove the ammonium and phosphate content of many types of wastewater and to produce a solid compound, with only a trace of impurities. This precipitate, due to its chemical characteristics, represents a valuable multi-nutrients slow release fertilizer for vegetables and plants growth. For these reasons, the struvite precipitation technology constantly progresses on several aspects of the process. This manuscript provides a comprehensive review on the recent developments in this technology for the removal and recovery of nutrients from aqueous waste and wastewater. The theoretical background, the parameters, and the operating conditions affecting the process evolution are initially presented. After that, the paper focuses on the reagents exploitable to promote the process performance, with particular regard to unconventional low-cost compounds. In addition, the development of reactors configurations, the main technologies implemented on field scale, as well as the recent works on the use of struvite in agronomic practices are presented.
Community-based medical photography improves skin cancer teledermatology triage during the national COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic limited the ability to do conventional outpatient patient face-to-face consultations New patient skin cancer referrals could not be postponed while awaiting resolution of the COVID-19 pandemic Photographs taken by patients and community physicians are of ranging quality, adding to the challenge of teledermatology triaging A new pilot was designed to aid skin cancer triage with professional medical photography images of lesions to be taken in the community setting to avoid patients attending hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic All consecutive 2-week-wait skin cancer referrals were included over a 2-week period in May 2020 during the peak of the national COVID-19 pandemic Patients were automatically allocated an appointment time with the medical photography department, in a specifically set up community location On arrival, patients were given a screening questionnaire with details requested about the nature of their lesion Professional images were taken and loaded onto the patient's medical illustrations record Patients were triaged by dermatology consultants based on their general practice referral details, patient questionnaire and professional image The triage options included booking straight to surgery, clinic appointment or discharge Patients were then called by a medical professional and informed of the triage outcome Over the 14-day period, 122 patients were referred to the dermatology department Mean age was 57 years (range 16-93) One patient was excluded owing to being a child;two patients did not attend their appointment On allocation of a medical photography appointment, five patients declined to attend and were subsequently booked into clinic The triage discharge rate was 35 1% (n = 40), with 20 2% (n = 23) being booked directly to a dermatology surgery list, and 43 8% (n = 50) allocated a clinic appointment Histopathological correlation of the suspected triage diagnosis was confirmed in 72% of patients Of those seen in the face-to-face clinic, dermatology surgery was subsequently requested in 38% (n = 19) Community-based medical illustration appointments reduced the requirement for patients to attend hospital during the national COVID-19 pandemic The high-quality images of referred suspected skin cancer lesions, combined with a patient questionnaire, allowed for patients to be promptly remotely triaged, with a higher than previously documented discharge rate vs standard face-to-face consultation Patient satisfaction was high, with rapid surgery allocation dates and quick-response triage Patients with benign conditions were able to be discharged without the risk of having to attend hospital Triaging consultants reported that triage time was quicker than standard clinic consultation time, which was a further important factor during a time of staff shortages, with illness and redeployment
Africa’s lockdown dilemma: High poverty and low trust

The primary policy response to suppress the spread of COVID-19 in high-income countries has been to lock down large sections of the population. However, there is growing unease that blindly replicating these policies might inflict irreparable damage to poor households and foment social unrest in developing countries. We investigate this concern using Afrobarometer data from 2019 for 30 sub-Saharan African countries. We create a multidimensional index of lockdown readiness based on living conditions and explore its relationship with forms of trust and the potential for social unrest.
Enhancing network equilibrium models for capturing emerging shared-use mobility services

16. Abstract Driven by the development of vehicle connectivity and automation, shared-use mobility services are expected to play a major role in meeting urban mobility needs. However, existing network equilibrium models cannot adequately model these emerging services, as these models are trip centric, assigning vehicular trips to transportation networks. With shared-use mobility, vehicular trips are the outcome of the interactions between service operators and travelers, a missing ingredient in the current network equilibrium analysis methodology. In this study, we will enhance the methodology by explicitly modeling the behaviors of both service operators and travelers. We will consider two implementations of shared-use mobility: one of a decentralized system in which vehicles choose which areas to serve based on their individually defined utility functions, and one of a centralized system in which a shared-use mobility service provider optimally assigns vehicles to requests based on a system-level objective function. The proposed models are expected to enhance the planning practice for shared-use mobility services.
ETIS INDICATORS IN SUSTAINABLE TOURISTDESTINATION-EXAMPLE OF THE ISLAND OF PAG

In this paper, the authors study the issues of sustainability and sustainable tourism development. Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important goal and principle of every segment of social and economic development. This is especially true for tourism and tourist destinations and is extremely important when it comes to fragile natural and socioeconomic entities such as islands. This paper addresses the issues of measuring and monitoring the development of sustainability by taking the island of Pag as an example. As a metric, the authors have selected the European Tourism Indicators System (ETIS), a European Commission model designed in 2014 as a sustainability monitoring tool that is recommen-ded for use in European tourist destinations. The authors also set a goal to compare theE-TIS sustainability indicators and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The paper also emphasised the so-calledsupplementary ETIS indicators, which allow flexibility in managing the destination, i.e.adjusting the sustainability metric to the specificities of the destination. The primary research, based on respondents’ attitudes, for-med a model of supplementary indicators for island tourist destinations that istypical for the island of Pag, which could be applied to other islands developing tourism.
Development of a Wearable In-Ear PPG System for Continuous Monitoring

In this paper, a wearable electronic platform for in-ear photoplethysmography is presented. The system is specifically designed with a miniaturized form factor in order to enable the potential monitoring of athletes during physical activity, as well as professionals wearing earbuds or headphones during their normal duties. Measurements have been collected to address the main factors affecting the signal quality. As a result, the fine tuning of the configuration parameters allowed the extension of the battery lifetime of the system to over 3 days of continuous operation. Moreover, an investigation of the best body measurement location has been carried out. Two different algorithms have been developed: the former is a lightweight procedure for heart rate (HR) estimation suitable for embedded implementation whereas the latter features a motion mitigation adaptive filter to compensate the effect of motion artifacts (MAs).
Crosstalk Analysis and Current Measurement Correction in Circular 3D Magnetic Sensors Arrays

The circular array of magnetic sensors is a research hotspot in the field of power electronics, especially for the measurement of direct current(DC). The high linearity, large dynamic range, small size and low power consumption of circular magnetic sensors arrays for current measurement are an improvement over the current sensors utilizing a ferromagnetic core. However, due to the absence of core magnetization, the external magnetic field can easily enter the magnetic sensors, which will affect the measurement accuracy. Therefore, this paper focuses on the influence of the interference field from the conductor positioned outside the circular array and proposes a model of the target conductor penetrating the circular array with the interference conductor outside the circular array. This model is used to analyze the influence of relevant parameters of the interference conductor and the target conductor on the crosstalk error. An interference-rejecting method of circular 3D magnetic sensor arrays is proposed, which establishes the model of magnetic flux density measurement to calculate the target conductor current. The simulation results show theoretically that the method can greatly reduce the crosstalk error and correct current measurement. 3-D tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) chip is selected as the magnetic sensors of the circular array in the laboratory experiment, and the experiment errors can be reduced to around 1%. The simulation and experiment results verify that the interference-rejecting method can correct measurement results and improve the accuracy of the target current.
Embedding Soft Material Channels for Tactile Sensing of Complex Surfaces—Mathematical Modeling

Currently most of tactile array technologies is difficult to cope with three dimensional complex surfaces and there is an urgent need to develop tactile sensors that can provide a high-density integrated array on a surface of arbitrary shape. Our laboratory has been working on the development of a novel tactile sensing technique to solve this challenge, by “Embedding Soft material into Structure ENabling Tactile sensing” of complex surfaces (ESSENT). This method creates sub-millimeter multiple channels filled with low compressibility elastic material. Tactile information is obtained by measuring the micro deformation of the soft material via projecting light to the material channel and measuring light reflection. However, the relationship between light reflection and soft material deformation is a complex function related to the geometry of reflective surface, elasticity of the soft channel and lighting conditions. To gain fundamental understanding of this new tactile sensing principle, we developed a mathematical model which is able to predict the precise deformation of the reflective surface of a soft material and provide the theoretical prediction of sensing sensitivity with respect to the lighting condition and the magnitude of the applied force. We demonstrated that the shape of soft material channel, the shape of reflective surface, as well as the location of light resource have significant influence on the sensor behavior.
Evolution of pathogen traits in response to quantitative host resistance in heterogeneous environments

Abstract Despite considerable studies on the adaptation of plant pathogens to qualitative resistance, few theoretical studies have investigated whether and how quantitative resistance can select for increased pathogen aggressiveness. In this paper, we formulate an integro-differential model with nonlocal effects of mutations to describe the evolutionary epidemiology of fungal plant pathogens in heterogeneous agricultural environments. Parasites reproduce clonally and each strain is characterized by several pathogenicity traits corresponding to the basic infection steps (infection efficiency, latent period, sporulation capacity depending on the age of infection). We first derive a general expression of the basic reproduction number ℛ0 for fungal pathogens in heterogeneous host environments, typically several cultivars cultivated in the same field (cultivar mixtures) or in different fields landscape (mosaics). Next, by characterizing the evolutionary attractors of the coupled epidemiological evolutionary dynamics, we investigate how the choice of quantitative resistances altering different pathogenicity traits impact the evolutionary dynamics of the pathogen population both at equilibrium and during transient epidemiological dynamics. We show that the model admits an optimization principle relying on an ℛ0 maximization approach for traits involved in the infection cycle after spore germination. We also highlight that within-host correlation between such traits (typically between the latent period and total number of spores produced during the infectious period) impact resistance durability and, more generally, how one may take advantage of evolutionary dynamics to increase the durability of quantitative resistance. Our analyses can guide experimentations by providing testable hypotheses and help plant breeders to design breeding programs.
Exploration of a second order model of the Portuguese Version of Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale (BPNESp): construct validity and invariance.

The objective of this study was to reanalyze the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Basic Psychological Needs Exercise Scale, assessing a second order model encompassing all three basic psychological needs. In addition, we examined measurement invariance for the first and second order model. This study included 550 subjects of both genders (264 female; 286 male), aged between 14 and 69 years (M=30.0; SD=10.2), who practiced physical exercise at gymnasiums or health clubs of various activities. The instrument displayed construct validity (factor, convergent and discriminant validity), as well as acceptable composite reliability. Results showed measurement invariance between gender and gymnasium activities (i.e., bodybuilding, cardiofitness and weight training), in both first and second order models. In short, current evidence confirms the structure validity of the scale and supports the all-inclusive use of the BPNESp Portuguese version for assessing basic psychological needs, individually or as a global index, in future research in the field of exercise. Key-words: Confirmatory Factor Analysis; Self-Determination Theory; exercise; basic psychological needs; secondorder model invariance
Low Refractive-Index and Temperature Crosstalk Fiber-Optic Liquid Level Sensor Based on Cascaded Quasi-Microfiber and Double-Cladding Fiber Structure

In this paper, a novel in-fiber modal interferometer for liquid level sensing is proposed and experimentally demonstrated based on the cascaded quasi-microfiber and double-cladding fiber (QM-DCF) structure. The QM is utilized to monitor the change of liquid level with intensity modulation and the part of DCF is always immersed into the liquid and serves to sense the variation of ambient temperature. Then the comprehensive tests are performed and the experimental results show that, due to the massive loss of evanescent field in the area of taper waist, a competitive liquid-level response up to −0.972 dB/mm with high linearity is gained and the calculated detection limit reaches $\sim 10 ~\mu \text{m}$ . Moreover, this cascaded structure is almost immune to the varied refractive index (RI) of liquid especially in the range of 1.33-1.357 RIU and its temperature sensitivity is 0.164 nm/°C but with a fluctuation of < 0.1 dB. Thus, high intensity-sensitive liquid-level measurement is achieved with near-zero crosstalk in terms of RI and temperature. Besides our sensor with the merits of practicality, low-cost, ease of fabrication is very promising and potential for simultaneous high-discrimination measurement of multi-parameter.
Perception Regarding Family Support among Elderly Residing In Kirtipur Municipality, Kathmandu

Background: Elderly as a vulnerable group need more care and support. With increase in the age elderly experience physical, psychological and social changes requiring more family support. Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the perception regarding family support among elderly residing in Kirtipur Municipality, Kathmandu. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional research design was used. Non probability purposive sampling was used for selecting 96 respondents from Kirtipur ward no 4. Data collection was done by face-to-face interview using structured questionnaire after taking informed verbal consent from each respondent. Data analysis: Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS) software version 20 was used for descriptive analysis of data. Results: The findings of the study revealed that 59.38% elderly people perceived high family support, 31.25% perceived moderate family support and 9.38% perceived low family support. Regarding each domain of family support, high perceived support was on physical and daily life support followed by emotional, financial and informational support. Conclusion: Overall family support was high, however informational support was perceived less in comparison to other domains.
Intelligent platform for real-time page view statistics using educational big data digital resource sharing

In order to meet the rapid growth of educational data, to automate the processing of educational data business, improve operational efficiency and scientific decision-making, a statistical analysis platform for educational data is designed, and Hadoop-based education is designed from the conceptual model, logical model, and physical model. Data warehouse; designed and researched the storage of educational multidimensional data model; and then compared and tested the query efficiency and storage space of HBase and Hive in the Hadoop ecosystem based on educational big data, and used HBase+Hive integrated architecture to complete the education data The statistical analysis tasks and the function of the educational data statistical analysis platform are transplanted to the educational big data platform based on Hadoop; the performance test of the conversion efficiency of educational big data in the ETL link is performed, which illustrates the effectiveness of the educational big data platform based on Hadoop. An object-oriented analysis and design method used to analyze and design the business requirements of teaching resource sharing services. From the perspective of managers and teachers, use case diagrams and use case description tables to define system business requirements. The role of teachers is further refined as the theme of teaching and research. Participants, participants in the subject teaching and research, initiators of simulation teaching research and development, participants, famous teachers, high-quality course judges and experts. The recording, accumulation, statistics and analysis of students’ learning behaviors will provide more valuable applications for school education.
COMPRESSED SENSING DOA ESTIMATION IN THE PRESENCE OF UNKNOWN NOISE

A new compressive sensing-based direction of arrival (DOA) estimation technique for source signal detection in the presence of unknown noise, based on the generalized correlation decomposition (GCD) algorithm, is presented. The proposed algorithm does not depend on the singular value decomposition nor on the orthogonality of the signal and the noise subspaces. Hence, the DOA estimation can be done without an a priori knowledge of the number of sources. The proposed algorithm can estimate more sources than the number of physical sensors used without any constraints or assumptions about the nature of the signal sources. It can estimate coherent source signals as well as closely-spaced sources using a small number of snapshots.
Cardiac lesions in Duchenne muscular dystrophy model rats with out-of-frame Dmd gene mutation mediated by CRISPR/Cas9 system

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a progressive muscular disorder caused by X-chromosomal DMD gene mutations. Recently, a new CRISPR/Cas9-mediated DMD rat model (cDMDR) was established and is expected to show cardiac lesions similar to those in humans. We therefore investigated the pathological and pathophysiological features of the cardiac lesions and their progression in cDMDR. For our cDMDR, Dmd-mutated rats (W-Dmdem1Kykn) were obtained. Dmd heterozygous-deficient females and wild-type (WT) males were mated, and male offspring including WT as controls were used. (1) Hearts were collected at 3, 5, and 10 months of age, and HE- and Masson’s trichrome-stained specimens were observed. (2) Electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings were made and analyzed at 3, 5, and 8 months of age. (3) Echocardiography was performed at 9 months of age. In cDMDR rats, (1) degeneration/necrosis of cardiomyocytes and myocardial fibrosis prominent in the right ventricular wall and the outer layer of the left ventricular wall were observed. Fibrosis became more prominent with aging. (2) Lower P wave amplitudes and greater R wave amplitudes were detected. PR intervals tended to be shorter. QT intervals were longer at 3 months but tended to be shorter at 8 months. Sinus irregularity and premature ventricular contraction were observed at 8 months. (3) Echocardiography indicated myocardial sclerosis and a tendency of systolic dysfunction. Pathological and pathophysiological changes occurred in cDMDR rat hearts and progressed with aging, which is, to some extent, similar to what occurs in humans. Thus, cDMDR could be a valuable model for studying cardiology of human DMD.